the work which they
performed with great alacrity under the impression that Bwana kubwa
wanted first to fatten the elephant and afterwards to kill him. At
last, however, Bwana kubwa ordered them to stop, as the sun was setting
and it was time to start the construction of the zareba. Fortunately
this was not a difficult matter, for two sides of the triangular
promontory were utterly inaccessible, so that it was necessary only to
fence in the third. Acacias with big thorns also were not lacking.

Nell did not retire a step from the ravine and, squatting upon its
brink, announced from a distance to Stas what the elephant was doing.
At frequent intervals her thin little voice resounded:

"He is searching about with his trunk!"

Or: "He is moving his ears. What big ears he has!"

"Stas! Stas! He is getting up! Oh!"

Stas approached hurriedly and seized Nell's hand.

The elephant actually rose, and now the children could observe his
immense size. They had previously seen huge elephants which were
carried on vessels through the Suez Canal bound from India to Europe,
but not one of them could compare with this colossus, who actually
looked like a huge slate-colored rock walking on four feet. He differed
from the others in the size of his tusks which reached five or more
feet and, as Nell already observed, his ears, which were of fabulous
proportions. His fore legs were high but comparatively thin, which was
undoubtedly due to the fast of many days.

"Oh, that is a Lilliputian!" laughed Stas. "If he should rear himself
and stretch out his trunk, he might catch you by the feet."

But the colossus did not think of rearing or catching any one by the
feet. With an unsteady gait he approached the egress of the ravine,
gazed for a while over the precipice, at the bottom of which water was
seething; afterwards he turned to the wall close to the waterfall,
directed his trunk towards it, and, having immersed it as best he
could, began to drink.

"It is his good fortune," Stas said, "that he can reach the water with
his trunk. Otherwise he would have died."

The elephant drank so long that finally the little girl became alarmed.

"Stas, won't he harm himself?" she asked.

"I don't know," he replied, laughing, "but since you have taken him
under your care, warn him now."

So Nell leaned over the edge and cried:

"Enough, dear elephant, enough!"

And the dear elephant, as if he understood what was the matter, stopped
drin