CHAPTER V
Elephants: The Tricky Trap
Salar and his father were going through the jungle, feeding from tree to tree, and from bush to bush. One day they saw a little clear space and in the middle of it a banana tree—just one tree. But beautiful bunches of ripe bananas were growing on it from a large stalk.
Salar just loved bananas. In fact, all elephants do, as they cannot get them in the jungle more than once in many months; for bananas grow mostly in plantations kept by men. So Salar ran toward the tree joyously.
But the wise old elephant had seen at once that the space all around the tree was rather level and clear of bushes. That was strange in the jungle, he thought!
Now, why did it look strange? Can you tell? Why was it strange that the space should be all flat and level, and clear of bushes? Just think!
Because in the jungle that was not natural! In the jungle the space should be all covered with grass and bushes, or at least with small shrubs of different sizes, just as you have seen in fields which are allowed to grow wild. So somebody must have made the place level and flat, and cleared away the bushes! That is what the wise old elephant thought!
Then, also, he had seen that there was just one banana tree, with no other anywhere near it. That also seemed strange! Why? Because banana trees always grow in groups of many dozens, whether they are in the jungle or in a plantation.
"Halt!" the old elephant cried, just in time. Salar was not more than five or six yards from the tree when he heard his father's voice. I have told you before that, when an elephant child is told to do anything by his Mamma or Papa, he obeys at once, or else he might fall into some awful danger—just as a child in a town might get run over by an auto or a street car.