Seven Little People and their FriendsScudder, Horace Elisha
Science
Seven Little People and their Friends
Scudder, Horace Elisha
Children -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories; Fairies -- Juvenile fiction; Magic -- Juvenile fiction
There is a tradition among the Elephants that some one of the race will
one day mount up to the sky and dwell among the stars. Once a young
elephant thought that he must be the one, for a great stone becoming
detached from a cliff fell upon his head. He instantly exclaimed, "I see
stars all around me. I am surely the Elephant foretold!" and for a few
moments actually thought he must have "gone up;" but those standing by
saw him rambling round with uncertain step and laughed at him. When he
got over the effects of the blow on his head, he had to acknowledge that
he was still upon the earth, though he always solemnly declared that for
a few moments he really had been in the sky among the stars. Of course
he had not "gone up," and each still continued to hope that he was the
one destined to immortality. The Lion, they said, was among the stars,
and the Bear and even the senseless Dipper. But none knew that to live
among the stars one must go through a great deal of suffering.
There were two Elephants living a long time since who were remarkably
sagacious. They were married and it was their earnest desire that their
son, if they ever had any, should be the one who should climb the sky
and live among the stars. They often talked over the best way of
securing this good, and ate up an immense number of different kinds of
trees because they had heard that there was a particular kind of tree
which, when eaten, would furnish the necessary knowledge. Whether they
ever ate the right tree or not it is difficult to say, but one night as
they were considering the matter, the father-Elephant noticed a strange
light in the north.
"Look, my dear!" said he, "surely the woods are a-fire in the north!"
"Oh!" said she, "it is only the moon rising."
"Hold your trunk!" said he, sharply. "Are you such a camel as not to
know that the moon never rises in the north?" But on second thoughts, he
added, "I don't think it can be the woods on fire. See! the light is
streaming up the sky. How many colours it has!"
"Perhaps it is the rainbow," timidly suggested the mother-Elephant.
"Rainbow! your Grandelephant!" retorted he, contemptuously. They stood
looking at the increasing light for some time longer with their trunks
elevated, the mother-Elephant wisely refraining from further comment;
when suddenly the father-Elephant, in a state of great excitement, began
whisking his trunk about, and turning, ran his ivory tusks against the
large sides of the mother. It was his way of expressing joy. "Have a
care!" said she, impatiently, clumsily avoiding his thrusts. "Do you
want to make a hole in me?"
"I have it! I have it!" said he, joyfully. "That is the way to the
stars! all we have to do is to reach the foot of these Northern Lights,
and then there must be some ascent by them to the stars." Hereupon the
Elephant began to dance about as well as he could, and tore up several
small trees by the roots in his exultation. The mother-Elephant,
however, had her doubts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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