CHAPTER IV
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 ownentertainment the conversations he overheard. He believed that he didthis only in his mind, but on several occasions he had translated thelanguage of Caliph or Mahmoud in such loud tones, influenced by theexciting character of their discourse, that other visitors had lookedat each other significantly, tapping their foreheads and smiling. Ofall this, however, the little Limping Boy, fortunately, was oblivious.
One morning he stood alone before the door of Mahmoud and the Duchess.It was the day after the Keeper and several helpers had thrownMahmoud's mate on her side, tied her fast with ropes, and, with hammerand chisel, had pared her toe-nails, which had grown so long as tolame her. The elephants stood with their heads together, swayingtheir trunks. The boy at once perceived that they were discussing thenail-paring incident.
"Of a truth," said Mahmoud, "when the men came with ropes I was asapprehensive 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 ofthy misery. Happily, it was not so. And thy lameness this morning, mybeloved, hath it disappeared?"
"My Lord," said Duchess, "my four feet are now as firm on the ground aswhen, years ago, I ran free and thoughtless in the Jungle. I feel nopain, and my heart is filled with gratitude to the men with the kniveswho looked so cruel and were yet so kind."
For a moment the two great beasts were silent, gently caressing eachother with their trunks. Then Mahmoud spoke:
"Had I reflected, O Joy of my Heart, I could have saved thee all thyapprehensions. But it was not until they had released thee that Iremembered. Look thou, Duchess, at the under side of my trunk and tellme what thou seest there."
Mahmoud raised his trunk in the air, and his mate inspected itcarefully, 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, myLord? Almost from lip to tip thou art scarred as though by lion'sclaws. Surely this is since we came from the Jungle? Then, when I wasyoung and my eyes keen, thou couldst not have concealed from me thesedreadful wounds."
"Calm thyself, O Light of my Life," said Mahmoud, soothingly. "Canstthou 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 atthe head of a long train of gaudily painted wagons in which were MenialPeople of every sort, stopping now and then at towns and villages forthe pleasure of the Master People, who came by thousands to see us. Andwhere wert thou, my Lord, during that dreary time of our separation?"
"In the summer," said Mahmoud, "I roamed the country at the head of atrain of Menial People, as didst thou. But in the winter I was housedwith 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 reedstill my sides were scorched and I was near dying of fatigue. Didstthou say, my Lord, that the Master People imprison those scorching redtongues in iron boxes?"
"Aye, thus it warms, but pursueth not," answered Mahmoud. "Yet is theresometimes danger, as I am about to relate. It happened one night in themiddle of winter, when the cold was so severe that the man who watchedstretched 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 walked abroad within the large house. Inpassing the red box, he lashed his tail thereon and was stung by thefire so that he howled. But ere the watcher could rise, Sultan, roaringwith anger, leaped on the red box, overturning it, so that it fell andheld fast the foot of the man that watched. Instantly did the man setup a great outcry, for the fire stung him also, and the weight of thered box held him so that he could not rise.
"Now it happened," continued Mahmoud, "that the man who watched hadshown 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 theiron 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 MasterPeople. It 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!"
This interruption, uttered in a gruff, unfamiliar voice, caused thelittle Limping Boy to turn and look to see who was the speaker. But hesaw only the swaying branches of some shrubbery near by, and so went oninterpreting Mahmoud's tale.
"The pain grew each moment more severe, so that I groaned with theagony of it," continued the elephant. "The man who watched returnedme to my stall and put oil on my wounds. The oil availed little. Fordays my agony continued. The Keeper and his helpers could give me norelief. Great patches of skin fell from my trunk, leaving my wounds rawand bleeding. Thus I suffered in the full belief that my wounds weremortal, and that I should never see thee again, my beloved, when oneday the Keeper brought to my stall a large man with yellow hair andbeard, who carried in his hand a black bag, and who, as he examined mywounded trunk, kept saying 'hum' and 'ha' in a gruff voice. Yet I feltin my heart that he desired to afford me relief--"
"Remarkable! Most remarkable!"
It was the same gruff voice; but again the little Limping Boy wasunable to discover whence it came, and so gave his attention once moreto the elephant.
"Therefore, when men came with ropes," said Mahmoud, "I made noresistance, but lay down of my own accord and suffered them to bindme. Thereupon the gruff man opened his black bag and took therefromsundry bright knives and needles; also some bottles and strips ofgauze. Though his voice was gruff, I found his touch most soft andgentle. 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 ittouched me, though it brought streams of blood--the man pared awaythe diseased skin. I confess that the gruff man's next act puzzledme somewhat at first. While his helpers held my trunk out straight,ever and anon bathing it with a soothing liquid, he washed with greatcare the thin, tender skin under my forelegs. A sharp pain, at which Imade no outcry, however, in the same region, caused me to turn my eyesin that direction. The gruff man, with another very sharp knife, wastaking 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 woundswere all covered, and when strips of cloth had been bound about them,holding them fast, the ropes were taken from me, and I was permittedto rise. From that day all my pain ceased, and soon only the scarswhich thou hast seen, O Light of my Life, remained as a witness of themerciful deed of the gruff man with the yellow hair and beard."
"Remarkable! Most remarkable!"
This time when the little Limping Boy turned at the interruption, hesaw the Princess coming from the shrubbery, eagerly dragging after herby the hand a large man in whose yellow hair and beard there were somestreaks of gray.
"Oh, Toots!" called out the Princess, as they approached the doorof the Elephant House, "here's papa. We heard your translation ofMahmoud's story, and it's wonderful. I told papa you could do it, buthe wouldn't believe it till his own ears convinced him."
"And so you're Toots," said the Princess' father. "My little daughtersays that you translate the talk of the animals. Hum, ha, where didyou get that story about the elephant skin-grafting you've just beentelling?"
"Why, papa," said the Princess, reproachfully, "he got it from Mahmoud."
"Hum, ha," grunted the large man to himself, "the boy got it from theKeeper--probably the same one that took me out to Bridgeport for thatcase in Barnum's menagerie. Hum, ha, let's see, that was six years agolast 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 doesyour father do?"
"My father is dead, sir."
"Poor boy! Hum, ha. What does your mother do?"
"Makes embroidery, sir."
"Any brothers or sisters?"
"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 wastalking to himself. He stood with his back against the rail in frontof Mahmoud's stall. The old elephant was acting strangely. At everyexclamation of "hum, ha," he would flap his ears and move a step nearerthe large man.
"Hum, ha," mused the large man gruffly, again, as he took off his hatto wipe the perspiration from his brow, over which swept the grayishyellow locks. Instantly Mahmoud gave one of his little squeals ofdelight and began fondling the large man with the tip of his trunk.
"Why, he remembers you, sir," said Toots. "Or else he mistakes you forthe surgeon who mended his trunk."
"Hum, ha, he doesn't mistake me, boy. I am the surgeon who mendedhis trunk. I flatter myself that it was the first case of elephantskin-grafting ever attempted. Hum, ha." And having closely inspectedthe scars on the old elephant's proboscis, the large man said "hum,ha," several more times, evidently with great satisfaction, then saidto Toots:
"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 ashis voice 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 anythingso easy as making Toots' leg an inch and a half longer, and noticedMahmoud--"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 acouple of weeks, after which you go out on my farm with my littledaughter and stay till you can jump up and crack your heels togethertwice. Hum, ha. Tell your mother to bring you to the hospital at threeo'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 thePrincess' father.
It all happened exactly according to the promise of the gruff man withthe gentle hands--a little dream of pain in his leg, then two weeks onhis back in the hospital bed, where the Princess visited him daily withall sorts of dainties, and then, when he could walk about a bit, a longjourney into the country.
There, in the bright sunshine, with the birds and butterflies glancingall 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 getalong so gloriously that he could hardly make himself believe that hewas the same boy at all. And for this great blessing, which in all hislife he had never dared hope for, Toots felt from the very bottom ofhis heart that he was indebted to the friendship and intimacy which hehad come to have with old Mahmoud.
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