"I want to see 'em too, and feed 'em peanuts!" added Flossie.
"No one is allowed to feed the animals in the park," said Mr. Bobbsey. "It isn't good for them to be eating all the while, and I suppose an elephant would keep on eating peanuts as long as you'd feed them to him. So we can't offer the big animals anything. They get all that is really good for them."
As it was cold, the elephants were all inside the big elephant house, with its several cages, in the front of which were heavy iron bars, set wide apart.
"They are close enough together to keep the elephants in," said Mr. Bobbsey, when his wife pointed out these bars, "though I suppose some animals might get out between them."
"Whew! they are big!" cried Freddie, when he stood close in front of one of the cages, or dens, and saw the elephant swaying to and fro back of the iron bars. "I wouldn't like one like him to step on me."
"I should say not!" laughed Bert. "Even a baby elephant would be too heavy. Look at this one stretch out his trunk to us. He wants something to eat, I guess!"
The big elephant, in front of whose barred cage the Bobbsey twins stood, did seem to be begging for something to eat.
Flossie had carried from the hotel a rosy-cheeked apple, which the waiter had given her at breakfast. Not wanting to eat it, she carried it with her to the park, and had it in her hand.
Now, for some reason or other, probably without thinking, she held it out to the elephant. The big animal saw what she was doing and turned toward Flossie.
"Oh, you mustn't feed the elephant!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey. "It's against the rules."