And the Crocodile floundered into the water , making it all creamy with great sweeps of his tail , and he pulled , and pulled , and pulled . And the Elephant 's Child 's nose kept on stretching ; and the Elephant 's Child spread all his little four legs and pulled , and pulled , and pulled , and his nose kept on stretching ; and the Crocodile threshed his tail like an oar , and he pulled , and pulled , and pulled , and at each pull the Elephant 's Child 's nose grew longer and longer -- and it hurt him hijjus ! Then the Elephant 's Child felt his legs slipping , and he said through his nose , which was now nearly five feet long , ` This is too butch for be ! ' Then the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake came down from the bank , and knotted himself in a double-clove-hitch round the Elephant 's Child 's hind legs , and said , ` Rash and inexperienced traveller , we will now seriously devote ourselves to a little high tension , because if we do not , it is my impression that yonder self-propelling man-of-war with the armour-plated upper deck ' -LRB- and by this , O Best Beloved , he meant the Crocodile -RRB- , ` will permanently vitiate your future career . That is the way all Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snakes always talk . 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 XXXXX 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 .
Try doing grew knew knotted know making shrink talk wrapped