HOW THE ELEPHANT GOT ITS TRUNK.

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 169, 13 April 1935, Page 23

HOW THE ELEPHANT GOT ITS TRUNK.

Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years ago, elephants did not have trunks like they do now. Once upon a time there lived in a .jungle a great elephant. He had a long, nose, and he was very shortsighted. If he wished to examine anything. he had to get very near, so that his long nose almost touched it. I’ai'khur was his name, and his friends called him Nosey. That is how it came about that people who pry into other people’s business are nowadays called “Nosey Parkers.” Now Parkhnr was a very inquisitive person and always prying into other I>eople’s business, but for all that he was really very nice. There was also an old chimpanzee named Booboo. who was an inventor living in a little hut right in the middle of the jungle. One day when Booboo was out, Parkhur, being so inquisitive, wanted to see what was in the little hut. He entered, and being both clumsy and short-sight-ed, he did a lot of damage before going home. “I'll teach him!” vowed Booboo. One day Parkhur again went into the jungle. He saw Booboo’s hut and peered through the window. lie stuck his long nose right in and then something went snap! Parkhur was a prisoner. His nose was caught in a trap which Booboo had made for him. He pulled and pulled, and as he pulled to get away, his nose was stretched and stretched. Not till it had become a trunk did he get free. The King o£ the Jungle Fairies heard about it, and, because Parkhur was really a nice elephant, he decreed that the trunk should be of use to Parkhur; and from that day to this elephants have had trunks instead of noses!