can float quite naturally, their noses
point downward right into the water. As I said before, the elephant's
trunk is its nose--that is, the elephant has to _breathe through the
trunk_. So of course, if in trying to swim a little elephant kept its
trunk down in the water, it would not be able to breathe at all, and
would die.

That is why the Mamma elephant has to teach her child how to swim
properly. And the way she does it is quite wonderful.

I must first tell you that the trunk is not only like a nose to the
elephant, but also is useful as a _hand_; the elephant can hold a lot
of things with it, and can even pick up with its tip a tiny thing as
small as a pin.

_How the Elephant Child Learns to Swim_

So the Mamma elephant stretches out her trunk before her, just like an
arm, and tells her child to lie across it. In that way she holds up
the child in the water, so that the little elephant has only to think
of curling up the tip of its own little trunk out of the water to
breathe. Then she tells her child to kick out with its legs, so as to
move forward through the water.

But sometimes, in kicking out, the little elephant forgets to hold up
the tip of its trunk out of the water at the same time; then down goes
its trunk into the water, and it cannot breathe!

Then what happens? The Mamma elephant can do nothing, as she is
already using her own trunk to hold up her child. So, what is to be
done?

Really, the elephants are so wise that they take no chances of that
happening. The Papa elephant takes care of that. When he sees that the
Mamma is teaching the little elephant how to swim, he always comes
near them. He may be swimming about, as if he were enjoying himself;
but he is really watching them all the time.

And if the little elephant forgets to hold up its trunk out of the
water, the Papa comes quickly, and with one upward stroke of his own
trunk he lifts up the little elephant's trunk clear out of the water.
Is not that very wise and thoughtful of the Papa elephant?

In that way the little elephant soon learns to do _both_ things--that
is, to kick out with its legs so as to move along, and also to hold up
its trunk to breathe. And then, of course, it can swim properly.

And yet the elephants are so very wise that they never take the risk
of tiring out a little elephant, if they have to swim a very long way.
Sometimes a whole herd of elephants has to swim across a very wide
river. Then the Mamma el