the plan I
proposed." She was wise not to say it however.

They had suffered a great deal by this time. So much travel and so much
severe weather, had brought sorrow and discomfort to them. They were
really thin for Elephants. The father-Elephant had lost much flesh, and
his skin hung about him very loosely. They complained too of the trees;
they were so stunted and such poor eating. They were, in truth, very
miserable. They even began to care but little for the object of their
journey. The object was changed in fact. Before, they were only anxious
to reach the Northern Lights--the staircase to the stars. Now, all they
desired was to reach a warmer place--one like that where they once
lived.

At last the father-Elephant, overcome by all his trouble died; but the
mother-Elephant sustained by the hope of her unborn son, still pressed
toward the South, and rejoiced as the days grew warmer. Finally, she
reached a pleasant place where the hills were all about her, and the sun
shone warmly. Here was born the young Elephant, the son of the two
Elephants who had travelled so far. The mother now felt herself very
weak.

"My son," she began with great difficulty, "there is a tradition"--but
just as she got through the word, she died, and the young Elephant in
vain listened for the rest of the sentence.

"What's a tradition? I wonder," he said to himself. "It must be
something to eat, I am excessively hungry." He looked round and saw a
birch tree standing by. "Ah! that must be the tradition my mother meant,
when she said, 'There is a tradition.' Yes, her trunk is pointing to
it." So he pulled up the birch tree and devoured it, as well as he
could. The young Elephant continued to wander among the mountains but
with no great purpose in life; for he was totally ignorant of the story
that one of his race would one day mount to the sky and dwell among the
stars, so that he was without that great object before him. Neither did
he know how much suffering his father and mother had gone through, that
he might be the fortunate Elephant who should ascend the sky. It was
spring when he was born. The days grew warmer and warmer and he enjoyed
them exceedingly. But after a while the days became shorter and the sun
was not so hot.

"What is the meaning of this?" he one day asked of a Black Bear with
whom he was somewhat intimate.

"It means," said the Bear gruffly, "that bye-and-bye the sun will go a
great way off, the snow will be on th