Sahib," said the mahout, "to try and cheat one so wise as
he, and yet folks say that we mahouts keep our families on the
elephants' food, which words are base lies, for is he not more precious
to me than many children?"

Then the mahout drew out an extra chapatie he had hidden in his clothes.

"Oh! Maharajah, King of Kings, who can deceive thee, my pearl of wisdom,
my mountain of might?" and the mahout caressed the huge trunk as it
wound itself lovingly around him and gently extracted the chapatie from
his hands. Having swallowed this, the elephant picked up the scattered
cakes and, piling them up before him, gave himself up to enjoying his
midday meal.

After that Maharaj and Alec grew great friends. Alec used to bring him
bazaar sweets, of which he was very fond, and sugar-cane. He was a great
wonder to the elephant, who could never understand why his pockets were
full of all sorts of uneatable things. He loved to go through them,
slowly considering each in his elephantine way. The bright metal handle
of Alec's pocket-knife pleased Maharaj, and it was always the first
thing he abstracted from the pocket and the last he returned, but the
bits of string and the ball of wax he worried over. The key of the
pigeon-house, a peg-top, marbles, etc., I believe made him long to have
pockets of his own, for he used to hide them away in the recesses of his
mouth for a time, then, finding they were not very comfortable, he used
to put them all back into Alec's pockets. The day the boy came with
sweets Maharaj was delighted, for he smelt them a long way off, and
never made a mistake as to which pocket they were in.

It was wonderful to see how gently he could play with the little brown
baby of the mahout. He loved to have it lying between his great
fore-feet, and would tickle it with the tip of his trunk for the
pleasure of hearing it laugh, then pour dust upon it till it was buried,
always being careful not to cover the face. But like a great big selfish
child he always kept his sweets to himself, and would pretend not to see
the little outstretched hand, and little voice crying for them, till he
had finished the last tit-bit.

Tippoo--the cook's son, Alec's fag and constant companion, who was
mostly a pair of huge pyjamas, was also admitted to the friendship of
Maharaj. But there was one man that the elephant disliked, and that was
the mahout's nephew, one Piroo, who was a young elephant-driver seeking
a situation--a man no