“I behaved as if I were—how old? Tell me! As if I were—how old?”
And he answered:
“At least seventy.”
“You do nothing but joke.”
“Well, be angry! be angry! But who will release the elephant?”
On hearing this Nell clung to him like a young kitten.
“You!—and I shall love you very much for it, and so will he.”
“I have already thought about it,” said Stasch; “but it will be a very troublesome thing to do. I shall not do it now, but only when we are ready to continue our journey.”
“Why?”
“For this reason: because if I should release him before he is quite tame and before he has got used to us, he would immediately run away.”