uld have only a little more trouble in getting their food, if the
leader made a mistake. But with _water_ it is quite different--the
leader may find no water at all, if he makes a mistake and leads the
herd the wrong way.

"Then how must he lead the herd so as to find water, as well as food?"
you may ask.

I shall tell you. In most jungles there is a river or even a small
stream from which the elephants can drink. But the river or stream may
go winding in and out of the jungle, so that it is in one part of the
jungle but not in another part. So a wise leader tries to keep his herd
near one of those parts of the jungle through which the river flows.

In fact, if the elephants and even the other wild animals are lucky
enough to find a fairly big river, and the jungle near that river has
plenty of food in it, then the animals stay near there almost all the
time. They eat from the jungle and drink from the river; and sometimes
they come to the very same place to drink--as at the Midnight Pool,
which I described to you in Book I.

So if the leader of the elephant herd is lucky enough to find such a
jungle, with plenty of food and a big river in it, he keeps the herd
there all the time; and then they have no more trouble about food or
drink.

But suppose the leader cannot find such a place? Suppose there is a
river, but not enough food near the river? Then what does a wise leader
do?

He leads the herd in such a way as to make _a kind of curve_. He goes
into the jungle by the easiest way in the beginning; then, after the
elephants have eaten a little, he starts turning slightly toward the
direction in which the river flows. When the elephants have eaten a
little more, he turns still more in that direction.

In this manner he leads the herd in a kind of curve toward the river,
browsing all the way from the trees near by. So, at the end of the day,
when the elephants have had enough to eat, they reach the river and have
also enough to drink. Is not that a very clever method of providing both
food and drink for the herd?

If the herd sleep near the bank that night, they start from there the
next morning in their search for food; and they usually go into the
jungle by the same path by which they came. But on _returning_ to the
river to drink that night, the leader need not bring them back by
exactly the same path.

The fact that they did not have enough to eat right near the river shows
that the jungle is not very thi