"I acted as if I had how many years? Tell me! As if I had how many years?"
And he replied:
"At least seventy."
"You are always joking."
"Get angry, get angry, but who will free the elephant?"
Hearing this, Nell began at once to fawn like a little kitten.
"You—and I shall love you very much and he will also."
"I am thinking of that," Stas said, "but it will be hard work and I shall not do it at once, but only when we are ready to start upon a farther journey."
"Why?"
"Because if we should free him before he is entirely tame and becomes attached to us, he would go away at once."