cannon, and
fired it off!

He was then about to apply the match to others, when re-enforcements
came up, and his services as an artillery-man were no longer required.

I cannot help thinking, that if that Elephant had been furnished with
a pen and ink, he might possibly have written a very good account of
the battle.

But few stories are quite as wonderful as that one. We have no
difficulty at all in believing the account of the Elephant who took
care of a little child. He did not wear a cap and apron, as the artist
has shown in the picture, but he certainly was a very kind and
attentive nurse. When the child fell down, the Elephant would put his
trunk gently around it, and pick it up. When it got tangled among
thorns or vines, the great nurse would disengage it as carefully as
any one could have done it; and when it wandered too far, the Elephant
would bring it back and make it play within proper limits. I do not
know what would have been the consequence if this child had behaved
badly, and the Elephant had thought fit to give it a box on the ear.
But nothing of the kind ever happened, and the child was a great deal
safer than it would have been with many ordinary nurses.

[Illustration]

There are so many stories told about the Elephant that I can allude to
but few, even if I did not believe that you were familiar with a great
many of them.

One of the most humane and thoughtful Elephants of whom I have ever
heard was one which was attached, like our friend Kudabar, to an
artillery train in India. He was walking, on a march, behind a wagon,
when he perceived a soldier slip down in the road and fall exactly
where, in another instant, the hind-wheel of the wagon would pass over
him. Without being ordered, the Elephant seized the wheel with his
trunk, lifted it--wagon and all--in the air, and held it up until it
had passed over the fallen soldier!

Neither you nor I could have done better than that, even if we had
been strong enough.

[Illustration]

A very pretty story is told of an Indian Elephant who was very
gallant. His master, a young Burman lord, had recently been married,
and, shortly after the wedding, he and his bride, with many of their
guests and followers, were gathered together in the veranda, on the
outside of his house. The Elephant, who was a great favorite with the
young lord, happened to be conducted past the house as the company
were thus enjoying themselves. Feeling, no doubt, that it w