A LITTLE ELEPHANT LOSES HIS TRUNK

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20610, 26 December 1936, Page 14

A LITTLE ELEPHANT LOSES HIS TRUNK

(The moral of this story is: Know where your things are). Once upon a time a little elephant wanted to sneeze, but he couldn’t do it very well because he had mislaid his trunk. He went to the bureau and looked in the top drawer. There were his handkerchiefs, his collars, and his ties, but not his trunk. He looked in the second drawer. There were his pyjamas and his socks, but not his trunk.

“Mother!” he called. “Do you happen to know where my trunk is?” “Where did you have it last?” asked his mother in the door. “I don’t know,” said the little elephant, “but it isn’t in any of my bureau drawers.” “Perhaps you left it out on the lawn when you were playing there this morning,” suggested his mother He ran out on the lawn and hunted. There was no sign of a trunk on the grass, but when he looked up he saw

the trunk hanging out of a bird’s nest. “May I have my trunk, please?” he asked the bird. The bird looked at him. Then he began to sing: “Finder’s'keepers, losers weepers. It’s my trunk now.” “No, it isn’t! It’s my trunk!’ said the little elephant. “No, it isn’t! It’s my trunk!' said the bird. The elephant butted the tree hard. “Stop!” cried the bird. “You’ll

knock my babies out of their nest.” “Then let me have my trunk,” cried the elephant. The bird hesitated. Again the little elephant butted the tree hard. “Stop!” cried the bird. “I’m getting it.” And he untangled the trunk from his nest and let it fall to the ground. The little elephant put it on. How comfortable it felt! And at last he gave a good long sneeze.