"Capital, capital!" said the bully. "If you distinguish yourself in this way we shall have to make you Mathematical Instructor-in-General to the whole army." But the Elephant made no reply. "That's the thickest-skinned animal I ever met," said the Officer to his men. But herein he made a mistake. The Elephant never forgot an insult, but paid it back upon the first opportunity. The opportunity, in this case, was not long in arriving; it came, indeed, all too soon for the Officer's taste. It occurred in this way. One day a little boy came into the shop and asked to look at some soldiers, upon which the shopwoman showed him the wooden warriors. "No, I don't like them," he said; "they have to move all the same way at once. It is very stupid of them. Have you no others?" "Not just at the moment," replied the shopwoman. "We are expecting some more. They should have been here several days ago." "Then I'll take a train," said the boy. "But it is very funny that you should have such a poor lot of soldiers as these." "That silly remark will make the Toys less afraid of us," thought the Officer to himself with some alarm. "I shall make the men practise sword-drill in the most open fashion for several hours. This will remind the world that we are not to be trifled with." But it is one thing to make a resolution and quite another thing to carry it into effect. This the Officer was to experience ere the day was over. For in putting the Soldiers back into their place the shopwoman happened to hit the Officer with some force against a dolls' house. Being a very hard blow it knocked him off the platform, and, unnoticed by her, he fell on his back upon the counter. Now came the time for the Elephant's revenge. _The Officer fell just under the animal's trunk!_ It was, as the Officer at once realized, by no means a pleasant situation. As his men were some yards away from him, and unable to come in a body to his rescue till perhaps too late, the Officer was exceedingly uneasy. "I had better soothe the monster," he said to himself. Then aloud, and in a pleasant voice: "What a nice handy trunk that is of yours; you must be able to carry so much in it? As for me, I have to travel with a portmanteau, a Gladstone-bag, a hat-box, and a gun-case; it is a terrible nuisance." He paused, but the Elephant made no reply. "This is not very pleasant," said the Officer uneasily to himself. "I fear the beast is of a sulky temper. What _will_ happen to me?" And he lay still, trembling and fearful. At last the day closed in, the Mortals shut up the shop and left, and the time of the Toys arrived. The Elephant then addressed the Officer in a slow voice and ponderous manner. "I feel inclined to trample on you," he remarked. The Officer closed his eyes with terror; then, half-opening them, he endeavored to look defiantly and speak boldly. "Pre-pre-sump-tu-tu-ous b-b-b-beast!" he faltered. The Elephant looked at him threateningly.