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Books at bedtime by Calming Anxiety, the Elephants Room by Rudyard Kipling.

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In the high and far off times, the elephant, O best beloved, had no trunk.

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He had only a blackish, boldly nose, as big as a boot, that he could wiggle about from

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side to side.

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But he couldn't pick up things with it.

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There was one elephant, a new elephant, an elephant's child, who was full of satiable curiosity,

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and that means he asked ever so many questions.

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And he lived in Africa, and he filled all Africa with his satiable curiosities.

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He asked his tall aunt, the ostrich, why her tail feathers grew just so.

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And his tall aunt, the ostrich, spanked him with her hard claw.

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He asked his tall uncle, the giraffe, what made his skin spotty?

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And his tall uncle, the giraffe, spanked him with his hard, hard hoof.

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And still, he was full of satiable curiosity.

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He asked his broad aunt, the hit papotomers, why her eyes were red, and his broad aunt, the

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hip papotomers, spanked him with her broad, broad hoof.

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And he asked his hairy uncle, the baboon, why melons tasted just so.

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And his hairy uncle, the baboon, spanked him with his hairy, hairy paw.

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And still, he was full of satiable curiosity.

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He asked questions about everything that he saw, or heard, or felt, or smelt, or touched,

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and all his uncles and his aunt, spanked him.

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And still, he was full of satiable curiosity.

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And fine morning, in the middle of the procession of the equinoxes, this satiable elephant's

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child asked a new fine question that he had never asked before.

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He asked, "What does the crocodile have for dinner?"

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Then everybody said, "Push!" in a loud and dreadful tone.

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And they spanked him immediately and directly, without stopping for a long time.

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I and by, when that was finished.

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He came upon co-lo, co-lo, the bird sitting in the middle of a weight-a-bit thorn bush,

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and he said, "My father has spanked me, and my mother has spanked me.

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All my aunts and uncles have spanked me for my satiable curiosity.

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And still I want to know, what does the crocodile have for its dinner?"

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Then the co-lo, co-lo, bird said, "With a mournful cry.

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Go to the banks of the great grey green, greasy limpo-po river, all set about with the fever

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trees and find out."

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That very next morning, when there was nothing left of the equinoxes, because the procession

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had proceeded according to the precedent.

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This satiable elephant's child took a hundred pounds of bananas, a little short red kind,

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and a hundred pounds of sugar cane, a long purple kind, and seventeen melons, the greeny,

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crackly kind, and said to all his dear friends, "Goodbye.

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I am going to the great grey green, greasy limpo-po river, all set about with the fever trees.

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To find out what the crocodile has for dinner, and they all spanked him once more for luck,

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though he did ask the most politely to stop."

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Then he went away, a little warm, but not at all astonished, eating melons and throwing

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the rind about, because he could not pick it up.

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He went from Graham's town to Kimberley, and from Kimberley to Carmer's country.

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And from Carmer's country, he went east by north, eating melons all the time.

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Till at last he came to the banks of the great grey green, greasy limpo-po river, all set

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about with the fever trees, precisely as the cola-cola bird had said.

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Now, you must know and understand, O best beloved, that till that very week, and day, and hour,

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and minute, this "sachable elephant's child" had never seen a crocodile, and did not know

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what one was like.

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It was all his sachable curiosity.

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The first thing that he found was a bicolored python-rocksnake, curled around a rock.

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"Excuse me," said the elephant's child most politely, "but have you seen such a thing

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as a crocodile in these promiscuous parts?"

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"Have I seen a crocodile?" said the bicolored python-rocksnake in a voice of dreadful

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scorn.

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"What will you ask of me next?"

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"Excuse me," said the elephant's child, "but could you kindly tell me what he has for

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his dinner?"

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Then, the bicolored python-rocksnake, and coiled himself very quickly from the rock, and

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spanked the elephant's child with his scales and flails and tail.

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"That is old," said the elephant's child, "because my father and my mother and my uncle

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and my aunt, not to mention my other aunt, the hippopotamus, and my other uncle, the baboon,

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all spanked me for the vseishbul curiosity, and I suppose this is the same thing."

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So he said goodbye, very politely, to the bicolored python-rocksnake, and helped to coil him

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up on the rock again, and went on a little warm, but not at all astonished, eating melons,

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and throwing the rind about, because he could not pick it up.

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Settily trod on what he thought was a log of wood at the very edge of the great green,

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greasy limpo-po river, all set about with fever trees.

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"But it was rarely the crocodile, oh best beloved, and the crocodile winked one eye, like this."

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"Excuse me," said the elephant's child most politely, "but do you happen to have seen a crocodile

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in these promiscuous parts?"

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Then, the crocodile winked the other eye, and lifted half his tail out of the mud, and the

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elephant's child stepped back most politely, because he did not wish to be spanked again.

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"Come, hither, little one," said the crocodile.

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"Why, do you ask such things?"

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"Excuse me," said the elephant's child most politely, "but my father has spanked me,

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my mother has spanked me, not to mention my tall aunt the ostrich, and my tall uncle that

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you're off, who can even kick ever so hard, as well as my broad aunt the hippopotamus,

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and my hairy uncle, the baboon, and, including the bicolored python-roxnate, with the scales

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and flails and tail, just up the bank, who spanks harder than any of them, and so, if it's

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quite all the same to you, I don't want to be spanked anymore."

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"Come, hither, little one," said the crocodile.

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"For I am the crocodile," and he wept crocodile tears to show that it was quite true.

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"Then, the elephant's child grew all dressless and panted, and kneel down on the bank and

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said, 'You are the very person I've been looking for all these long days.

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Will you please tell me what it is you have for dinner?'

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"Come, hither, little one," said the crocodile, and I whisper.

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"The elephant's child put his head down close to the crocodile's musky, tusky mouth, and

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the crocodile caught him by his little nose, which up to that very weak day, hour, and minute,

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had been no bigger than a boot, though much more useful."

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I think said the crocodile, and he said it between his teeth like this.

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I think today I will begin with the elephant's child.

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At this, O best beloved, the elephant's child was much annoyed, and he said speaking through

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his nose like this, "Let go, you are hurting me."

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Then the bi-cullard python rocks name scuffle down the bank and said, "My young friend, if

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you do not now know, immediately and instantly, pull as hard as you ever can.

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It is my opinion that your acquaintance in the large pattern leather ulster, and by this

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he meant the crocodile.

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Will jerk you into yonder limpid stream before you can say Jack Robinson?"

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This is the way bi-cullard python rocks snakes always talk.

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Then the elephant's child sat back on its little haunches, and pulled and pulled and pulled,

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and his nose began to stretch, and the crocodile flounded in the water, making it all creamy

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with great sweeps of its tail, and he pulled and pulled.

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And the elephant's child knows kept on stretching, and the elephant's child spread all his

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little four legs, and pulled and pulled, and pulled, and his nose kept on stretching, and

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the crocodile threshed his tail like an ore, and he pulled and pulled and pulled, and

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as each pull, the elephant's child knows grew longer and longer, and it hurt him.

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Then the elephant's child felt his legs slipping, and he said through his nose, which was now

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nearly five feet long.

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This is too much for me.

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Then the bi-cullard python rocks snake came down from the bank, and knotted himself in a

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double-cloth hitch around the elephant's child's hind legs, and said, "Rash an inexperienced

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traveler, you will now seriously devote ourselves to a little high tension, because if we do

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not, it is my impression that Yonder's self-propelling man of war with the armoured plate up a

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deck, and by this, I best beloved, he meant the crocodile, will permanently vitiate your future

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career."

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That is the way all bi-cullard python rocks snakes always talk.

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So he pulled, and the elephant's child pulled, and the crocodile pulled, but the elephant's

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child, and the bi-cullard python rocks snake pulled hardest, and it last, the crocodile let

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go of the elephant's child's nose with a plop that you could hear all up and down the

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limpo-poo.

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Then, the elephant's child sat down most hard and sudden, but first he was careful to say,

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"Thank you" to the bi-cullard python rocks snake, and next he was kind to his poor pulled

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nose, and ruptured all up in a cool banana leaf, and hung it in the great, green, green,

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greasy limpo-poo to cool.

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What are you doing? That form said the bi-cullard python rocks snake.

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"Excuse me," said the elephant's child, "but my nose is badly out of shape, and I am waiting

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for it to shrink."

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"Then you will have to wait a long time," said the bi-cullard python rocks snake.

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Some people do not know what is good for them.

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The elephant's child sat there for three days, waiting for his nose to shrink, but it

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never grew any shorter, and besides, it made him squint.

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Four, O best beloved, you will see and understand that the crocodile had pulled it out into

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a really, truly, trunk, same as all elephants have today.

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At the end of the third day, a fly came and stung him on the shoulder, and before he

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knew what he was doing, he lifted up his trunk and hit that fly dead with the end of it.

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Vantage number one said the bi-cullard python rocks snake.

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You couldn't have done that with a mere smear nose.

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Try and eat a little now.

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Before he thought what he was doing, the elephant's child put out his trunk and plucked a large

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bundle of grass, dusted it clean against his forelegs, and stuffed it into his own mouth.

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Vantage number two said the bi-cullard python rocks snake.

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You couldn't have done that with a mere smear nose.

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Don't you think the very sun is hot today?

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"It is," said the elephant's child.

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And before he thought what he was doing, he scooped up a scoop of mud from the banks of

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the great grey-green greasy limpo poe and slapped it on his head, where it made a cool,

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schlupy, sloshy mud cap all trickly behind his ears.

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Vantage number three said the bi-cullard python rocks snake.

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You couldn't have done that with a mere smear nose.

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Now, how do you feel about being spanked again?

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"Excuse me," said the elephant's child, but I should not light it at all.

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"How would you like to spank somebody?" said the bi-cullard python rocks snake.

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"I should like it very much indeed," said the elephant's child.

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"Well," said the bi-cullard python rocks snake.

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You will find that your new nose of yours very useful to spank people with.

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"Thank you."

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"Sid the elephant's child."

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"I'll remember that, and now I think I'll go home to all my dear family and friends,

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and try."

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So the elephant's child went home across Africa, frisking and whisking his trunk.

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When he wanted fruit to eat, he pulled fruit down from a tree, instead of waiting for it

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for as he used to do.

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When he wanted grass, he plucked grass up from the ground, instead of going on his knees

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as he used to do.

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When the flies bit, he broke off a branch of a tree and used it as a flywass, and he made

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himself a new, cool, slushy, squishy mudcap whenever the sun was hot.

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When he felt lonely walking through Africa, he sang to himself down his trunk, and the noise

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was louder than several brass bands.

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He went especially out of his way to find a broad hippopotamus.

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He was no relation of his, and he spanked her very hard to make sure that the bicolored python

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rocks snake had spoken the truth about his new trunk.

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The rest of the time, he picked up melon rinds that he had dropped on his way to the

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hippopot, but he was a tidy peckiderm.

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One dark evening, he came back to his dear family, and he coiled up his trunk and said, "How

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do you do?"

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They were very glad to see him, and immediately said, "Come here and be spanked for your

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sociable curiosity."

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"Who?" said the elephant's child.

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"I don't think you people know anything about spanking, but I do, and I'll show you."

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Then he uncouled his trunk, and knocked two of his dear brother head over heels.

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"O bananas," said they, "where did you learn that trick?

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And what have you done to your nose?"

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I got a new one from the crocodile on the banks of the great grey, green, greasy, limpopo

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river, said the elephant's child.

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I asked him what he had for dinner, and he gave me this to keep.

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"It looks very ugly," said his hairy uncle, baboon.

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"It does," said the elephant's child, "but it is very useful."

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And he picked up his hairy uncle, the baboon, by one hairy leg, and hoved him into the horn

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its nest.

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Then, that bad elephant's child spanked all his dear families for a long time, till

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they were very warm and greatly astonished.

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He pulled out his tall, ostrich aunt's tail feathers, and he caught his tall uncle, the

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giraffe, by the hind leg, and tracked him through a thorn bush.

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And he shouted at his broad aunt, the hippopotamus, and blue bubbles into her ears when she was

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sleeping in the water after meals.

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But he never let anyone touch co-lo co-lo the bird.

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At last things grew so exciting that his dear families went off one by one in a hurry to

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the banks of the great grey, green, greasy, limpopo river, all set about with fever trees.

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To borrow new noses from the crocodile.

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And they came back, nobody spanked anybody anymore.

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And ever since that day, who best beloved all the elephants that you will ever see, besides

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all those that you won't, have trunks precisely like the trunk of the sasiable elephant's

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child.

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I keep six honest serving men.

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They taught me all I knew.

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My names are what and where and when, and how and why and whom.

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I send them over land and sea, I send them east and west.

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But after they have worked for me, I give them all the rest.

212
00:19:58,780 --> 00:20:06,180
I let them rest from nine till five, for I am busy then, as well as breakfast, lunch and

213
00:20:06,180 --> 00:20:10,260
tea, for they are hungry men.

214
00:20:10,260 --> 00:20:15,820
All the different folk have different views, I know a person small.

215
00:20:15,820 --> 00:20:21,620
She keeps ten million serving men who get no rest at all.

216
00:20:21,620 --> 00:20:27,900
She sends them abroad on her own affairs, for the second she opens her eyes.

217
00:20:27,900 --> 00:20:33,620
One million house, two million wheres and seven million whys.

218
00:20:34,460 --> 00:20:43,620