A dentist tells this story of an elephant that belonged to a circus. He
was very good-natured, but one day when his keeper went near him he made
a vicious switch at him with his trunk.
The keeper knew the elephant so well that he said at once that the
elephant was sick; something was the matter with him. He sat at a safe
distance from the elephant and watched him.
The elephant trumpeted loud and acted as though he was very angry, but
no one could decide what was the cause of the change in this good
elephant’s disposition. This continued for three days. At the end of
that time one of the men said, “Why, when Jack” (that was the elephant’s
name) “lies down he keeps rubbing one side of his head; I think he has
got the toothache;” and everybody immediately said, “Yes, that’s what’s
the matter.”
[Illustration]
The elephant was chained safely to posts and iron rings, so that he
could not move, and the dentist was sent for. The dentist looked in his
mouth and saw that one tooth was badly decayed. He touched it, and the
elephant trumpeted as though in great pain; then the dentist went to
work and filled the tooth.
After a time the elephant seemed to understand that the dentist was
trying to do something for his pain, and he gave every evidence of
appreciating the attention. Some weeks later the dentist visited the
winter quarters of the elephant and the elephant recognized him. It was
rather an expensive operation, for it cost one hundred dollars to fill
that one tooth. Doubtless, then, the elephant’s toothache is a larger
ache than either you or I ever know when our teeth ache.
There is an old story, something like this, about a lion which showed
gratitude to a man who had taken a thorn out of his foot. Do you
remember it?