By Ruth Plumly Thompson
Author of The Wishing Horse of Oz, "The Wizard of Pumperdink," "King, King! Double King!" etc.
Originally published in the Philadelphia Public Ledger, March 6, 1921
It was quiet and sultry in the jungle and there was nothing much for a little boy elephant to do, as Oliver Elephant was ambling slowly through the dim forest waving his big ears and grumbling to himself. And almost without knowing it he was walking toward the hidden cave that he had discovered a few days before. Under some leaves he had seen a big ring and, pulling it mightily, had suddenly dropped into a dark hole and the big door through which he had come had closed after him. Running around in a panic, Oliver beat his trunk against the walls of his queer prison till all at once he had touched another secret door, which had opened and let him out into the jungle again. Oliver had been very much frightened by his experience, but somehow he couldn’t get the queer cave out of his head.
“Suppose I should get in and not be able to get out again!” he thought with a shudder, but here was his long curious trunk nose carrying him straight back to the spot where the mysterious ring lay hidden under the leaves. Oliver was just about to push them aside and uncover the ring when a loud shrill scream made him swing round in alarm. Some small creature was being chased by Ganda the tiger, and while Oliver wondered who it might be the brush parted and out tumbled a tiny little two-leg. There is a law in the jungle which says that one people shall not interfere with the meat of another. But something about the frightened little brown boy went straight to Oliver Elephant’s big heart. Just as the fierce head of the tiger appeared in the opening of the brush he snatched the boy in his trunk and backed in defiance. Ganda gave a roar of fury and made ready to spring at Oliver Elephant, but Oliver had been doing some thinking. Before the astonished tiger had time to move he had placed the boy on his back, seized the iron ring, given it a furious tug and disappeared into the earth. He heard Ganda’s howl of anger as the door clanged shut and the next minute they were alone in the damp, black cave.
Oliver Elephant had been warned against people by Uncle Abner Elephant, who knew many stories about the Two Legs, as he contemptuously called them. But he also knew that Two Legs seldom came into the jungle—surely this little creature was lost and no proper meat for cruel Ganda. He put his trunk up to see whether the boy was still safe and the little fellow hugged him mightily and spoke in a language Oliver Elephant did not understand. He replied softly in his own elephant tongue and, though neither knew what the other said, a sudden and understanding love sprang up between them. Reassuring the boy with low, little chuckles, Oliver began to feel around the cave for the hidden door that would let them out, but first he gathered up a few of the stones that covered the floor and handed them up for the little boy to play with. Then all round the walls went Oliver Elephant, thumping with his trunk, and before he had quite circled the cave there was a creaking, a sharp rasp and a door opened. But it was not the same door that had let Oliver out into the jungle and the passage that stretched ahead was almost as dark as the black cave. “Perhaps it leads to a different part of the jungle,” reasoned Oliver Elephant and with the little boy seated on his head crowing with delight and his own long trunk nose curling with curiosity, Oliver started down the long, dim passage. In places it was barely wide enough for him to get through, but he’d give a little heave and the walls would crumble away and make room for him. Small openings in the top of the secret passage sent little glimmers of light to the two explorers, and both were so interested that they hardly realized what a far way they had come. Elephants travel very rapidly, and two hours from the time they had left the cave found the little boy and Oliver Elephant many miles from their starting point.
Then all at once it grew absolutely dark again and Oliver Elephant slackened his speed. He could feel the little boy crouched close in the hollow of his big head holding on fearfully to his ear. He trumpeted gently for him not to be afraid and at that very moment came up with a bump against the end of the passage. “Suppose it doesn’t lead anywhere!” wheezed Oliver in a panic. There was not room for him to turn around and the thought of backing all the way they had come made him grunt with alarm. Stepping back a few paces, he began thumping on the wall that closed the passage. At first nothing happened, then there was the same creaking that had accompanied the opening of all the other strange doors in the underground cavern, then with a sharp snap the wall in front of them fell outward. Oliver, losing no time, rushed through, and scarcely had done so before the wall snapped upward. The sudden burst of light made Oliver Elephant blink, but the little boy gave a shriek of joy. They seemed to be in a beautiful garden and just ahead the big elephant could see the turrets of a glittering palace. Just as Oliver Elephant reached back to lift the little boy down a whole company of Two Legs dressed in magnificent robes and turbans came dashing toward them. The little boy, who Oliver now noticed was dressed in the same manner, began screaming excitedly, explaining in his strange tongue how the big elephant had rescued him from the tiger.
Oliver Elephant liked the little boy more than any one he had ever played with, but grown Two Legs, he had learned from Uncle Abner, made prisoners of elephants and forced them to labor. His quick eye caught an open gate a short distance away, so, giving the little boy an ever so tiny hug with his trunk, he set him down and before the company had reached him Oliver Elephant was a gray blur of disappearing speed.
It was a long and strange way back to the jungle and all the way Oliver thought about his strange adventure, and the more he thought about it the more he determined to keep his cave a secret from everybody.
Meanwhile, in the palace garden, the eyes of the servants and court dignitaries opened with astonishment as the little Indian prince told his story. He had fallen from the horse of a servant in the tiger hunt and the whole party had given him up for lost. His father, one of the many maharajahs in India, wept with joy and mourned the disappearance of the great gray beast who had rescued his son, and when the little prince opened his hand and displayed the stones Oliver had picked up on the floor of the dark cave the whole company exclaimed with astonishment, for the stones were blazing rubies. They rushed to the spot where the little prince thought they had come through the garden wall, but not a trace of a hidden door was to be seen, though they thumped it from one end to the other.
“If I could but see my dear elephant again!” sighed the little prince, taking no heed of the court’s excitement over the gems, “what brave times we could have together!” “Perhaps he will come back, wee small one,” whispered his old Hindu nurse, and after that the little prince spent most of his time at the garden gate looking for big Oliver Elephant. And perhaps some day he will come back to the strange garden.
Originally published in the Philadelphia Public Ledger, July 21, 1918
A New Rule in Supposyville
What with preserving, haying, fishing,
Fairs and sundry weeding;
With picnics, pruning and betwixt
A little lively reading,
Supposy folk have spent the summer
So far, each enjoying
Himself, and each in some good way
Vacation time employing!
Such happiness is in that land
And such delightful people,
I’d love to be there even as
A cobblestone or steeple.
The King so fine, so wise and merry,
The Queen so sweet and fair,
Why, I declare I’d even be
A happy bowwow there!
But howe’er that is, what I really
Started out to say
Was of the latest rule the jolly
King made yesterday.
“Hear all ye people!” So began
The proclamation, dears;
And gathering round the couriers
Each good Supposy hears.
“No subject shall omit to wear
The colors of the land.
’Tis done this day into a law
Under my seal and hand.
“And not, moreover, on the coat
Or hair shall they be shown,
But in the cheeks the colors of
The rose—red and full blown—
“Must fly, and furthermore I state
That whoso is convicted
Of pale cheeks to a diet of
Top cream shall be restricted;
Of fruit and eggs and milk until
The country’s colors glow
In either cheek, and once each week
Sir Solomon shall go
“Throughout the Kingdom to inspect
The cheeks of each Supposy,
To see that they are round and red
And altogether rosy!”
I hope that in your cheeks, sweethearts,
The roses red are glowing.
I’d rather see them there than in
A million gardens growing!
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