Page:Little elephant's picnic, (IA littleelephantsp00wash).pdf/26

 back to the bench where Grandpa had rested. "I'm sure this is where I sat," he said. But no pie was there.

"I'll go on to the next bench," said Little Elephant, and trotted ahead. He came around a bend in the path, and there on a bench he saw the hatbox. But a big tramp elephant was just lumbering up toward the seat.

"Oh, dear!" thought Little Elephant. "Suppose he should find out there's a pie in that box." So he ran as fast as he could to get there first. Just as the tramp elephant sat down on the bench Little Elephant skidded to a stop in front of him.

"Please, sir," he said, for Little Elephant could be very polite, "this is my mother's hatbox." And with that he picked it up in his trunk and ran off. His heart was beating very fast, but he had saved the custard pie.

When he got back Mother Elephant looked very sternly at Grandpa and Father Elephant, but she said Little Elephant was a good boy. "You can run and play now," she told him. "I'll call you when lunch is ready." So Little Elephant went off with his fish pole and sailboat.

"Be careful of your new sailor suit!" Mother Elephant called after him, "and don't go in the water."

Little Elephant soon found a bridge and for a long