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"Oh, there you are, are you?" said Peter. "The Doctor said in that lecture he gave us chaps that helephants is the most intelligent beasts there is more so than dogs that they get to understand all sorts of words that are spoken to them. That there phoonk, or whatever it was, sounded just like an answer to something I had said; but, of course, it couldn't be.
Oh, I see; it's that snake;" and catching up one of the spears which he had leaned up against the big door, he used it pitchfork fashion to the writhing reptile, and sent it flying upward on to the roof, for it to begin scuffling away amidst the leafy thatch. Phoonk! said the elephant; and he slowly turned himself as if upon a pivot, and extended his trunk to the coveted cake.
I got it too, but I'd a deal rather I'd had his topper and he'd had mine, and that's honest; for though he's a gentleman and I have only been a rough recruity, he's always been a good chap to me, and I never liked him so much as I do now when he's in such trouble. I wonder where poor Miss Minnie is." Phoonk! came from somewhere outside, and there was a rattling as of an iron chain.
Now, this was not regarded by the patient or the other servants as a strange thing, for they took it quite as a matter of course; and there is indeed no reason to doubt, that the natives of India frequently have recourse to jhar phoonk, or mesmerism, for the cure of rheumatism; but many interesting things arc carefully concealed from the English, because we invariably ridicule or sneer at native customs a mode of treatment peculiarly distasteful to the inhabitants of the East.
"There," he cried at last; "that's all you'll get, so you had better toddle." Hoomph! grunted the elephant. "What do you mean by that?" Phoonk! came in a hollow-sounding grunt. "Oh, why didn't you speak plain? Want water, do you? Can't spare any. My young governor wants a good wash. Go on down to the river. There's plenty there.
That was as far as Peter Pegg got, for he could not partake of so hearty a meal, after refreshing himself in a way that thoroughly quenched his thirst, without obeying Nature afterwards; and this he did, lying prone, fully stretched out, and not in the painful, cramping position of the previous night. "Hoomph! Phoonk!"
Phoonk! Then a peculiar squeal and grunting sound, and then once again, Phoonk! Peter Pegg started up into a sitting position, vacant of face and staring at the straightly streaked rays of sunshine that made their way through the plaited and latticed sides of the stable-like building in which he had dropped to sleep. "What's all that row?" he muttered. "Where am I?"
"What's that, Pete?" "Act like Bri'ish soldiers, sir," said the lad through his set teeth. "Hold the fort, and fight." At that moment the cry was more audible, and the elephant gave his ears a quicker flap and said, Phoonk! "Ain't it been a mistake, sir?" said Peter Pegg. "We ought to have risked it both of us together, stirred him up with the spears or the point of that kris, and made him go on."
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