THE BIG ELEPHANT
"What's the matter with Uncle Jack?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, "and how did you
hear about him, Richard?" she asked her husband.
"I had a letter from my bookkeeper," was the answer. "Before we came away
I left word that the poor old man must be looked after, and I arranged to
have news of him sent on to me. To-day I got a letter which says he is
much worse than he has been, and really needs to go to a hospital. I think
I shall have to raise the money to send him."
"Who is he?" asked Mr. Whipple. "I am interested. Who is this Uncle Jack?"
"He's just the nicest man!" cried Flossie. "He took us in when Freddie
upset the ice-boat, and----"
"I didn't upset the ice-boat--it upset _itself!_" Freddie cried.
"Easy now, children! Don't dispute," said Mrs. Bobbsey gently.
"Uncle Jack is quite a character around Lakeport," went on Mr. Bobbsey. "I
don't know all his story, but he has lived in the woods for a number of
years. Where he was before that I don't know."
"He don't know hardly anything about his folks, Daddy!" piped up Freddie.
"How do you know?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
"He told us so," put in Flossie. "It was that day he took us in his house,
after we got spilled from the ice-boat."
"Well, perhaps that is right," said Mr. Bobbsey, when the two small twins
had told what Uncle Jack had related to them. "They really know more about
him than I do. All I know is that he is a good, faithful old man. He sells
us wood and many of my friends buy of him. We help him all we can.
"I suppose he must have had _some_ folks once upon a time, but, as he
says, he has lost track of them. The bad news I have about him is that he
needs to go to the hospital. I think he will not get well if he does not
have a good doctor. He was so good to my children that I want to help
him, and I am going to tell my bookkeeper to arrange for sending Uncle
Jack where he can be taken care of. I'll pay the bill. He wouldn't take
the money from me, but he won't know about this."
"Just a minute," said Mr. Whipple, as he led the way down to the
restaurant in his store. "You say this old man lives in the woods?"
"Yes, he is a regular woodsman. He was a hunter and trapper once, I
believe, though he has spent most of his life working for farmers. He
loves now to live by himself in a sort of camp."
"I love camping myself," said Mr. Whipple, "and that is why I am so
interested in selling things for campers. I love anybody who loves the
woods, and, while I do not know this Uncle Jack, I'd like to help look
after him."
"I shall be very glad to have you join me," said Mr. Bobbsey; and the
twins, listening to this talk, though they did not understand all of it,
knew that their old woodsman friend was going to be cured if it were found
to be possible.
"We'll join each other in looking after him," went on Mr. Whipple. "You
must let me pay half." And to this the children's father agreed. He said
he would write back at once to his office, and tell some one there to look
after the old woodchopper.
"Is there any other news from Lakeport?" Mrs. Bobbsey asked her husband at
the restaurant dinner table, while the children were busy talking among
themselves.
"No, not much. Everything is all right, I believe. I have some news for
you, though, Bert," he went on, as his older son glanced across the table.
"What is it?" Bert questioned. "Did Tommy Todd go through the ice in the
_Bird?_"
"No, but it has to do with the ice-boat. He went in a race in her on Lake
Metoka, and, what is better, he won."
"Hurray for Tommy Todd!" cried Bert, so loudly that persons at other
tables in the store dining room looked over and smiled, at which Bert's
ears became very red.
"Did you hear anything of my friends?" asked Nan.
"No, my dear," answered her father. "And the reason I happened to have
news for Bert was because Tommy's father wrote to me about some business
matters, and Tommy slipped in a little note himself. Here it is, Bert."
It was just a little letter telling about the ice-boat, and Tommy
expressed the wish that Bert would soon come home to help sail it in other
races.
"I'd like to be back in Lakeport," said Bert, "but we're having such a
good time here in New York I don't want to leave. Guess I'll write and
tell Tommy so."
After dinner Mr. Whipple showed the Bobbseys and Laddie about the big
store, and each of the children was allowed to pick out a simple gift to
take away. Nan took a pretty ribbon; Bert a book he had long wanted;
Flossie a piece of silk to make a dress for her doll, and Freddie saw in
the toy department a little hose cart which, he said, was just what he
wanted to go with his engine. Mr. Whipple gave it to Freddie, who was very
much pleased. For his present from his uncle, Laddie picked out a little
gun, which shot a cork.
"I can't break any of the hotel windows with this," he said to his aunt.
"Did you ever break any windows?" asked Flossie, rather surprised.
"Once. I had a little wooden cannon that shot wooden balls. I shot one
right through the window of our parlor, and the next ball hit George, the
elevator boy, who was coming in with a telegram."
"And after that I had to take the cannon away from him," said Mrs.
Whipple, with a smile. "But I think the cork pop-gun will be all right."
Never had the Bobbsey twins had as much fun as they did the day of their
visit to Mr. Whipple's store. They were sorry when the late afternoon gave
the signal for starting back home.
"But we'll have fun to-morrow," said Bert to Nan, as they reached their
hotel.
"How do you know?" she asked.
"'Cause I heard Daddy tell Mother he was going to take us to Bronx Park to
see the animals."
"Oh, will we see the monkeys?" cried Flossie, who heard what her older
brother had said.
"Well, there are plenty of them there, so I've read," went on Bert, "Big
ones, too."
"I like little monkeys best, even if one did pull my hat to pieces," went
on Flossie. "Oh, I wish to-morrow would hurry up and come."
To-morrow finally did come, after the Bobbsey twins had gone to bed,
though when it came it was to-day instead of to-morrow. But that's the way
it always happens, doesn't it?
"All aboard for the Bronx!" cried Bert as, with his sisters and brother he
followed Mr. Bobbsey into the subway train that would take them to the big
animal park.
If ever you are in New York, I hope you will go to see this place. There
are many strange animals in it, and it has beautiful birds and gardens
also. Of course, when the Bobbsey twins went it was in Winter, and most of
the animals had to be kept shut up in their cages in the warm houses.
Some, however, like the deer, buffalo and other cattle, could stay out of
doors even in cold weather.
There were so many things to see, even though it was Winter, when the park
is not at its prettiest, that the Bobbsey twins hardly knew where to look
first. Flossie and Freddie were anxious to get to the house where the
monkeys were.
Some of the larger ones were uglier than they were funny, and in front of
the cages were many persons who never seemed to tire of looking at the
queer tricks the "four-handed" animals played on each other. You might say
a monkey had five hands, for those that have tails certainly use them as
much as they do their paws.
"Oh, look at that one big monkey, chewing a straw just like some of the
men in front of the hotel at home chew toothpicks," said Nan, pointing to
a chimpanzee crouched in a corner of his cage. He did, indeed, look like a
little old man thoughtfully chewing on a toothpick. And he was so natural,
and so much in earnest about it, that the Bobbsey twins, all four of them,
burst out laughing.
This seemed to surprise the chimpanzee. He darted toward the front bars of
his cage, shook them, as if in anger, and then ran into a corner, turning
his back on the people.
"Just like a spoiled child," said Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Well, where shall we go next?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, for whenever he and his
wife took the children on a little pleasure trip, the parents allowed the
twins to choose their own places to go, and what to see, as long as it was
all right.
"Let's go to see the elephants," cried Freddie. "I haven't seen any since
we went to the circus."
"I want to see 'em too, and feed 'em peanuts!" added Flossie.
"No one is allowed to feed the animals in the park," said Mr. Bobbsey. "It
isn't good for them to be eating all the while, and I suppose an elephant
would keep on eating peanuts as long as you'd feed them to him. So we
can't offer the big animals anything. They get all that is really good for
them."
As it was cold, the elephants were all inside the big elephant house, with
its several cages, in the front of which were heavy iron bars, set wide
apart.
"They are close enough together to keep the elephants in," said Mr.
Bobbsey, when his wife pointed out these bars, "though I suppose some
animals might get out between them."
"Whew! they _are_ big!" cried Freddie, when he stood close in front of one
of the cages, or dens, and saw the elephant swaying to and fro back of the
iron bars. "I wouldn't like one like him to step on me."
"I should say not!" laughed Bert. "Even a baby elephant would be too
heavy. Look at this one stretch out his trunk to us. He wants something to
eat, I guess!"
The big elephant, in front of whose barred cage the Bobbsey twins stood,
did seem to be begging for something to eat.
Flossie had carried from the hotel a rosy-cheeked apple, which the waiter
had given her at breakfast. Not wanting to eat it, she carried it with her
to the park, and had it in her hand.
Now, for some reason or other, probably without thinking, she held it out
to the elephant. The big animal saw what she was doing and turned toward
Flossie.
"Oh, you mustn't feed the elephant!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey. "It's against the
rules."
"I'm not feeding him, Mother," Flossie answered. "I'm just lettin' him
_smell_ it. It smells awful good!"
And just then the apple slipped from Flossie's hand and rolled or bounced
straight into the elephant's cage, between the iron bars.
"Oh, my nice apple!" cried the little girl, and before any one could stop
her she had crawled under the front rail, and had run in between the bars.
Right into the cage of the big elephant ran Flossie after her apple.