Round-about Rambles in Lands of Fact and Fancy | Page 8

the
Elephant and handed him the match. The intelligent Kudabar took the
match in his trunk, stepped up to the cannon, and fired it off!
He was then about to apply the match to others, when re-enforcements
came up, and his services as an artillery-man were no longer required.
I cannot help thinking, that if that Elephant had been furnished with a
pen and ink, he might possibly have written a very good account of the
battle.

But few stories are quite as wonderful as that one. We have no
difficulty at all in believing the account of the Elephant who took care
of a little child. He did not wear a cap and apron, as the artist has
shown in the picture, but he certainly was a very kind and attentive
nurse. When the child fell down, the Elephant would put his trunk
gently around it, and pick it up. When it got tangled among thorns or
vines, the great nurse would disengage it as carefully as any one could
have done it; and when it wandered too far, the Elephant would bring it
back and make it play within proper limits. I do not know what would
have been the consequence if this child had behaved badly, and the
Elephant had thought fit to give it a box on the ear. But nothing of the
kind ever happened, and the child was a great deal safer than it would
have been with many ordinary nurses.
[Illustration]
There are so many stories told about the Elephant that I can allude to
but few, even if I did not believe that you were familiar with a great
many of them.
One of the most humane and thoughtful Elephants of whom I have ever
heard was one which was attached, like our friend Kudabar, to an
artillery train in India. He was walking, on a march, behind a wagon,
when he perceived a soldier slip down in the road and fall exactly
where, in another instant, the hind-wheel of the wagon would pass over
him. Without being ordered, the Elephant seized the wheel with his
trunk, lifted it--wagon and all--in the air, and held it up until it had
passed over the fallen soldier!
Neither you nor I could have done better than that, even if we had been
strong enough.
[Illustration]
A very pretty story is told of an Indian Elephant who was very gallant.
His master, a young Burman lord, had recently been married, and,
shortly after the wedding, he and his bride, with many of their guests
and followers, were gathered together in the veranda, on the outside of

his house. The Elephant, who was a great favorite with the young lord,
happened to be conducted past the house as the company were thus
enjoying themselves. Feeling, no doubt, that it was right to be as polite
as possible on this occasion, he put his trunk over a bamboo-fence
which enclosed a garden, and selecting the biggest and brightest flower
he could see, he approached the veranda, and rearing himself upon his
hind-legs, he stretched out his trunk, with the flower held delicately in
the little finger at its end, towards the company. One of the women
reached out her hand for it, but the Elephant would not give it to her.
Then his master wished to take it, but the Elephant would not let him
have it. But when the newly-made bride came forward the Elephant
presented it to her with all the grace of which he was capable!
[Illustration]
Now, do you not think that an animal which is larger and more
powerful than any beast which walks the earth, and is, at the same time,
gentle enough to nurse a child, humane enough to protect a dog or a
man, and sensible enough to be polite to a newly-married lady, is
deserving of the title of the King of Beasts?

THE FRENCH SOLDIER-BOY
[Illustration]
Anxiously the General-in-chief of the French Army stood upon a little
mound overlooking the battle-field. The cannon were thundering, the
musketry was rattling, and clouds of smoke obscured the field and the
contending armies.
"Ah!" thought he, "if that town over yonder is not taken; if my brave
captains fall, and my brave soldiers falter at that stone wall; and if our
flag shall not soon wave over those ramparts, France may yet be
humbled."
Is it, then, a wonder, feeling that so much depended on the result of this
battle, that his eyes strove so earnestly to pierce the heavy clouds of

smoke that overhung the scene?
But while he stood, there came towards him, galloping madly out of the
battle, a solitary rider.
In a few minutes he had reached the General, and thrown himself from
his saddle.
It was a