ter trying it first with his
trunk and then with his foot, the wise old elephant put his back on it
and _heaved_. Little by little the tree bent on that side, but not
very much. The elephant stopped heaving, came around and looked at the
tree. Then he began to heave from the _other_ side of the tree.

You have seen a man trying to loosen a nail from a board? He first
hits the nail on one side, and then on the other side; and he goes on
hitting the nail from side to side, till it is quite loose.

Well, that cunning old elephant did just the same thing to that tree;
he first heaved the tree from one side, and then he heaved from the
other side; and he went on heaving from side to side, till he loosened
the tree from the ground. Then he pushed the tree with his foot, and
it came out of the ground and fell with a loud thud.

And that is how Salar learned to heave with his body, though of course
he could not loosen so big a tree just yet.

There were many other tricks that Salar learned from his father, and I
shall tell you one of the best of them in the next chapter.

CHAPTER V

Elephants: The Tricky Trap

Salar and his father were going through the jungle, feeding from tree
to tree, and from bush to bush. One day they saw a little clear space
and in the middle of it a banana tree--just one tree. But beautiful
bunches of ripe bananas were growing on it from a large stalk.

Salar just loved bananas. In fact, all elephants do, as they cannot
get them in the jungle more than once in many months; for bananas grow
mostly in plantations kept by men. So Salar ran toward the tree
joyously.

But the wise old elephant had seen at once that the space all around
the tree was rather level and clear of bushes. That was strange in the
jungle, he thought!

Now, why did it look strange? Can _you_ tell? Why was it strange that
the space should be all flat and level, and clear of bushes? Just
think!

Because in the jungle that was not natural! In the jungle the space
should be all covered with grass and bushes, or at least with small
shrubs of different sizes, just as you have seen in fields which are
allowed to grow wild. So somebody must have _made_ the place level and
flat, and cleared away the bushes! That is what the wise old elephant
thought!

Then, also, he had seen that there was just _one_ banana tree, with no
other anywhere near it. That also seemed strange! Why? Because banana
trees always grow in groups of