"I wonder what this wheel and rope are for?" said the Elephant to the
Nodding Donkey.
"I don't know, I'm sure," brayed the nodding toy.
Just then the wheel turned slowly, and the long, dangling rope swayed to
and fro.
"I wonder what that is for!" went on the Elephant. Like most animals he
was curious about something he did not understand, just as your cat or
dog will try to find out what causes a strange noise.
"Why don't you reach up with your trunk and feel it?" asked the Donkey.
"I have heard you say your trunk was almost like a hand to you."
"It is," the Elephant answered. "I will feel the rope and wheel and see
what it is like."
As the children were in another part of the barn, having fun in the
haymow, and as there were no prying eyes to watch, the Elephant could do
as he pleased. He raised his trunk and stretched it toward the dangling
rope.
And then, all of a sudden, something happened. The rope turned and
twisted like a snake, a loop of it wound around the Elephant's neck, and
a moment later he felt himself being lifted off the barn floor in the
hempen coils. Through the air, like the pendulum of a big clock, he
swayed, and as the rope pulled tighter and tighter the poor Elephant
cried:
"Oh, my dear friend Nodding Donkey! I am in a terrible state! The rope
is so tight it is squeezing all the cotton stuffing out of me! Oh, what
shall I do?"
CHAPTER VI
A DANGEROUS SLIDE
Anxious as the Nodding Donkey was to help his friend the Stuffed
Elephant, nothing could be done.
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