AUNT ELIZA IS NOT PREPARED.

Waikato Times, Volume 115, Issue 19272, 2 June 1934, Page 15 (Supplement)

AUNT ELIZA IS NOT PREPARED.

(By Sybi:

The barking grew louder and more Indignant. Several other girls In the tent wakened, and Nancy got up to see what was the matter. From where she was she could not see the caravan in the next field, so she ran to the gate that divided the Guide’s camp from her Aunt's. It was a perfect night, with a sky like a great tent of sapphire in which rode a clear moon, and stars twinkled merrily. ' A night for fairies —but not—Nancy rubbed- her eyes—for elephants, Across the field in which Miss I\orman was camping, ambled a large elephant; he was making straight for the caravan.. Now Bob was a country dog accustomed to cows, though he could not, be said to. love them; and if ho could be quite certain of not being found out, he was not above chasing them. \ Still, he could put up with au ordinary cow with one tail at one end, like himself, but he drew the line at a cow twice the size it ought to be, and with two tails, one at each end. Holding these views, he saw no reason for hiding them, and was lifting up his voice with no uncertain sound to tell the world. Seeing Nancy standing in petrified amazement,.other girls had Joined her by the gate, and now a head came through the open window of the caravan. In the distance, and the moonlight, it looked like a big pear with knobs round it, but it was Miss Norman who did her hair up in curling rags when she went to bed. She shrieked loudly when she saw the elephant, who certainly seemed to be making straight for the angry Bob. The next moment the caravan door opened, and Miss Norman, her lathlike figure covored by a dressinggown, dashed down the steps; she seized Bob, unfastened his chain, flung him into the caravan, and was following him, when she stumbled. The elephant, who had trotted up behind, politely but firmly picked up the terrified, half-fainting lady, nnd deposited her on the roof of the caravan. Nancy opened the gate and was rushing towards her aunt when somebody held her. "Wait a minute, call and ask if she’s

hurt.” “Aunti" bawled Nanay, ‘has he hurt you?” f Bravely Miss Norman stood up on the roof. “No!” she shouted. On! oh! Look!” A dramatic figure, in her curlingrags and dressing-gown. Miss Norman was pointing to Sam’s tent. That gentleman being very deaf had slept through nil the noise, and now the elephant lifted that lent exactly as one might lift a thimble from a finger, and the astounded and frightened Sam sat up under the impression that he had a very bad nightmare. Before he could move, the animal picked him up, quite gently, and put him by his mistress on the roof of the caravan. “Two of you," said the Guide Captain, “go to the nearest ’phone and ring up Ihe police-stalion; meanwhile we must try to lasso him and fasten him to something.”

Two Guides who were more completely dressed than the others, flew to their bicycles, and just then Miss Norman shrieked again. “Look 1,” said a little girl with a mop of red hair. From a labourer’s cottage in the next-but-onc field a man was rushing. It was evident that he had got up in a hurry, hearing the noise, and was gallantly dashing to the assistance of a lady." His intentions were Ihe best, but they were never carried out. The elephant waited till the man was finite close, to him, then lie picked him up, and put him right in Ihe middle of the thick thorn hedge that divided the fields. “Oli!" groaned Nancy, “my sides! I shall die!” Now the Guides were sure IMe elephant was hurting nobody, some of them were helpless with laughter. "Listen!” ordered the, Caplnin. “we must, feed him. It's Ihe only tiling to do to keep him out of mischief; if lie gets in here he'll have all the tents up." “But we can't get at him.” said a plri in startling pyjamas and somebody's eise’s coat, that was much too small, “lie'll pick us up." “I’m going to make a dash for it,”

Haddock.)

said the Captain, “and get into the caravan, then I shall feed him through the window —Nowl What's the matter?’’ Once more Miss Norman was standing up and waving her arms like a distracted windmill, "Go back,” she screamed, and the man on the thorn hedge who dare not move one inch lest he should be scratched all over, yelled; "RtinJ" Sam too, yelled: "Run! Run!” Two Guides with bicycles, and a policeman, had come into the field. Miss Norman had spotted them, so had the elephant. The Guides know- 1 ing what to expect, left their machines and fled, but not so the policeman. He stood his ground, as one would expect from a representative of British law, but not for long, because he was lifted from the ground. Quite gently the elephant took him round the stoutest part of his person and put him on the roof of the caravan, where his large boot promptly broke the skylight and his huge leg dangled through into Miss Norman’s tiny kitchen. Whilst the elephant was thus engaged, the Guide Captain had dashed across the field and into the caravan.

“I’m going to feed him,” she said, addressing the policeman’s leg, and the others will try to lasso him.”

The Gpptaln held out a loaf, through the open window, whilst broken glass fell on to her, as the man of law withdrew his leg.

The elephant ate the loaf, also a tongue, a pound of baoon, half a pound of tea In the packet, a large piece of cheese, and a pound of apples. “Hurry!” shouted the Captain, "he’s eaten nearly all there is here.” Then, through the ventilation in the roof, she called to Miss Norman: "Tell the girls to make a line from their storo tent to here, and pass food along, will you?" Miss Norman, standing on the roof, bawled these Instructions, whilst Sam and tho policeman scrambled down the side of the. caravan—farthest from the elephant—to assist in the capture of that animal. The man on the thorn hedge was moving the only part of his anatomy that he dare move (for he was thinly clad), and that was his mouth. It was true that he moved .that with vigour and frequency, but 1 everybody was too busy to take any inotlce.

In a few moments, a line of Guides stretched from their store tent, which was close to the gate, to Miss Norman’s caravan, and along that living line they passed food. The Captain took It through a window on one side, and passed it through a window on the other side, to that elephant whose interior must certainly have been constructed on an expanding principle. Nancy, Noreen, three-other Guides, the fat policeman, and Sam arrived beside the animal (who ignored them, and continued to eat) only to discover that one cannot lasso an elephant whilst It is taking food from a window. (To be continued next week.)