Littlenose Collection The Magician

by John Grant

  “Well,” said Dad, “they won’t get a second chance,” and he began to block up the entrance with rocks, leaving only a space at one side.

  “Come on, Littlenose,” he called. “Hurry, or you’ll be locked out.”

  “But I can’t come without Two-Eyes,” Littlenose wailed. “He can’t stay out all night, and I don’t know which is Two-Eyes. They all answer when I call.”

  “Two-Eyes should have thought of that before he started all this foolishness,” called back Dad. “Now hurry. It’s getting dark.”

  Littlenose was desperate. He just couldn’t leave Two-Eyes out all night, but how was he to tell which one was his pet?

  Then he remembered. Of course! How silly could he get? Two-Eyes got his name because his eyes were different colours – one red and one green. Other mammoths had two red eyes, all Littlenose had to do was look.

  It took ages. The mammoths’ long shaggy fur hung down over their eyes, and he had to go round each one, stroking it and carefully parting the fur over its eyes to see the colour. He had looked at more than half before he found Two-Eyes.

  Dad was making impatient gestures from the cave, so Littlenose quickly leaned over and whispered in Two-Eyes’ ear: “Do as I tell you, Two-Eyes, and go very slowly. We don’t want this lot charging into the cave again. Now, come along.”

  Taking Two-Eyes’ trunk in his hand, he led him slowly through the closely crowded mammoths. Those in front made way for them, while those behind fell in to make a sort of procession. Gradually, they drew nearer to the cave. Littlenose let go of the trunk, and began to steer Two-Eyes from behind, aiming at the gap in the barricade.

  Then, just as Two-Eyes’s head was in the cave, Littlenose gave him an enormous push, while at the same time he whirled round with a yell and waved his arms.

  Two-Eyes scrambled into the cave, while the mammoths scattered in all directions. Littlenose jumped inside, and Dad quickly blocked the opening.

  All night the little creatures cried and whimpered outside for their friend. Occasionally, a small trunk would poke through a chink in the rocks, and no one got a wink of sleep.

  However, just before daybreak, they heard the most dreadful noise. There were loud trumpetings and crashings and the thunder of many great feet. Dad peeped out.

  “It’s the mammoths!” he cried. “They’ve come for their young.”

  The adults were very angry with the young ones for running away, and were slapping and spanking them with their trunks while chasing them home. The loud noises went on for a long time, but eventually died away in the distance.

  In the morning, everything looked a bit flattened, but otherwise there was no sign of the mammoth herd.

  Later in the day Littlenose climbed up to the hollow. But the mammoths had gone from there too, and although in the following weeks Two-Eyes visited the hollow hopefully, they never came back.