One day when the Show was passing through a village, one of the young
trick-elephants heard a little boy laugh out suddenly. This elephant
liked little boys; he had a roguish look himself and could take a joke,
and never acted “mad” when some mischievous little visitor fed him an
empty peanut shell.
[Illustration: THE YOUNG ELEPHANT’S DREAM.]
Turning his mouse-colored head, the young elephant looked in at the open
door of the house they were passing. He flapped his big ears at what he
saw there, and laughed too.
That night when the show was over, and he stood in a row with the other
elephants going to sleep, he thought again of what he saw in that open
door, and laughed once more. “That must have been fun!” he said to
himself. “It must be fun to be a little boy! That trick was funnier than
any we circus elephants are taught to do. I wouldn’t mind being a little
boy myself! I truly wouldn’t!”
And then the jolly young elephant went to sleep, and dreamed he could do
the little boy’s trick—and really he never enjoyed a dream so much before
in all his life.
_George Dutton._