There Once Was An Elephant

There once was an elephant. He was a very good baby elephant, but he didn’t quite know how to spend his time or what to do. So he sat by the window, sighing and thinking hard. Suddenly it began to rain. “Hey!” a wet fox cub shouted when he saw the little elephant in the window. “Look at those big ears of yours. Why, you would make a fine umbrella!” The baby elephant was pleased. And so he became an umbrella for the baby rabbits, hedgehogs and foxes hiding under his huge ears. But the rain soon stopped and the little elephant became sad again. He did not know what to do once more. So he sat down by the window again to think. Just then a rabbit hopped by and said, “My! What a wonderful long nose! You could use it for a hose.” The baby elephant was pleased. He went out and watered the flowers, the grass and the trees. When there was nothing more to water he became sad again. Evening came. The sun set, the sky turned dark, and the stars came out. All the little animals were fast asleep in their beds. The poor baby elephant could not sleep. He kept wondering what to do. Suddenly he saw flames amidst the trees. “It’s a fire!” he said. Then, remembering how he had watered the flowers, he ran to the river, drew in as much water as his trunk could hold and put out the fire in the old tree. When the animals awoke, they saw the little elephant by the smoking tree stump a put out the fire. They decided he would be the forest fireman. The little elephant felt very proud. Now he has a shiny brass helmet and spends rolling the forest, making sure that no fire starts up. Sometimes he lets the fox cub and the rabbit sail paper boats in his helmet.