Long, long ago, elephants did not have trunks. They had lumpy black noses instead.
At that time, a very little elephant lived with his family in Africa. The little elephant asked questions about everything.
He asked Aunt Ostrich why her tail feathers grew the way they did. Aunt ostrich said,” Oh, Little Elephant! Go on your way!”
He asked Uncle Giraffe why he had spots. Uncle giraffe said ,” What a silly question, young man”.
One morning, the little elephant asked the bird “What does the crocodile eat for dinner?” The bird said,” You ask too many questions! Go to the river and find out for yourself”.
Little Elephant had never seen a crocodile before, but off he went to find one. Just as Little Elephant got to the river — THUNK! — he tripped over a log. At least, that’s what he thought he tripped over. But the log turned out to be the wily crocodile himself.
Crocodile showed Little Elephant his large toothy mouth. LITTLE ELEPHANT asked “Excuse me. Have you seen a crocodile around here?” The crocodile replied, “I am a crocodile. What do you want?” The little elephant said, “Really? I’ve been looking for you!! Will you please answer my question: What do you eat for dinner?”. The crocodile replied,” Come here, little one. I’ll whisper the answer in your ear.” The Little Elephant got down on his knees, put his head near Crocodile’s large toothy mouth, and…
CHOMP! Crocodile grabbed Little Elephant by his lumpy black nose and said “I think I’ll eat a little elephant for dinner today!”
The little elephant said, “Ow! Let go! That hurts!”
A slithering snake heard Little Elephant holler. He stopped to see what was the matter. The snake told the elephant “ Well, Little Elephant, I s-s-see you’ve gotten yourself into a mes-s-s. Pull back! Pull back hard or Crocodile will drag you into the river and eat you!”
Hearing that, Little Elephant pulled back as hard as he could. He pulled so hard that his nose began to stretch. The harder he pulled, the longer his nose became. Suddenly, Little Elephant began slipping into the water. Snake quickly wrapped his body around Little Elephant and began to pull back too. The snake said, “Pull, Little Elephant. Pull!” The Crocodile pulled hard on Little Elephant’s nose. Little Elephant and Snake pulled back. Together, Snake and Little Elephant were stronger than Crocodile. Finally, Crocodile let go.
Little Elephant was saved from Crocodile. But his nose! His nose was now five feet long!
LITTLE ELEPHANT said, “Thank you, Snake. You saved my life! Now, I will sit here for a while and wait for my nose to shrink.”.
But Little Elephant’s nose didn’t shrink. Crocodile had pulled it into a long trunk! At first, Little Elephant was sad. But soon he discovered many ways to use his new nose.
LITTLE ELEPHANT said, “ Wow! That fly on my shoulder flew away when I hit it with my trunk. The snake said, “You could not have done that with a short nose”.
LITTLE ELEPHANT said “ Look! I can eat this big bunch of grass without bending down”. FROG said, “ You could not have done that with a short nose”.
LITTLE ELEPHANT said , “Hey! Watch me scoop up this cool mud and plop it on my head”. HIPPO said, “You could not have done that with a short nose”.
Little Elephant knew the animals were right. So he went home happily swinging his new trunk.
When he got there, his family was waiting. FATHER, MOTHER, AND SISTER ELEPHANT asked him, “Where did you get that long nose?”. LITTLE ELEPHANT said, “I got it from the Crocodile. He gave it to me to keep.
MOTHER ELEPHANT said, “I’m not sure I like it”
FATHER ELEPHANT said, “You don’t look like yourself, son”.
SISTER ELEPHANT said, “You look really weird!”.
LITTLE ELEPHANT said, “My new trunk might look strange, But please do not be fooled. From picking fruit to keeping cool, My trunk’s a very useful tool!”
When they saw how useful Little Elephant’s trunk was, all the elephants wanted one. One-by-one, they went to the river to get a new nose from the Crocodile.
And that’s why today, all elephants have trunks instead of lumpy noses.
My version of the Rudyard Kipling’s story ‘The elephant child’.
A storyteller's journey 