"See, boy," answered the old elephant. "There is a fence of big trees
ahead. We can not get through that. It is right across our path," and
with his trunk he pointed to where there was, indeed, a high fence
made of trees, cut down and set closely in the earth and so strong
that even the biggest elephant would have had hard work to knock them
down.
"Well, if we can't go that way we can go another," said Tusker.
So he turned about, and walked off another way, the other elephants
following him.
"Who put the fence there, Mother?" asked Umboo.
"I do not know," answered Mrs. Stumptail. "Perhaps the hunters did, so
we could not get into their gardens and eat the corn and other things
that grow there. Very good things grow in the gardens which the white
and black men plant, and, more than once in the night, I have broken
in and eaten them. But it is dangerous, and Tusker does not want to
lead us into danger. We will keep away from the fence."
Now, though the elephants did not know it, this fence was not built to
keep elephants out of a garden. There were no gardens in that part of
the jungle.
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