Rice Fields

THE WONDERS OF THE JUNGLE

CHAPTER I

The Midnight Pool

My dear, I shall tell you all about the wonders of the jungle. You have seen many animals in the zoo or in a circus—elephants, bears, lions, tigers, leopards, and many others. But the jungle is the place where these animals live before they are brought to the zoo or the circus.

In fact, jungle really means a wild place; that is, a place where trees and bushes grow quite wild, so that men never cut down the trees or clear away the bushes. That is the natural home for all sorts of animals.

Now I am going to tell you about the wonderful way in which they live there with their families, as we do in our homes; for the Papas and Mammas among the animals are just as fond of their children as ours are. So you must imagine that you are going into the jungle with me, so that I can show you everything. You see, it is just like a game of pretending, that we are going to play.

There is actually a place in the jungle where you can see all the animals at once. In fact, that place is so wonderful that King George and Queen Mary of England went to see it; that was a few years ago, when they went to India, which is a far-away country. For in India there is a huge jungle where many thousands of animals live.

So you must pretend that I am taking you to the Royal party, and that you are sitting with the King and Queen and all the fine men and lovely ladies; and we are watching the animals, while I tell you all about them.

First, I must tell you that it is midnight, and all the animals are coming to a stream of water to drink. This stream is a river about twice as wide as a large street in your home town. We are sitting on the bank, on one side of the stream; and the animals are coming to drink on the bank on the other side.

"But," you may say, "will not the animals see us across the stream, and get frightened and run away?"

That is quite true. But the King and Queen had thought of that. So they ordered a lot of men to put a large net on their side of the stream, just in front of them, and then to cover the net with twigs and leaves so cleverly that the animals thought the leaves were a part of the jungle, and did not see the people on the other side of the net.

So the King and Queen, and you and I, can peep quietly through the leaves and watch the animals. Almost all wild animals drink at midnight; so we shall see them now.

Where will the animals come from? You see the stream before us; well, on the other side of it is the jungle, where the animals live. Right in front of us we see a gap in the jungle close to the bank. That gap was made by elephants by beating down the bushes with their feet. They made it long ago to come to the water, and now they use it every night. In fact, it is known among the jungle folks as the Elephant Path; for no other animal would dare to use it before the elephants did.

The elephants, being the biggest of all animals, are the lords of the jungle; so they have the right to come first to drink. They are also the wisest of all animals. You have seen many kinds of animals—elephants, horses, dogs, monkeys, and others—do funny