Chapter Eight

How horrified they all were! They formed a circle around Poppet, their trunks held high out of the reach of the dreaded creature that he carried, and they shifted anxiously from foot to foot, fanning their great ears.

Poppet put the mouse carefully down upon the ground.

“This is Momo,” he said to Ooma and the aunties. “My friend, like I told you, Mum. I know I am only a child, but Momo is a grown-up, even though you may think he’s not grown very far. However, he has a grown-up brain, I can tell you, and he wishes to address you all, if you will be kind enough to listen to him.”

So astonished were the elephants, first to see Poppet carrying the mouse, and then to hear him make such a speech, that they stopped fidgeting and stood, silent, except for the rumbling of their tummies, which they couldn’t help.

Momo sat up on his hunkers.

“Ladies,” he said. “It is a great privilege to be allowed to speak to you, and,” he turned to face Ooma, “especially you, madam, the mother of a truly remarkable child.”

Elephants can’t blush, but if Ooma could have done, she would have done.

“Poppet,” the mouse went on, “is a name that all elephants will remember for all time, since it is he – with a little help from myself – who has been the first of his kind to discover that mice do not, never have, and never will run up the inside of elephants’ trunks. I call upon him now to conclude this historic day by offering to all of you the proof of what I have just said. So that none of you here, indeed none of your kind throughout the length and breadth of Africa, need ever again worry about meeting a mouse, trunk to face. Now Poppet, say your piece.”

“Mum,” said Poppet. “Do you love me?”

“Oh yes, Poppet,” said Ooma.

“Would you do anything for me?”

“Oh yes.”

“Then uncurl your trunk and stretch out the tip of it to Momo.”

“Oh no, Poppet! I couldn’t!”

“Courage, madam,” said Momo, while all the aunties cried, “Go on, Ooma!” safe in the knowledge that they didn’t have to do it.

“It’ll be all right, Mum,” said Poppet. “Honest.”

So very slowly, with her eyes tight shut, Ooma uncoiled her trunk and laid the tip of it on the ground, right beside the mouse. Momo peered up it, careful (remembering Poppet’s sneeze) not to touch it with his whiskers.

“Yuck!” he said softly.

Then he said to Ooma, “Thank you, madam. I appreciate your confidence and your courage, and I am filled with admiration for the undoubted beauty, strength and dexterity of your magnificent nasal appendage. I hope, however, that you will forgive me if I say that nothing in this world could ever persuade me to creep up your trunk.”

“I had a job to keep a straight face,” said Momo when the herd had moved away, shaking their great heads in wonder at what they had just seen and heard.

Ooma especially seemed quite overcome by what had happened, and when Poppet said to her, “Mum, can I stay and play with Momo?” she answered, “Yes, of course, dear,” as though hypnotized.

When they were alone, Poppet said “What shall we play? Can you think of a game?”

“Yes,” said Momo. “Put down your trunk and I’ll run up it.”

“Oh no!” cried Poppet. “You mean it’s true after all, what Mum told me? And I thought you were my friend!”

“I am,” said Momo. “Don’t get your trunk in a twist. I just want to run up the outside.”