He put his head against the trunk of the tree and pushed. At first the
tree only swayed a little, as though blown by the wind. Then the
elephant boy, who was quite strong now, pushed harder and harder. Then
he drew back his head and struck the palm tree a hard blow.

And then, all of a sudden, over it went, the roots pulling loose from
the soft, wet ground. Over the tree went, falling with a crash!

"Ah ha!" laughed Umboo. "That's the way to do it! Keedah was right! It
is very easy to knock over a tree when the ground is soft and muddy.
Now for some good nuts to eat."

With his trunk Umboo pulled the palm nuts off the tree and stuffed
them into his mouth. An elephant's trunk is to him what your hands are
to you children.

After he had eaten as many of the nuts as he wanted (and you may be
sure that was quite a number, for elephants have big appetites) Umboo
tore off a large branch, with nuts clinging to it and started off
through the jungle with it.

"I'll take this back to the herd with me," he thought. "My mother or
father may like it. And I can show it to Keedah. He can tell by the
size of this branch that the tree I knocked over must be a big one.
Then I'll bring him here and show him the tree. I'm almost as big and
strong as he is."

So thinking, Umboo went on through the forest. Each tree, leaf and
vine was dripping water, for it was still raining hard. Steam arose
from the ground, for the earth was hot and the water was warm, as it