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"Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. I need
a whiff," Omar, the elephant, chanted as he walked through the tall grass,
his long trunk dangling down, sniffing the ground. Omar loved to eat
peanuts, but they grew under the ground, so he had to sniff them out.
All day long he walked around
sniffing the ground and chanting.
Some of the other animals nearby
thought Omar looked awfully silly. Sharif, the rhinoceros, started
laughing when Omar walked past him. Omar didn’t even see Sharif. He was
too busy sniffing. Sharif laughed even harder when he heard him chant,
"Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. I need a whiff." He dropped his heavy body to
the ground and rolled around giggling.
Rashid, the giraffe, saw Omar
coming. His neck was so long that he could see things that were a long
distance away. "What is that silly elephant doing?" he said out loud to
himself as he reached for a few leaves from a tree he was standing next
to.<BR>"It looks like he’s sniffing the ground." Rashid started laughing.
The closer Omar got, the harder Rashid laughed. "Silly elephant," he
giggled.
When Rashid heard Omar chanting and
sniffing, he laughed even harder. His long neck bobbed up and down as he
heard, "Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. I need a whiff." Omar didn’t even
notice Rashid as he was too busy sniffing for peanuts.
Mohammed, the lion cub was playing
with his brother, Ashir. They were wrestling about in the bushes when they
heard Omar chanting. "Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. I need a whiff." They
stopped and sat up, their little cub ears standing straight up in the air.
"What is Omar doing?" Mohammed
asked.
"It looks like he’s sniffing the
ground," Ashir replied. "But what’s he singing?" the curious cub wondered.
They ran up closer to Omar and
followed him from a safe distance. "He is sniffing the ground. Why do you
think he’s doing that?" Mohammed asked.
"I don’t know," Ashir answered, then
pounced on his brother, tugging at the nape of his neck where one day a
thick mane would grow. Losing interest in Omar, the two continued their
wrestling and fighting games.
Omar hadn’t even noticed the two
lion cubs. He’d been too busy sniffing for peanuts. As he walked past
Fatima, the flamingo, he began to sniff the faintest aroma of peanuts.
"Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. I need a whiff," he mumbled.
Fatima stopped preening her feathers
and watched Omar. She started chuckling. It wasn’t every day that you saw
a huge gray elephant walking by sniffing the ground. The more she watched,
the more she laughed. She laughed so hard that one of her pink feathers
flew up into the air and floated slowly down onto the grass by her long,
spindly legs.
Omar didn’t even notice Fatima. He
was too busy sniffing for the peanuts. He began to get excited. He knew
there were peanuts nearby. He could smell them. He began to run. His long
ivory tusks jutted out from the side of his face. His trunk-like legs
thudded the ground as he ran. His huge flapping ears bounced up and down
against his back. Suddenly he stopped. His trunk sniffed the ground over
and over again. "Peanuts!" he cried out. He used his sharp tusks to dig
the ground up. He tugged the green plant on top and pulled it with his
trunk. Soon the roots came free. Attached to them were clusters of peanuts
in their shells. "Yes! Peanuts!" he cried with delight.
Omar picked all the peanuts off with
his trunk and gobbled them down. They were delicious. He was happy. It
didn’t matter that Sharif, the rhino had laughed, or that Fatima, the
flamingo had laughed, or Rashid, the giraffe, or Mohammed and Ashir, the
two lion cubs, had laughed. It didn’t matter because he had his peanuts,
and they were delicious. |
