So he pulled , and the Elephant 's Child pulled , and the Crocodile pulled ; but the Elephant 's Child and the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake pulled hardest ; and at last the Crocodile let go of the Elephant 's Child 's nose with a plop that you could hear all up and down the Limpopo . Then the Elephant 's Child sat down most hard and sudden ; but first he was careful to say ` Thank you ' to the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake ; and next he was kind to his poor pulled nose , and wrapped it all up in cool banana leaves , and hung it in the great grey-green , greasy Limpopo to cool . ` What are you doing that for ? ' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake . '' Scuse me , ' said the Elephant 's Child , ` but my nose is badly out of shape , and I am waiting for it to shrink . ` Then you will have to wait a long time , said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake . ` Some people do not know what is good for them . ' The Elephant 's Child sat there for three days waiting for his nose to shrink . But it never grew any shorter , and , besides , it made him squint . For , O Best Beloved , you will see and understand that the Crocodile had pulled it out into a really truly trunk same as all Elephants have to-day . At the end of the third day a fly came and stung him on the shoulder , and before he knew what he was doing he lifted up his trunk and hit that fly dead with the end of it . '' Vantage number one ! ' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake . ` You could n't have done that with a mere-smear nose . Try and eat a little now . ' Before he thought what he was doing the Elephant 's Child put out his trunk and plucked a large bundle of grass , dusted it clean against his fore-legs , and stuffed it into his own mouth . ` Vantage number two ! ' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake . ` You could n't have done that with a mear-smear nose . Do n't you think the sun is very hot here ? '
` It is , ' said the Elephant 's Child , and before he thought what he was doing he schlooped up a schloop of mud from the banks of the great grey-green , greasy XXXXX , and slapped it on his head , where it made a cool schloopy-sloshy mud-cap all trickly behind his ears .
Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake Crocodile Elephants Limpopo days first fore-legs grey-green plop time