"Yes," said Mr. Birch, "she is a noble beast, and very intelligent. She has killed two of her keepers within the last month."
The lady grew pale as death on hearing this, and Layard turned on the speaker in a rage.
"And you let my wife put herself in that creature's power!" he cried. "What do you mean by that?"
"Oh," said Birch quietly, "do you think I would have let Mrs. Layard go near her if there had been any danger! She is the quietest and best tempered beast in the stud. She was quite right to kill her keepers. They had robbed her of her food."
You may see from this that there is a code of right and wrong among elephants. Kind treatment they meet with kindness and ill treatment with revenge, and while they have a sense of justice they also have a sense of humor, and can give trick for trick. You can at times see them fairly laughing at some trick they have played.
While an elephant was being shown at Dublin, doing a number of things he had been taught, a little boy, full of mischief but not of sense, was doing everything he could to annoy the great beast. The elephant gave no sign of taking notice, but it saw all that was passing, and when the boy came near enough thrust out its trunk and snatched his hat from his head. Then it turned half round, snorted loudly, and acted its part so well that all who were there thought it had swallowed the hat.
The imp of mischief stood scratching his head and looking very blank, while the great animal appeared as if he enjoyed the joke highly. By the twinkle in his eyes he seemed to be laughing inwardly. In the end he drew the missing cap from his mouth and flung it into the boy's face with such an air of fun-making that all present broke into a loud roar of laughter.
One would not think of such a huge brute playing tricks, but the elephant is fond of a joke and seems to enjoy it as much as one of us would. Elephants will raise latches, open doors, and show a fondness for mischief in other ways. They will also steal and hide their theft if the chance offers. An American showman saw one of them pull up the stake to which he was chained, go to an oat-bin, wrench off the lock, raise the lid, and eat all he wanted. Then he put down the lid again, went back to his place, poked the stake into the same hole, and stamped it down with his foot.
When his keeper came the cunning brute looked as innocent as a lamb. The keeper raged and stormed on finding that he had been robbed, while the big thief stood quietly by, with an odd twinkle in its little eyes.