“Oh, look! LOOK! They’re trying to pull the White Elephant out by her trunk! I shall scream if it stretches and goes back with a bang!” “’Es, like ’lastic,” cried Kiddiwee. “Yes! I do hope Miss Smiler isn’t sitting too heavily on her; the East Wind won’t care very much for a squashed wife, will he?” “We’ll ask for the December day before we give him the Elephant, don’t you think so?” she continued, addressing the Camel. “Bet your life!” observed Miss Smiler. “I never bet,” replied Coppertop, with dignity. “Except--well, it isn’t betting exactly--but Daddy always puts me on the Calcutta Sweep,” she added, truthfully. “Nice for the sweep,” remarked the Camel. “Oh, you really are stupid,” exclaimed Coppertop. “You don’t understand. It’s not that kind of a sweep. It’s a----” But before she could utter another word the roar of a rapidly approaching gale drowned all further utterance. The trees of the jungle were bent nearly double, and the next moment the East Wind rushed upon them in a fury, blowing Tibbs helplessly along in front. The poor boy felt so small at this indignity, that he quickly became so, and running off, hid himself behind a stone by the roadside. “Where is the creature who has ruined my beautiful Taj Mahal?” roared the East Wind, in a voice of seven hurricanes. “Where is the Goth who has done this deed? I will blow him off the earth! I will grind him to the dust! The Ganges shall lift its head like a hooded snake, and drown him! He shall be whirled in a hurricane to the highest peak of the Himalayas and left there to freeze!” “Is that all?” remarked Miss Smiler, smiling broadly. “And who is the lucky person?” “The Clerk of the Weather told me it was a creature called ‘Smiler’!” cried the East Wind, tearing down the palm trees as he spoke, and whirling them about like straws. “SMILER!” he bellowed, “who has dared to use my Best Beloved as an air cushion!” he roared, blind with rage. And Smiler smiled no more. She looked hastily round at the ruined Taj Mahal, and she wept an inward tear of remorse. She glanced down at the little White Elephant struggling beneath her, and she blushed with shame at the way she had treated her. Now, all this made Miss Smiler feel very small. And, feeling small, she quickly became so! The White Elephant, feeling the weight on her back grow less--as Miss Smiler grew smaller--scrambled to her feet, and made off into the jungle, trumpeting joyfully. As for Coppertop, the first rush of the East Wind blew her off the Camel’s back and whirled her up into a tall palm tree. And there she hung--by the leg of her pyjamas--in mid air. Of course, such an undignified position made her feel very “small,” and she quickly became so in fact.