The cause of this sudden fright was a huge mammoth which slowly lifted itself from a clump of bushes and walked toward the lovers. A great hairy elephant, twice as large as those now existing, with long front legs, carrying his bushy body high up in the air, and a back gradually sloping to the ground, like a giraffe—such was the monster that confronted them. [Illustration: KOREE AND SOSEE ENCOUNTER A MONSTER.] Sosee had run up a slim sapling which this beast could easily have torn up with his trunk, or from which he could have shaken her down like a cocoanut; while Koree had run up a tree stout enough, indeed, to resist uprooting or shaking, but so low that the monster could easily have reached him with his long trunk. Their safety lay, therefore, in their silence, and they were accordingly quiet,—quiet even for lovers. The mammoth was in no hurry to leave the place. He browsed about slowly, picking up bunches of grass, or reaching after leaves. Once he picked a trunk full of leaves from the tree in which Koree was sitting; but he took no notice of Koree, whether because he did not see him, or because he did not care for him. Koree and Sosee alone were concerned,—not the pachyderm. They remained simply quiet, and left the great beast in undisputed possession of the field. Never were two lovers more cruelly interrupted, and never did an unwelcome intruder stay so long. “Two is company,” said Koree to himself, “and three is a great big crowd.” The lovers could neither touch nor speak. “Would that our trees were nearer,” whispered Koree. “Or stouter,” replied Sosee. “Or taller,” returned Koree. “Never did I think,” muttered Sosee, “that anything so great could come between our love.” “Ugh!” shuddered they both. The huge beast kept on eating, unconscious that he was a bore. “I wonder when that brute will get enough,” muttered Sosee in impatience. “If he is going to fill all that big carcass,” replied Koree, “we are up here for all day.” “Our only hope is that the leaves of these trees will give out,” replied she, “so that he must go elsewhere to finish his dinner.” “Or that he will want to take something to drink with his meal,” replied Koree, “and so go to the Swamp to wet his snout.” These breathings of the lovers were unnoticed by the monster, who took them for whisperings of the wind, and went on leisurely eating. “Never did I see such an appetite,” said Sosee. “Or one so contented with its dinner,” added Koree. “I don’t like this seat,” grumbled Sosee, “I wish we were on the same tree.” “I neither want to sit up here,” returned Koree, “nor get down.” “I’m hungry,” said Sosee, after a long pause. “Never did I sit so long at a meal, and not eat anything.” “If this meal of the brute goes on much longer,” said Koree, “we will both starve, or else be eaten.”