AN ELEPHANT JUDGE
"Let me go! Oh, please put me down! Where are you taking me?" called the
Stuffed Elephant to Nip, the big dog.
Nip did not answer. This was not because he could not speak the toy
language or the language of Stuffed Elephants. But Nip held Archie's
Christmas plaything in his mouth, and you know a dog can't even bark
when he has anything in his mouth. He can only growl.
Now, Nip was not a bad dog. And though he was playing a trick on the
Stuffed Elephant, still Nip was not cross enough to do any growling. So
he just kept still, and trotted along the barn floor, carrying the
Elephant.
Nip, being a big dog, had no trouble in carrying the Stuffed Elephant,
though the toy was rather large. Stuffed with cotton, as the Elephant
was, he was not very heavy, you see.
"Stop! Oh, please let me go! Where are you taking me?" asked the
Elephant again.
But Nip answered never a word. All the dog had said at first was:
"I am going to carry you away off!"
And he seemed to be doing this.
Through the barn he trotted with the Stuffed Elephant in his mouth. The
Elephant had never been in this part of the barn before. Archie and
Elsie never came here to play. It was too dark, and rather dusty and
dirty, with cobwebs hanging down from the walls and ceiling.
Down the stairs trotted Nip, still carrying the Elephant. The dog
trotted over to a dim and dusty corner, dropped the Christmas toy upside
down on the floor and then barked:
"There you are! Now let's see you find your way back! I'll teach you to
scare me by making believe your trunk is a snake!"
"Oh, but I didn't do that! Really I didn't!" exclaimed the Elephant, as
he scrambled to his feet. He could move about and talk now, because no
human eyes were there to watch him. "It was all an accident," he went
on. "The wind blew my trunk! I didn't wave it at you to scare you by
making you think it was a snake. Really I didn't!"
"Yes, you did!" said Nip, and away he ran, soon being lost to sight in
the darkness of this part of the barn.
For a little while the Stuffed Elephant stood there, swaying slowly to
and fro, as real elephants do. He reached out with his trunk and gently
touched the wooden walls. He could dimly see things all about him, but
he did not know what they were.
"Oh, dear!" sighed the poor Stuffed Elephant. "I don't like this at all!
I wonder what I had better do?"
He was trying to think, and wondering if he could walk up the stairs and
find his way back to the place where Archie had left him before Nip
carried him away, when, suddenly, the Stuffed Elephant heard voices
talking.
"Maybe he could settle it," said one voice.
"Well, I'm willing to leave it to him if you are," said a second.
"Who is he, anyhow?" asked a third voice.
"Oh, he's some sort of animal," went on the first voice. "He isn't an
angleworm, I know that much, but just what sort he is I don't know. But
he looks smart, and maybe he can settle this dispute for us."
"I am a Stuffed Elephant, that's who I am," said Archie's pet, speaking
for himself. "And who are you, if you please? I can't see any one, but I
hear you talking. Who are you?"
"I am the Garden Shovel," answered the first voice; "and I claim to be
the most useful tool in all the world. Without me there never would be
any garden, and things would not grow."
"Nonsense!" exclaimed the second voice. "I am the Garden Rake, and I
claim to be the most useful tool the gardener ever uses. Without me the
ground would never be raked nice and smooth, so the seeds could be put
in. I should get the prize for being the most useful."
"How foolishly you talk!" put in the third voice. "Every one knows that
I am entitled to the prize. Talk about shoveling the ground, and raking
the ground! What can you two do by yourselves, or together, for that
matter, if the ground is hard? Answer me that. You must send for me, you
know you must!"
"And who are you?" asked the Stuffed Elephant, for this tool had not yet
named himself.
"I am the Pick," was the answer. "And with my sharp points the hardest
ground can be made soft, so the Rake and the Shovel can work. I am the
most useful tool of all."
"No, I am!" cried the Rake.
"Indeed you are not! I am!" exclaimed the Shovel.
"Well, there we are! Just where we started!" complained the Pick. "Why
not leave it to this gentleman animal here. What did you say your name
was?" he asked politely, and then Archie's toy saw the Pick, the Rake
and the Shovel step out from a dark corner and stand in a row before
him.
"I am the Stuffed Elephant," was the answer. "This is my first visit to
this part of the barn. What is it you want me to do?"
"If this is your first visit you have never seen any of us before, have
you?" asked the Shovel.
"Never before did I see any of you," the Elephant replied.
"Just the proper one for a Judge!" declared the Rake. "He will be
honest and fair."
"I'm willing to have him if you two are," said the Pick.
"What's it all about?" asked the Elephant. "I don't understand. What is
a Judge?"
"Some one who tells the right from the wrong," answered the Rake.
"Listen, Mr. Stuffed Elephant! Get up on that box, for a Judge must be
above every one else, and we will tell you what the trouble is."
The Elephant got up on a strong, empty onion crate, and stood there with
the Shovel, the Rake and the Pick standing in a row in front of him.
"You must say 'Ahem!' and bang on the box, like a real Judge," said the
Shovel.
"Ahem!" coughed the Elephant, as loudly as he could. Then he took up a
piece of wood in the end of his trunk, and banged on the side of the
onion crate.
"Now this is like a real court," said the Rake, "and we shall have our
quarrel settled."
"Oh, have you three been quarreling?" asked the Elephant Judge.
"Well, not exactly; and the quarrel is not an angry one," replied the
Shovel. "You see," he went on, "we three tools work in the garden. Or,
rather, Jake, the man, uses us when he works. Now I claim I am the most
useful of the three. Jake always takes me out when there is a bit of
ground to be spaded up, or turned over, when he wants to make the garden
in the spring. So I think, Mr. Judge Elephant, Your Honor, that I am
entitled to the prize."
"Hum! Let me see now," said the Elephant, trying to look very wise. "I
suppose I must listen to what the others have to say."
"Oh, yes, indeed!" exclaimed the Rake. "We must each state our case, as
in a real court, and then you shall decide who is right. Now, for
myself--Oh, by the way, had you quite finished?" he asked of the Shovel,
politely.
"Yes," was the answer, "I think I said enough to have the Elephant Judge
give me the prize. Go on, Mr. Rake."
"Well," said the Rake, smiling a little to show his teeth, "I claim to
be more useful than the Shovel. It is true Jake uses him to turn the
ground over. But before the ground can be turned Jake uses me to take
away the dead leaves and sticks that are not wanted. And even after the
Shovel is used to turn the ground over, no seeds can be planted, and the
garden can not really be made, until I am used again to smooth things
over. So I claim to be the most useful tool."
The Rake stepped back in line with the others, and they all waited for
the Elephant to speak.
"Ahem!" said the animal judge very loudly. "There is one more to be
heard. Proceed, Mr. Pick."
The Pick, who had at least two good points in his favor, stepped
forward, made a stiff little bow with his handle, and said:
"What my friends Rake and Shovel have told you, of course is true. They
are useful, each in his own way. But I do the really hard work of the
garden. When the earth is packed hard and dry, so that neither the
Shovel nor the Rake can be used, Jake always comes and gets me. I am
larger and stronger than either the Rake or the Shovel, though of course
the Rake has a longer handle. But it is a very thin handle, and if Jake
struck as hard a blow with the Rake as he strikes with me, the Rake's
handle would break. And no matter how hard he digs the Shovel into the
hard ground, no earth can be turned over until I first loosen it. So I
claim the prize."
The Pick stepped back in line with the other two, all three bowed
politely and waited.
"What am I to do now?" asked the Elephant.
"You must act as Judge and tell which of us is the most useful, to
decide who gets the prize," said the Rake.
"That is it," chimed in the Pick and the Shovel.
"This is very hard--very hard indeed," sighed the Elephant. "In fact I
never before knew how hard it was to decide between right and wrong. Let
me think a minute."
He passed his trunk over his head, which was beginning to ache with all
the talk he had listened to.
"Hum! Let me see now," the Elephant spoke slowly. "It is true, Mr.
Shovel, that you are very useful. Without you the ground could not be
turned."
"There! See! I told you I'd get the prize!" cried the Shovel.
"Wait a minute! Wait a minute!" trumpeted the Elephant. "I have not
finished. It is also true," he went on, "that the Rake is very useful.
Before the Shovel can be used the ground must be raked clean, and after
the Shovel has spaded the earth, it must be raked smooth."
"There! I knew it! Oh, what a fine Judge! He is going to say I am
entitled to the prize!" exclaimed the Rake, laughing.
"Not yet! Wait a minute!" cried the Elephant. "I have not finished! I
want to say that the Pick used very good arguments. He is right when he
says without him, in case the ground is hard, nothing can be done. And
he certainly is the strongest, so I think----"
"Oh, ho! What did I tell you! I get the prize!" cried the Pick.
"Wait a minute! I have not finished!" said the Elephant Judge. "What I
was going to say was that before I could decide who wins I must see the
prize. What is the prize? Bring it here that I may see it, and then I
will decide who is to get it."
[Illustration: "Wait a Minute!" Trumpeted the Elephant.
_The Story of a Stuffed Elephant._ _Page_ 97]
"Oh, the prize!" cried the Shovel.
"That's so, we forgot all about it!" gasped the Rake.
"What was the prize to be?" asked the Pick. "I declare we did not settle
on any. How stupid!"
"Until I see the prize I cannot give judgment," said the Elephant; "so
the case will have to 'go over,' as I believe they say in Court, until
the prize is brought here. Stop disputing now, and get me the prize!"
"Yes! Yes! The prize! The prize!" cried the Rake, the Shovel and the
Pick, and away they scurried.
"Ha! Ha! Ha!" laughed another voice in the corner whence had come the
three tools.
"What silly chaps!" came in another voice.
"To forget the most important thing of all--the prize!" added another.
"Who are you, if you please?" asked the Elephant, stepping down off the
onion crate.
"I'm the Hoe," was the answer of the first. "If I had wished I could
have told how useful I am. In fact, I think I will have a try for the
prize."
"I'm just as much entitled to it as you are," some one else said. "You
needn't think you can get ahead of me!"
"Who are you?" asked the Elephant.
"The Wheelbarrow," was the reply. "You ought to see the loads I carry. I
ought to get the prize!"
"What about me?" asked a third voice.
"Who are you?" asked the Elephant.
"The Lawn Mower. Just think what an ugly place this estate would be
unless I kept the grass trim and neat. It should be my prize."
"Oh, my goodness!" exclaimed the poor Elephant. "If there are to be more
disputes, and more evidence in this case, I shall go mad. Stop!" he
cried, as the Wheelbarrow, the Hoe, and the Lawn Mower came forward,
all talking at once. "Stop! I will do nothing until I see the prize!
Court is adjourned!"
And as the Elephant said this the sound of loud barking sounded through
the barn.
"Oh, maybe that is Nip coming to carry me back," thought the Elephant.
"I certainly hope so!"