me, he
must guard the herd from that danger.

I shall now tell you about these four duties more fully.

_He Must Provide Daily Food_

Elephants are such large animals that they need a great amount of food.
So they have to walk a long way every day, munching the leaves of the
trees as they go.

They walk in line, one behind another, as that is the easiest method of
walking through the thick jungle; for then one gap through the jungle is
enough for all the elephants to go through, one at a time, and they need
not make a different gap for each elephant.

Now you will understand that if that one gap is big enough for the
_largest_ elephant to go through, it is of course big enough for _all_
the elephants to go through. So, if the largest elephant walks first, in
front of the line of elephants, he can force a way through the thick
jungle that will be big enough for all the other elephants who come
behind him.

So usually the largest and strongest bull elephant is the leader of the
herd--if he also has the other qualities of a president, which I shall
presently describe more fully. To have all the qualities of a president,
he must not only be strong, but also wise and clever. Why? Because even
in merely going through the jungle a wise leader avoids many
difficulties. It might be that the jungle straight ahead was very thick,
and it would be hard to force a way through it; but by turning a little
to the right or to the left, an easier passage could be made. This a
wise leader would find out, and then turn in that direction.

Again, in the jungle, the ground is sometimes too soft; it might be made
of clay which had become soft owing to rain a few days before. But
elephants are such heavy animals that they cannot go far over soft
ground, as their feet would sink in too deep. And the ground might be
covered with bushes or tall grass, so that the elephants could not _see_
to what distance the ground was soft. They might not mind going over
soft ground for a few yards, but they would not like to go over such
ground for a whole mile.

So a wise leader would know by glancing around how far the ground was
likely to be soft; and if he learned that it was likely to be soft
for a large area, he would turn at once and go around it. But a foolish
leader might take the herd right into the soft ground, and they would
all be stuck in the mud, and have a lot of trouble getting out of it
again.

[Illustration: Elephant Leading Her