Tanny’s gray skin is rough and wrinkly all over, but she has a soft, sweet heart. On hot days, she cools off with the other elephants in her herd by rolling in shallow ponds. She covers herself with mud, which hardens in the sun and protects her skin like sunblock.
One day, Tanny was playing with the other young elephants when she fell down a small bank into a muddy pool.
“I have fallen over the edge!” she cried. Her voice sounded like a small trumpet, because that’s how elephants’ voices sound.
Tanny dug at the sides of the bank, trying to climb out, but she only managed to pull more mud down into the water. Baby elephant tears streamed down her cheeks from her tiny gentle eyes.
“I’m stuck in this pool and I can’t get out,” she said.
Tanny’s friends called to the big elephants for help.
The big elephants comforted her. “We will get you on to dry land, Tanny. It will just take a few minutes.”
All the elephants stood side by side and stretched their long trunks down to the frightened youngster. They pulled and they heaved and they tried to scoop her up, but they couldn’t lift Tanny out of the pond. They tugged at her front legs, pulled at her back legs and swished her scrawny tail.
“Don’t be afraid, Tanny,” said the biggest elephant in the herd. “We will get you out.”
Tanny wiped away her tears with the end of her trunk and tried to help the big elephants. She bent her knees and, using all her might, pushed down hard on her short legs.
Suddenly, she was hoisted high in the air on the great trunks of the big elephants. The next thing she knew, she was standing on dry land above the muddy pool. Tanny was dripping wet and covered with mud. But she was free! She was so joyful that she kissed all the elephants with her trunk, ran under the tummies of the big elephants and trumpeted with joy. Finally, exhausted and happy, she lay down and slept peacefully beside her mother.
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