"'Call that parrot, and ask him to go and tell his queen to come and see her benefactor, who is now in trouble?
"The elephant protested that it would be of no use, as the parrot could not help him in any way, no matter how willing she was to do so. But the priest insisted, and the elephant obeyed.
"In a little while the queen came, and then the priest told the elephant to send her with a message to the king of the rats. Away she flew, and told the rat king how their old benefactor had fallen into a pit.
"The king sent out his messengers to all parts of his dominions, and by the next morning they were assembled to the number of several millions. The king ordered them to follow him, and they went to where the elephant was entrapped. The parrot queen was there ahead of them, and she had brought millions of her subjects. The guards were now awake, but the parrot queen talked to them and amused them, and she kept flying off a little way at a time, till she drew them out of sight of the pit. Then the rats began scratching at the edge of the pit; and though each of them only threw down a very little earth at a time, there was soon a large path sloping to where the elephant stood. At the same time the millions of parrots began breaking little twigs from the trees, and dropping them into the pit; the elephant piled these twigs and the earth beneath him, and in a few hours he walked out of the pit, and away into the forest, where he joined his companions and told them what had happened.
"'Who would have thought,' he said to his fellow-elephants, 'that the largest animal in the world could be saved by such insignificant creatures as the parrot and the rat. Hereafter I will never despise small things, or despair of being brought out of trouble. Good actions will be rewarded, no matter how insignificant may be their recipient.'"
"A very pretty story!" exclaimed both the boys in a breath.
"It is a story with a moral," Doctor Bronson answered; "and I leave you to apply it while we have a little more talk about the elephant."
"A baby elephant is about the most amusing beast in the world; he is affectionate and playful to a high degree, and there is little difficulty in taming him. Very often the young elephants are taken in the corrals with their mothers, whom they follow to the tying-down place, and thence to the stables when the captives are released from their bonds. A gentleman at Colombo had one that was sent down to his house from the corral where he was taken, and he very soon became a favorite with everybody about the place. He stayed generally near the kitchen, where he picked up a good many things of which he was fond; and sometimes, when the gentleman was walking in the grounds, the young giant would come to him and twine his trunk around his arm, to indicate that he wanted to be taken to the fruit-trees. He used to be admitted to the dining-room, and helped to fruit at dessert, and he finally got to coming in at odd times when not invited. On two or three occasions he managed to break all the glasses on a sideboard, while reaching for some oranges in a basket, and finally he became so mischievous that he had to be sent away. While he was at the house the grass-cutters occasionally placed their loads of grass on his back, and whenever this was done he strutted off with an air of the greatest pride at the confidence that was shown in him. After he was sent to the government stables he became very docile; and when his turn came for work, he performed it to the satisfaction of everybody.
