Judge — April 1938 — page 19: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Matilda, the NCE upon a time, a herd of elephants decided to move from their old home jungle to a new and better jungle far over the mountains. In this herd there was an Old Maid Elephant named Matilda. Like most individuals who own no children, Matilda was very, very envious. She would not walk with the others... but a little behind them, always watch. ing the happy family groups through an eye that was dim and misty with tears. One morning, while the herd was en route, Matilda, wandering sadly along by herself, caught a glimpse of something that made her heart surge. At the edge of the trail lay a tiny egg! A chickadee’s egg . . . deserted and motherless. “Good gracious!” gasped Matilda. “This egg is an orphan! Down in Matilda’s soul, something indescribable turned over and over. “Yoo-hoo, folks!’ she called to the others in a voice that shook and flub- Elephant with a Mother Complex A Dr. Seuss Fable bered with emotion. “Go on without me. My maternal instinct dictates that here I remain.” Wheeling about, the elephants wit- nessed the most amazing sight they had ever beheld. Very slowly and gently, Matilda was lowering her hind quarters down and down until they rested, ever so lightly, right on the egg. “Why, girl, you're insane!” shouted the president of the herd. ‘Elephants don’t hatch chickadee eggs!” “Well here's one that does,” retorted Matilda hotly. “Now bustle along.” And when the president of the herd looked into her eyes, he saw that she meant it. “We must leave her,” he said gravely, CA Deseus¥> turning to the herd, And silently the clephants lumbered down the trail and faded from view in the haze of the jungle. The Old Maid Elephant was alone with her. egg. Hour after hour Matilda sat and she sat, saying over and over to herself, “I shall have a wee one.” By the end of the third day, her cramped stance began to pain her intensely. Soon she had eaten the last of the berries that grew within trunk-reach. But rather than risk moving, she sat still and went hungry. Small sarcastic animals came out of the jungle and twitted her un. mercifully. But Matilda ignored them and stuck to her vigil. Twenty-five days and nights of tor- ture . . . and at four o'clock on the morning of the twenty-sixth, as Matilda crouched faint and shivering in a tropical downpour, she felt something stirring. Her heart stood still! There came a tiny sound of cracking, was fol- lowed by a “peep”! “Eureka!” trumpeted Matilda. “My foster child is hatched!’ Her joints creaked as she lurched to her feet, and she bent over to caress her new baby chickadee. But the chickadee, con. fronted by an elephant, cried out in terror. Shaking the eggshells out of his feathers, he spread his little wings and flapped off frantically over the tree tops. Matilda never laid eyes on him again. Nor was she ever able to locate her herd. Today she roams the jungle, alone and friendless . . . a woebegone creature, with nothing at all to show for her pains but a very bad case of lumbago. Moral: Don't go around hatching other folks’ eggs. 17 comicbooks.com