ephant tells her child to swim in front of
her, while she encourages the child from behind with many fond words.

But sometimes after swimming halfway across the river--

"Mamma, I am getting tired!" cries the little one.

"Then come on my back, darling!" says the Mamma.

She dives, and comes up right under the little elephant; so now her
child sits on her back. In that way she swims along, and carries her
child across the wide river, as you see in the picture.

[Illustration: An Elephant Mamma Carrying her Child across the River]

CHAPTER IV.

Elephants: The Tricks of the Jungle

Now I shall tell you how a little elephant learns all the tricks of
the jungle from its Mamma and Papa. By the tricks of the jungle I mean
all the things that an animal has to learn in order to get enough to
eat every day, what to do when food is scarce, how to be comfortable
and happy, and also how to escape from every danger; in fact, these
things are very much like what men have to learn, only in a different
way.

But the animal folks are better off in one way: what they have to
learn is not like a lesson in school, but just play. In fact they
learn everything by just playing it as a game! I shall tell you how.

When a baby elephant is quite small, its Mamma has to feed it with
milk. Afterwards, when it has teeth, she teaches it to feed from the
jungle. All elephants eat tender shoots, herbs, and fresh young
leaves; they seize a bough with the trunk, and pull it down in such a
way that the end of the bough reaches right into the mouth.

_Elephant Child Learns to Feed_

First, the Mamma elephant eats like that from several boughs, while
the little elephant watches her do it. Then she looks at a low bough
within easy reach, and says in the elephant language, "Eat that!"

The little one looks at the bough, grabs it anyhow with its trunk, and
pulls it down. But it cannot get the end of the bough _into its
mouth_! Instead, the bough pokes it on the forehead, or eyes, or
cheeks.

"Hold it straight!" says Mamma, laughing.

The little one tries several times, but still it cannot get the bough
to come right. Then its Mamma puts her own trunk over that of her
child, and turns it to right or left, till the bough comes exactly
into the little elephant's mouth.

"You must learn to use your trunk just like a _hand_," she says. "So
you must bend your trunk, or turn it, or twist it, to get the thing
you are holding exactly whe