"I don't like it, and I'm not going to stay!"
"What are you going to do?" asked Umboo.
"I am going to run away," said the elephant boy, whom Umboo had once,
in fun, knocked into the river. "I am going to run away, and go out in
the jungle."
"Oh, no. I wouldn't do that if I were you," quietly said one of the
tame elephants, coming up behind Keedah just then, and the half-wild
elephant was so surprised that he nearly dropped a wisp of hay he was
eating.
"If you ran away we should have to run into the jungle after you,"
went on the tame elephant. "And when we brought you back you would not
have a nice time. It is better to do as you are told, and to learn to
do what the black and white men tell you. For then you will be kindly
treated, and have plenty to eat. And the work you will learn to do,
after you go to school, as you and Umboo will go, will not be hard.
Take my advice and stay where you are."
"Well, I guess I'll have to," said Keedah, with a funny look at Umboo.
"I didn't know he heard me," he whispered, as if the tame elephant
were a teacher in school, which, in a way, he was.
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