hen the Elephant�s Child sat down most hard and sudden; but first he was careful to say �Thank you� to the Bi-Coloured-Python- Rock-Snake; and next he was kind to his poor pulled nose, and wrapped it all up in cool banana leaves, and hung it in the great grey-green greasy Limpopo to cool.

�What are you doing that for?� said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake.

��Scuse me,� said the Elephant�s Child, �but my nose is badly out of shape, and I am waiting for it to shrink.�

�Then you will have to wait a long time,� said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. �Some people do not know what is good for them.�

The Elephant�s Child sat there for three days waiting for his nose to shrink. But it never grew any shorter, and, besides, it made him squint. For, O Best Beloved, you will understand that the Crocodile had pulled it out into a really truly trunk, same as all Elephant�s have today.

At the end of the third day a fly came and stung him on the shoulder, and before he knew what he was doing he lifted up his trunk and hit that fly dead with the end of it.

��Vantage number one!� said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. �You couldn�t have done that with a mere-smear nose. Try and eat a little now.�

Before he thought what he was doing the Elephant�s Child put out his trunk and plucked a large bundle of grass, dusted it clean against his forelegs, and stuffed it into his mouth.

��Vantage number two!� said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. �You couldn�t have done that with a mere-smear nose. Don�t you think the sun is very hot here?�

�It is,� said the Elephant�s Child, and before he thought what he was doing he schlooped up a schloop of mud from the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo, and slapped it on his head, where it made a cool schloopy-sloshy mud-cap all trickly behind his ears.

��Vantage number three!� said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. �You couldn�t have done that with a mere-smear nose. Now how do you feel about being spanked again?�

��Scuse me,� said the Elephant�s Child, �but I should not like it at all.�

�How would you like to spank somebody?� said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake.

�I should like it very much indeed,� said the Elephant�s Child.

�Well,� said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, �you will find that new nose of yours very useful to spank people with.�

�Thank you,� said the Elephant�s child, �I�ll remember that; and now I think I�ll go home to all my dear families and try.�