I must first tell you that the trunk is not only like a nose to the elephant, but also is useful as a hand; the elephant can hold a lot of things with it, and can even pick up with its tip a tiny thing as small as a pin.
How the Elephant Child Learns to Swim
So the Mamma elephant stretches out her trunk before her, just like an arm, and tells her child to lie across it. In that way she holds up the child in the water, so that the little elephant has only to think of curling up the tip of its own little trunk out of the water to breathe. Then she tells her child to kick out with its legs, so as to move forward through the water.
But sometimes, in kicking out, the little elephant forgets to hold up the tip of its trunk out of the water at the same time; then down goes its trunk into the water, and it cannot breathe!
Then what happens? The Mamma elephant can do nothing, as she is already using her own trunk to hold up her child. So, what is to be done?
Really, the elephants are so wise that they take no chances of that happening. The Papa elephant takes care of that. When he sees that the Mamma is teaching the little elephant how to swim, he always comes near them. He may be swimming about, as if he were enjoying himself; but he is really watching them all the time.
And if the little elephant forgets to hold up its trunk out of the water, the Papa comes quickly, and with one upward stroke of his own trunk he lifts up the little elephant's trunk clear out of the water. Is not that very wise and thoughtful of the Papa elephant?
In that way the little elephant soon learns to do both things—that is, to kick out with its legs so as to move along, and also to hold up its trunk to breathe. And then, of course, it can swim properly.
And yet the elephants are so very wise that they never take the risk of tiring out a little elephant, if they have to swim a very long way. Sometimes a whole herd of elephants has to swim across a very wide river. Then the Mamma elephant tells her child to swim in front of her, while she encourages the child from behind with many fond words.
But sometimes after swimming halfway across the river—