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In the story you have just read, an old rabbit learned a lesson. In this story a baby elephant learned that her very best joke was not funny at all.
Tippy was a gray baby elephant who lived in the circus with Mother Elephant.
“Why, oh why, do they call me Tippy?” asked the baby elephant one day.
“Because you tip around so,” said her mother.
“You put your front feet down so hard that you always tip up behind. And when you go down on your hind feet, you always tip up in front.”
“But I like tipping that way,” said Tippy Elephant, jumping around in the straw.
Now there was another thing that Tippy liked to do. It was to stamp hard with her right front foot.
Splash, splash, it would go as Tippy stepped into the water when her keeper brought her a drink. Smash , smash, it would go as she stamped on a wooden box. Bang , bang, it would go as she smashed a little boy's balloon .
“Oh, dear me,” said Mother Elephant. “I wish you would be a quiet baby elephant and play in the straw!”
“But it is more fun to play tricks with my foot,” said Tippy Elephant, and she looked around for something more to stamp on.
One day Tippy took a man's straw hat off his head.Smash, smash, went the hat as Tippy Elephant's heavy foot stamped d own on it.
“Oh, you are a naughty baby!” cried Mrs. Elephant, looking at the smashed hat.
Almost every day after that, when some kind man gave Tippy Elephant a peanut or an apple, she would take off his hat with her trunk . Stamp, stamp—and it would be smashed flat by her frisky front foot. How Tippy would laugh!
“We shall have to sell that baby elephant if she does not stop being so frisky,” said her keeper one day.
“Did you hear that?” whispered Mrs. Elephant to her child. “You will have to stop smashing straw hats, or you cannot stay in this circus.”
“But it is fun being frisky with my foot!” cried Tippy again. Then one, two, three hats were smashed before the keeper could stop her.
One day Tippy had a happy thought. “If boys and girl s come to see me, why can't I go to visit them?” she said to herself. So she started off to make a call.
Down through the field went Tippy. Now and then she stopped to stamp her right front foot on a daisy . Once she stopped and smashed a tin can. Last of all, she tried to step on the tail of a cow that was lying under a tree.
“ Moo , moo!” said the cow, jumping up and running away.
“She does not want to play with me,” thought Tippy, hurrying across the field. “I'll look over this fence and see what I can find.” And she did.
In the yard she saw a girl and boy playing in their sand pile.
“I'll go in and visit them,” said Tippy to herself, and in through the gate she walked.
“Oh, look! look!” cried the girl, jumping up from the sand pile and running toward the house as fast as she could.
“Why, it's a baby elephant coming to play with us,” said the boy. He ran toward the house, too, and stood beside his sister.
“I'll make myself at home,” thought Tippy.
Then what do you think she did? She put her frisky front foot down on some nice sand cakes that the children had made!
“Oh, please don't smash our sand cakes,” called the girl.
But Tippy did not listen. Smash! Smash! She stepped on the tin sand pail .
“Oh!” said the boy. “There are some peanuts in the house. Perhaps if we give the elephant some of them, she will stop smashing things.”
The children ran into the house and brought out the peanuts.
Tippy was a very polite elephant as she stepped up and took a peanut with her trunk. Each time she took one, she made a bow to the children.
“These are very nice children,” thought Tippy. “I think I will play with them.”
While she was eating the peanuts, she would reach out her frisky right front foot and smash a sand pie or step on the pail. Once she stamped right down on a poor little doll.
“Let's give this elephant a present ,” said the boy. “Then maybe she will forget about smashing things.”
“She may have my old straw hat,” said the girl. So she ran into the house and brought back a pretty hat with a red flower on one side of it.
Tippy Elephant put her head down while the girl tied the hat on.
“Oh, she looks lovely ,” said the girl, as Tippy bowed her head to show that she was thanking the children.
Tippy was so pleased with her hat that she started for home at once. “I can hardly wait to show Mother Elephant my beautiful hat,” thought the baby elephant as she went tipping back through the field to the circus.
“Oh, how sweet you look, Tippy dear,” said Mrs. Elephant, when she saw her child.
Tippy Elephant turned slowly around to show her mother how very pretty the hat was.
Two monkeys came hurrying up to look at it, and a giraffe put his head down to smell the red flower.
Soon Tippy's keeper heard about the new hat and came to see it.
“What a nice baby elephant she would be,” he thought, “if she did not have that frisky foot.”
At that minute Tippy Elephant reached out her trunk, took the keeper's straw hat from his head, and threw it down on the ground. And then—what do you think happened?
Just as Tippy Elephant
raised
her frisky foot, her own hat fell off. Smash! Smash! She came stamping down on the lovely hat with the red flower on it.
“Oh, my beautiful hat is smashed!” cried Tippy.
The elephant keeper, the giraffe, the monkeys, and Mrs. Elephant all looked sadly at the poor smashed hat and felt sorry for Tippy.
“It is too bad,” said Mrs. Elephant. “But, Tippy, I do hope this will teach you a lesson. Now you know how people
feel
when you stamp on their hats.”
“Yes, Mother,” said Tippy, with
tears
in her eyes, as she looked at her hat on the ground. “I'll never do any more smashing. Never!”
And now all the circus animals and the elephant keeper love Tippy. All the people who come to the circus are very fond of her. Tippy is still a frisky little elephant, but she never smashes pails or tin cans or hats.
1. There are three parts to this story. They are named “Tippy Learns a Lesson,”“Tippy Goes Visiting,”and“Tippy Elephant's Tricks.”Which part comes first? Which part comes second? Which part comes last?
2. How did Tippy Elephant feel when she smashed people's hats?
3. How did she feel when her own hat was smashed?
4. What lesson did Tippy learn?