We were travelling through the forest in which they found the babies, and which, as I had suspected, stretched all the way from the valley to the hot stream.
A tiny girl sat with her little feet close to my face, and looked down at me coaxingly for a while, then spoke, the rest seeming to hang on her words.
“We make a petisson to king,” she said.
“What is it, my darling?” I asked.
“Shut eyes one minute,” she answered.
“Certainly I will! Here goes!” I replied, and shut my eyes close.
“No, no! not fore I tell oo!” she cried.
I opened them again, and we talked and laughed together for quite another hour.
“Close eyes!” she said suddenly.
I closed my eyes, and kept them close. The elephants stood still. I heard a soft scurry, a little rustle, and then a silence—for in that world SOME silences ARE heard.