Far away in a country called India there are many elephants, which are
used for hunting, and also for carrying burdens.
One evening a driver brought his elephant home, and chained him to a
tree; then he went a short distance away, and made an oven to bake his
cakes for supper. You will wonder how this was done.
First he dug a hole in the ground, in which to place his fuel, and when
he had set the fuel alight, he covered it with a flat stone or plate of
iron, and on this he put his rice cakes to bake. He then covered them up
with grass and stones and went away.
The elephant had been watching all this, and when the man was gone, he
unfastened the chain which was round his leg with his trunk, went to the
oven, uncovered the cakes, and took them off with his trunk and ate
them. (Perhaps he waited a little while until they cooled, for the
elephant does not like his food hot.) Then he put back the grass as
before, and returned to the tree. He could not manage to fasten the
chain round his leg again, so he just twisted it round as well as he
could, and stood with his back to the oven as if nothing had happened.
By-and-by the driver returned, and went to see if his cakes were ready.
They were all gone, and the elephant was peeping over his shoulder to
see what would happen next. The driver knew by his guilty look that =he=
was the thief; the elephant knew he had done wrong and was ashamed.
Let us not do anything that we need be ashamed of. We know what is right
better than the elephant, because we can think better.
(Blackboard.)
Do nothing that you need be ashamed of.