in the absence of the princess, it was the little limping boy's habit, when visiting his friends of the menial world, to interpret for his own entertainment the conversations he overheard. he believed that he did this only in his mind, but on several occasions he had translated the language of caliph or mahmoud in such loud tones, influenced by the exciting character of their discourse, that other visitors had looked at each other significantly, tapping their foreheads and smiling. of all this, however, the little limping boy, fortunately, was oblivious.
one morning he stood alone before the door of mahmoud and the duchess. it [pg 74]was the day after the keeper and several helpers had thrown mahmoud's mate on her side, tied her fast with ropes, and, with hammer and chisel, had pared her toe-nails, which had grown so long as to lame her. the elephants stood with their heads together, swaying their trunks. the boy at once perceived that they were discussing the nail-paring incident.
"of a truth," said mahmoud, "when the men came with ropes i was as apprehensive as thou, o light of my life. thou wert aged and lame, and i trembled at the thought that they were about to put thee out of thy misery. happily, it was not so. and thy lameness this morning, my beloved, hath it disappeared?"
"my lord," said duchess, "my four feet are now as firm on the ground as when, years ago, i ran free and thoughtless in the [pg 75]jungle. i feel no pain, and my heart is filled with gratitude to the men with the knives who looked so cruel and were yet so kind."
for a moment the two great beasts were silent, gently caressing each other with their trunks. then mahmoud spoke:
"had i reflected, o joy of my heart, i could have saved thee all thy apprehensions. but it was not until they had released thee that i remembered. look thou, duchess, at the under side of my trunk and tell me what thou seest there."
mahmoud raised his trunk in the air, and his mate inspected it carefully, feeling its under side from lip to tip. presently she said, with surprise and some reproach in her tones:
"why hast thou concealed thy wounds from me, thy faithful mate, my lord? [pg 76]almost from lip to tip thou art scarred as though by lion's claws. surely this is since we came from the jungle? then, when i was young and my eyes keen, thou couldst not have concealed from me these dreadful wounds."
"calm thyself, o light of my life," said mahmoud, soothingly. "canst thou remember the time long before we came to this pleasant place, when, for many weary months, we were separated, my beloved?"
"aye, well, my lord. it was the time when, day after day, i marched at the head of a long train of gaudily painted wagons in which were menial people of every sort, stopping now and then at towns and villages for the pleasure of the master people, who came by thousands to see us. and where wert thou, my lord, during that dreary time of our separation?"
[pg 77]
"in the summer," said mahmoud, "i roamed the country at the head of a train of menial people, as didst thou. but in the winter i was housed with many others where iron boxes contained fire wherewith to warm us. it is to this same fire that i owe these wounds."
"i, too, have seen this red danger," said duchess, with a shudder. "once, in the jungle, it roared and pursued me among the dried reeds till my sides were scorched and i was near dying of fatigue. didst thou say, my lord, that the master people imprison those scorching red tongues in iron boxes?"
"aye, thus it warms, but pursueth not," answered mahmoud. "yet is there sometimes danger, as i am about to relate. it happened one night in the middle of winter, when the cold was so severe that the man who watched stretched himself out on the floor at the very side of the iron box, which was as red without as it was within, that old sultan, the lion, escaped from his cage, and [pg 79]walked abroad within the large house. in passing the red box, he lashed his tail thereon and was stung by the fire so that he howled. but ere the watcher could rise, sultan, roaring with anger, leaped on the red box, overturning it, so that it fell and held fast the foot of the man that watched. instantly did the man set up a great outcry, for the fire stung him also, and the weight of the red box held him so that he could not rise.
"now it happened," continued mahmoud, "that the man who watched had shown me many kindnesses, and i was loath to see him suffer pain. therefore, breaking the chain that held me in my stall, i ran to the iron box, wrapped my trunk about it and quickly set it on its legs, as, many times in the jungle, i have carried the hewn logs for the master people. it [pg 80]was not until the watcher was released and arose, limping, to his feet in safety, that i felt the sting of the fire—"
"remarkable! most remarkable!"
... to his feet in safety
this interruption, uttered in a gruff, unfamiliar voice, caused the little limping boy to turn and look to see who was the speaker. but he saw only the swaying branches of some shrubbery near by, and so went on interpreting mahmoud's tale.
"the pain grew each moment more severe, so that i groaned with the agony of it," continued the elephant. "the man who watched returned me to my stall and put oil on my wounds. the oil availed little. for days my agony continued. the [pg 81]keeper and his helpers could give me no relief. great patches of skin fell from my trunk, leaving my wounds raw and bleeding. thus i suffered in the full belief that my wounds were mortal, and that i should never see thee again, my beloved, when one day the keeper brought to my stall a large man with yellow hair and beard, who carried in his hand a black bag, and who, as he examined my wounded trunk, kept saying 'hum' and 'ha' in a gruff voice. yet i felt in my heart that he desired to afford me relief—"
"remarkable! most remarkable!"
it was the same gruff voice; but again the little limping boy was unable to discover whence it came, and so gave his attention once more to the elephant.
men came with ropes
"therefore, when men came with ropes," said mahmoud, "i made no resistance, but [pg 82]lay down of my own accord and suffered them to bind me. thereupon the gruff man opened his black bag and took therefrom sundry bright knives and needles; also some bottles and strips of gauze. though his voice was gruff, i found his touch most soft and gentle. first, he bathed my wounds with some sweet-smelling stuff, and then, with a keen knife—so keen was it that i knew not when it touched me, though it brought streams of blood—the man pared away the diseased skin. i [pg 83]confess that the gruff man's next act puzzled me somewhat at first. while his helpers held my trunk out straight, ever and anon bathing it with a soothing liquid, he washed with great care the thin, tender skin under my forelegs. a sharp pain, at which i made no outcry, however, in the same region, caused me to turn my eyes in that direction. the gruff man, with another very sharp knife, was taking from my legs narrow strips of the living skin and laying them, one after another, on the raw flesh of my trunk. ere long the wounds were all covered, and when strips of cloth had been bound about them, holding them fast, the ropes were taken from me, and i was permitted to rise. from that day all my pain ceased, and soon only the scars which thou hast seen, o light of my life, remained as a witness of the merciful deed of the gruff [pg 84]man with the yellow hair and beard."
"remarkable! most remarkable!"
this time when the little limping boy turned at the interruption, he saw the princess coming from the shrubbery, eagerly dragging after her by the hand a large man in whose yellow hair and beard there were some streaks of gray.
"oh, toots!" called out the princess, as they approached the door of the elephant house, "here's papa. we heard your translation of mahmoud's story, and it's wonderful. i told papa you could do it, but he wouldn't believe it till his own ears convinced him."
"and so you're toots," said the princess' father. "my little daughter says that you translate the talk of the animals. hum, ha, where did you get that story about the elephant skin-grafting you've just been telling?"
[pg 85]
"why, papa," said the princess, reproachfully, "he got it from mahmoud."
"hum, ha," grunted the large man to himself, "the boy got it from the keeper—probably the same one that took me out to bridgeport for that case in barnum's menagerie. hum, ha, let's see, that was six years ago last winter. hum, ha." and the large man looked sharply at toots.
"my little daughter calls you 'toots'; what's your real name?"
"edward vine, sir."
"hum, ha, poetical; goes well with his powerful imagination. what does your father do?"
"my father is dead, sir."
"poor boy! hum, ha. what does your mother do?"
"makes embroidery, sir."
"any brothers or sisters?"
[pg 86]
"no, sir."
"how old are you?"
"eleven last june, sir."
"hum, ha," said the gruff man.
toots now saw that when the princess' father said "hum, ha," he was talking to himself. he stood with his back against the rail in front of mahmoud's stall. the old elephant was acting strangely. at every exclamation of "hum, ha," he would flap his ears and move a step nearer the large man.
"hum, ha," mused the large man gruffly, again, as he took off his hat to wipe the perspiration from his brow, over which swept the grayish yellow locks. instantly mahmoud gave one of his little squeals of delight and began fondling the large man with the tip of his trunk.
"why, he remembers you, sir," said toots. [pg 87]"or else he mistakes you for the surgeon who mended his trunk."
"hum, ha, he doesn't mistake me, boy. i am the surgeon who mended his trunk. i flatter myself that it was the first case of elephant skin-grafting ever attempted. hum, ha." and having closely inspected the scars on the old elephant's proboscis, the large man said "hum, ha," several more times, evidently with great satisfaction, then said to toots:
do it while you're asleep.
"what's the matter with your leg?"
"it's too short, sir."
"born so?"
"oh, no, sir. it was broken below the knee when i was six years old, and my mother was too poor to get a good surgeon."
"hum, ha; let's have a look at it."
the surgeon, whose hands were large, white and soft, and as gentle as his voice [pg 88]was gruff, unfastened the straps of iron and felt of toots' poor, crippled leg, saying "hum, ha," a great many times as he did so. at length he replaced the irons, looked the boy sharply in the face, and asked:
"how would you like to wear it like the other one, for a change?"
"oh, would that be possible, sir?" asked toots, turning pale.
"easy as"—the gruff man looked around to see if he could find anything so easy as making toots' leg an inch and a half longer, and noticed mahmoud—"easy as growing new skin on an elephant's trunk. hum, ha, easier."
"would it hurt?"
"not a bit. do it while you're asleep. then you lie on your back a couple of weeks, after which you go out on my farm with my little daughter and stay till [pg 89]you can jump up and crack your heels together twice. hum, ha. tell your mother to bring you to the hospital at three o'clock to-morrow afternoon."
"oh, thank you! thank you!" was all toots could say.
"hum, ha, any friend of mahmoud is a friend of mine," said the princess' father.
it all happened exactly according to the promise of the gruff man with the gentle hands—a little dream of pain in his leg, then two weeks on his back in the hospital bed, where the princess visited him daily with all sorts of dainties, and then, when he could walk about a bit, a long journey into the country.
[pg 90]
there, in the bright sunshine, with the birds and butterflies glancing all about him, and the woods and fields calling to him to explore them, he grew strong once more, until, little by little, he learned to get along so gloriously that he could hardly make himself believe that he was the same boy at all. and for this great blessing, which in all his life he had never dared hope for, toots felt from the very bottom of his heart that he was indebted to the friendship and intimacy which he had come to have with old mahmoud.
