ed a strange
light in the north.

"Look, my dear!" said he, "surely the woods are a-fire in the north!"

"Oh!" said she, "it is only the moon rising."

"Hold your trunk!" said he, sharply. "Are you such a camel as not to
know that the moon never rises in the north?" But on second thoughts, he
added, "I don't think it can be the woods on fire. See! the light is
streaming up the sky. How many colours it has!"

"Perhaps it is the rainbow," timidly suggested the mother-Elephant.

"Rainbow! your Grandelephant!" retorted he, contemptuously. They stood
looking at the increasing light for some time longer with their trunks
elevated, the mother-Elephant wisely refraining from further comment;
when suddenly the father-Elephant, in a state of great excitement, began
whisking his trunk about, and turning, ran his ivory tusks against the
large sides of the mother. It was his way of expressing joy. "Have a
care!" said she, impatiently, clumsily avoiding his thrusts. "Do you
want to make a hole in me?"

"I have it! I have it!" said he, joyfully. "That is the way to the
stars! all we have to do is to reach the foot of these Northern Lights,
and then there must be some ascent by them to the stars." Hereupon the
Elephant began to dance about as well as he could, and tore up several
small trees by the roots in his exultation. The mother-Elephant,
however, had her doubts.

"I don't believe," said she, "that we shall be any more likely to reach
these lights than I was to get to the foot of the rainbow, which you
know I tried once and had the mortification of being laughed at by the
monkeys in consequence. Nevertheless, I will do as you say, my dear; you
know best."

That very night, accordingly, the two set out in search of the Northern
Lights. They travelled for days and weeks. Every once in a while, when
they began to get discouraged, the Aurora would appear and they would
press on with new hope. At last they came to a very cold country. Here
they made enquiries of a polar bear. Now the Polar Bear is generally
courteous. Like all the family he is very affectionate and always gives
one a hearty embrace upon meeting; but he is not sincere. It so happened
that his family also had a story and about these very Northern Lights.
The story was, that if one could find the foot of them one would
discover an immense hole or pit where one could sleep forever. This was
precisely what the polar bears most wanted, and they were forever going
n