Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-07-28
HOW TO SCARE AN ELEPHANT.

HOW TO SCARE AN ELEPHANT.
Bobolo was only eight years old, but
he was a person of considerable impor-
tance nevertheless; for his father was a
King, and consequently he was a Prince.
It is true that his father was only King
Of a Kaffir tribe of negroes in Africa,
but, as he knew nothing about the
great world away from the part of AZ
RIGA he lived in, he fancied himself the
greatest man in the world.
If Bobolo had not been a Prince, he
might have been a very nice boy, but,
as it was, he was so spoiled by being
petted and told he was better than any
other boy that he made himself so dis.
agreeable that nobody could love him.
But that fact did not make much diff
ference to Bobolo, for he never knew it,
because nobody dared to say it. He
had a great many slaves of about his
own age, and he made them his COM
panions.
When he was in a good humor he
would treat these little slaves very
well, but when he was cross-which
was most of the time-ne would slash
right and left among them with a lit
tie whip which he had which was made
of the tough hide of the hippopotamus.
Sometimes he did not even wait until
he was cross to whip his little compan-
ions; but would cut away at their bare
legs just for the fun, as he said, of see
ing them dance, for, though Bobolo was
not very strong, his whip was very hard
and he knew how to use it.
Among the slave boys, the strongest
and quickest was Kami. He was ayear
older than Bobolo, and wfs as kind and
obliging as any boy could be. These
good qualities did not make Bobolo
treat him any better than he did the
others. On the contrary, Kami seemed
to catch the whip oftener than ANYBODY
else. The reason for this was not that.
Bobolo disliked him, but because he
liked him. He wanted Kami with him
all the time; and so when he was angry
poor Kami was sure to be near, and
consequently was the easiest to beat.
And what made it harder to bear was
that the boys in Africa do not wear any
clothes, and so there was nothing be-
tween Kami's skin and the whip.
One night when the boys were going
to bed-Kami slept in the same room
with Bobolo-Bobolo felt cross and
would not be satisfied with anything
that was done for him. 1t made him
crosser still to see how contented Kami
looked, so he took up his whip and sud-
denly struck him. Kami gave a great
jump and cried out with pain.
"What's the matter with you?" said
Bobolo.
"You hurt me-" sobbed Kami, rub
bling the place where he had been hit.
"Hurt you!" Knocked Bobolo, strik-
ing him again. "You big baby! Now
you've something to cry for. Wouldn't
cry for a little thing like that!'
"Nobody ever struck you," sobbed
Kami; ''you don't know how it hurts"
II should think mott" cried Bobolo,
with a sheer. "Strike me! a Prince.
But know 1 wouldn't cry, anyhow!"
Kami did not answer again, for he
knew it might only bring him another
blow with the whip. He quietly laid
himself down and prepared to sleep.
But Bobolo was not sleepy, and he
would not have Kami be so. He snarled
like a little dog:
sect out of there! You can lie on the
ground tonight; 1 want your bed!"
Kami knew it would do no good to
complain; so he quietly got up, lodged
q blow of the whip, and waited patient
" until his ugly master should lie down.
Bobolo scolded a little while, and then
took his place in Kami's bed.
1t did not matter much to Kami, for
his bed was only an antelope skin, and
he could sleep Just as well on the
ground. He would have gone to Bob
olo's bed, but he did not dare; so he
crouched down in one corner of the
room, and before long both he and his
master were fast asleep.
Late that night there was a sudden
commotion in the village. Somebody
had given the alarm that elephants were
coming; and the whole village was
reused in an instant.
We who live in great cities far from
wild beasts can not at first see why the
coming of elephants should create such
a Stir; but when it is known how the ne
groes live, we a understand better.
Their huts are small and frail, and the
only protection the villages have against
the thousands Of wild beasts in the for
ests round about is a slight fence of
wood and vines. This does fairly well
to keep out the smaller animals; but
when a herd of elephants, each one as
big, and even bigger than Jumbo comes
marching along, the fence is no more to
them than a sheet of tissue paper would
!Ae to a man.
1t is notthat the elephants are wicked
and wish to do any harm, but because
they are SO huge that they do not think
anything of crashing through a
village than a thoughtless child does of
putting its foot on a tiny ants nest. So
when the alarm was given this NIGHT.
every man and woman in the VILLAGE
rushed out, shouting and SCREAMING.
some ~r7nning this way and some that
n men at once caught up blazing
torches from the fire to throw at the
elephants, because they knew that the
great creatures are afraid of flames.
Ihe women, at first, did not seem to
know what to do, but suddenly one Of
them cried out: "The childrenl tho
ohildren!" 'ne
You might have thought, to hear
them, that they were afraid some harm
might happen to the Little ones; but il