And then began long days and months of lessons for Umboo and the other
wild elephants. They were not wild any longer, for the first thing
they learned was that the tame elephants would help them, and next
that the white and black men would be kind to them and feed them. So
the jungle elephants, who used to roam about with Tusker for their
leader, lost most of their wildness, quieted down, and were sent to
different places in India to work in the lumber yards, or to carry
Princes on their backs.
Umboo and his mother had to say good-bye, but they hoped to meet
again, and though for a time Umboo felt sad, he soon forgot it as he
had many things to learn.
One of the first was to let a man come near him to pat his trunk, and
to feed him. In the beginning Umboo was very much afraid, because he
smelled the man-smell, which Tusker had so often said meant danger.
But Umboo grew to know that not all men were dangerous. For, though
some might be hunters, with guns and sharp arrows, those who had
caught the wild elephants were kind to the big animals.
"I wonder why I am afraid of the man?" thought Umboo.
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