Instead, when he pressed on it with his foot and put his whole weight on it, just as he had seen his father do to the other tree,—snap went the tree like a twig, and Salar tumbled head over heels and went rolling over the ground.
"Haw! Haw! Haw!" laughed the merry old elephant. "Did I not show you, silly, how to try it first carefully, with your trunk, before putting your foot on it?"
"Of course you did!" Salar said, remembering.
"That is what men folks mean when they say, 'You have put your foot into it.' You must remember never to put your foot into anything before trying it first with your trunk," the old elephant went on to say. "Now watch me knock down a still bigger tree."
This tree was as thick as a man's body. After trying it first with his trunk and then with his foot, the wise old elephant put his back on it and heaved. Little by little the tree bent on that side, but not very much. The elephant stopped heaving, came around and looked at the tree. Then he began to heave from the other side of the tree.
You have seen a man trying to loosen a nail from a board? He first hits the nail on one side, and then on the other side; and he goes on hitting the nail from side to side, till it is quite loose.
Well, that cunning old elephant did just the same thing to that tree; he first heaved the tree from one side, and then he heaved from the other side; and he went on heaving from side to side, till he loosened the tree from the ground. Then he pushed the tree with his foot, and it came out of the ground and fell with a loud thud.
And that is how Salar learned to heave with his body, though of course he could not loosen so big a tree just yet.
There were many other tricks that Salar learned from his father, and I shall tell you one of the best of them in the next chapter.