is tail out of
the mud; and the Elephant's Child stepped back most politely, because he
did not wish to be spanked again.

'Come hither, Little One,' said the Crocodile. 'Why do you ask such
things?'

''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child most politely, 'but my father has
spanked me, my mother has spanked me, not to mention my tall aunt, the
Ostrich, and my tall uncle, the Giraffe, who can kick ever so hard, as
well as my broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, and my hairy uncle, the Baboon,
and including the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, with the scalesome,
flailsome tail, just up the bank, who spanks harder than any of them;
and so, if it's quite all the same to you, I don't want to be spanked
any more.'

'Come hither, Little One,' said the Crocodile, 'for I am the Crocodile,'
and he wept crocodile-tears to show it was quite true.

Then the Elephant's Child grew all breathless, and panted, and kneeled
down on the bank and said, 'You are the very person I have been looking
for all these long days. Will you please tell me what you have for
dinner?'

'Come hither, Little One,' said the Crocodile, 'and I'll whisper.'

Then the Elephant's Child put his head down close to the Crocodile's
musky, tusky mouth, and the Crocodile caught him by his little nose,
which up to that very week, day, hour, and minute, had been no bigger
than a boot, though much more useful.

'I think, said the Crocodile--and he said it between his teeth, like
this--'I think to-day I will begin with Elephant's Child!'

At this, O Best Beloved, the Elephant's Child was much annoyed, and he
said, speaking through his nose, like this, 'Led go! You are hurtig be!'

Then the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake scuffled down from the bank and
said, 'My young friend, if you do not now, immediately and instantly,
pull as hard as ever you can, it is my opinion that your acquaintance in
the large-pattern leather ulster' (and by this he meant the Crocodile)
'will jerk you into yonder limpid stream before you can say Jack
Robinson.'

This is the way Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snakes always talk.

Then the Elephant's Child sat back on his little haunches, and pulled,
and pulled, and pulled, and his nose began to stretch. And the Crocodile
floundered into the water, making it all creamy with great sweeps of his
tail, and he pulled, and pulled, and pulled.

And the Elephant's Child's nose kept on stretching; and the Elephant's
Child spread all his little four legs and p