''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child most politely, 'but do you
happen to have seen a Crocodile in these promiscuous parts?'

Then the Crocodile winked the other eye, and lifted half his tail
out of the mud; and the Elephant's Child stepped back most
politely, because he did not wish to be spanked again.

'Come hither, Little One,' said the Crocodile. 'Why do you ask
such things?'

''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child most politely, 'but my
father has spanked me, my mother has spanked me, not to mention
my tall aunt, the Ostrich, and my tall uncle, the Giraffe, who
can kick ever so hard, as well as my broad aunt, the
Hippopotamus, and my hairy uncle, the Baboon, and including the
Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, with the scalesome, flailsome
tail, just up the bank, who spanks harder than any of them; and
so, if it's quite all the same to you, I don't want to be spanked
any more.'

'Come hither, Little One,' said the Crocodile, 'for I am the
Crocodile,' and he wept crocodile-tears to show it was quite
true.

Then the Elephant's Child grew all breathless, and panted, and
kneeled down on the bank and said, 'You are the very person I
have been looking for all these long days. Will you please tell
me what you have for dinner?'

'Come hither, Little One,' said the Crocodile, 'and I'll