THE ELEPHANTS AND THE ORANGES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2439, 30 October 1886, Page 2

THE ELEPHANTS AND THE ORANGES.

In his "kayos from tho Life of a Special Mr O'Shoa gives t!io'following anecdote of an advonturo with' a" herd of olcphants:-" A young friend itskod ma onco to allow him some elephants, and I took him with mo, having'Bret borrowed an apron and filled it with oranges. This he was to carry while accompanying mo in the stable, but the moment we reached tho dour tho herd set up such a trumpeting—they had smelt the fruit—that hu' dropped tho apron and its contents, and scuttled olf ■liko a scared rabbit. There wore oight elephants, and when I picked up tho oranges I found 1 had twenty-live. I walked deliberately along tho lino giving one to ouch; when I motto tho extremity of tho nanciwr stable I turned, and was about to bop the distribution again, when 1 suddenly refloctod that if elephant No. 7 in tho row saw ma givo ■two oranges in succession to No, 8, ho might imagine ho. was being cheated, and give mo a smack with his probosois-that is where the elephant falls short of tho human being-so I wont to the door and hegau rfo hum ns before. Thrice i .went along tho lino, and then 1 was in a fix. I had ono orango loft, and 1 had to get back to tho door. Every olopliaut in the hord i had its greedy gaze focusaedon that orange. It was as much as my life waß worth to give it to any ono of them. 1 hold it up eanspicioufily, coolly pealod it and sucked it myself. It war most amusing to notice tho way those elephants nudged oauh other and stank their pouderous sides, 'fhoy thoroughly entered into the humour of tho thing. •