'T is a pity to send that young jungle-cock to molt in the plains . '' Now Petersen Sahib had ears all over him , as a man must have who listens to the most silent of all living things -- the wild elephant . He turned where he was lying all along on Pudmini 's back and said , `` What is that ? I did not know of a man among the plains-drivers who had wit enough to rope even a dead elephant . '' `` This is not a man , but a boy . He went into the Keddah at the last drive , and threw Barmao there the rope , when we were trying to get that young calf with the blotch on his shoulder away from his mother . '' Machua Appa pointed at Little Toomai , and Petersen Sahib looked , and Little Toomai bowed to the earth . `` He throw a rope ? He is smaller than a picket-pin . Little one , what is thy name ? '' said Petersen Sahib . Little Toomai was too frightened to speak , but Kala Nag was behind him , and Toomai made a sign with his hand , and the elephant caught him up in his trunk and held him level with Pudmini 's forehead , in front of the great Petersen Sahib . Then Little Toomai covered his face with his hands , for he was only a child , and except where elephants were concerned , he was just as bashful as a child could be . `` Oho ! '' said Petersen Sahib , smiling underneath his mustache , `` and why didst thou teach thy elephant that trick ? Was it to help thee steal green corn from the roofs of the houses when the ears are put out to dry ? '' `` Not green corn , Protector of the Poor , -- melons , '' said Little Toomai , and all the men sitting about broke into a roar of laughter . Most of them had taught their elephants that trick when they were boys . Little Toomai was hanging eight feet up in the air , and he wished very much that he were eight feet underground . `` He is Toomai , my son , Sahib , '' said Big Toomai , scowling .
`` He is a very bad XXXXX , and he will end in a jail , Sahib . ''
Poor boy calf child corn ears men roofs son things