PUTTING AN ELEPHANT TO BED.
MOTHER elephant had her trunk around her baby's neck, and seemed to be whispering, as he rubbed his head against her knee. He stood a moment, and then trotted off by his mother's side to the center of the yard. There she left him and went to a pile of hay that stood in the corner; this she took up, bunch by bunch, with her trunk, so nicely that she did not drop a wisp of it, and spread it around her child, who had not stirred from the spot where she had left him. When the hay had been spread all around the baby, the mother stepped into the center and began to tread it down with her feet, the little one following her motions exactly, till a perfectly even space had been trodden down; then mama elephant stepped out again, went to the further side of the yard, and fumbled about the ground with her trunk. As she came back her baby flourished his small trunk and flapped his ears, making at the same time a soft grunting sound, as if he knew what was coming and liked it. This time mama stood outside the baby's bed and, beginning with the back of his ears, blew a small cloud of fine dust into the folds of skin behind them; then into those around his legs and under him, till he was thoroughly powdered for the night. This done, she again put her trunk about his body, the little fellow dropped to his knees on a carefully-trodden bed, and he lay as a well-trained child of the elephant family should lie. The mother15took up delicately the hay from the edge of the bed and began tossing it lightly along his sides and up toward his back, till its ridge no longer showed. When all was done a small girl who was looking on heaved a great sigh, and, turning to me, said: "I would like to know what they do it for!" So I told her, explaining the habit wild animals have of treading their beds to make sure there are no snakes in the grass; the necessity of dust-powdering the young, whose skin is tender in the folds, and who are troubled by insects; the piling up of the dry grass around them to conceal them through the night from the hunter.—Northwestern Christian Advocate.