And so Umboo was. But there was no help for it. He must keep on, and he hoped, before it grew dark, that he would find the herd, and his mother with it.
After he had swum across the river Umboo pushed on through the jungle for a mile or more. All at once he heard, off to one side, something crashing through the bushes much as he was doing.
"Ha! Perhaps that is another elephant!" thought Umboo. "Maybe it is my mother or my father, or perhaps Old Tusker coming to look for me. I shall be glad of that!
"Hello there!" cried Umboo in elephant talk. "Is that you, Mother?
Here I am, over here!"
The crashing of the bushes stopped, and a loud voice said:
"No, I am not your mother. What is the matter with you, elephant boy?" and out of the jungle came stalking a big rhinoceros. On his head, close to the end of his nose, grew a long, sharp horn. At first Umboo was afraid of this horn, but the rhinoceros did not seem to be cross, and the elephant boy went closer to him.
"The matter with me," said Umboo, "is that I am lost. I went out in
the jungle, away from where our herd of elephants was feeding, and now
I can't find my way back again. Can you tell me where my mother is,
Mr. Rhino?"
"I am sorry to say that I can not," answered the rhinoceros, scratching his leg with his horn. "But why did you go away from the herd?"
"I wanted to go out in the jungle and knock over a big tree," said Umboo. "Keedah, one of the boys in the herd, said it was easy to do when the ground was soft from the rain."
"And did you do it?" asked the rhinoceros.