Whose Baby Drank Elephant's Milk?
Story★★★Illustration 15. A schoolmaster had just finished an instructive lesson on food, when Johnny raised his hand. “Well, Johnny, what is it?” asked the teacher. “Please, sir, Clarence Dudley said he knew a baby that was brought up on elephant’s milk and it gained ten pounds in weight every day.” “Clarence ought not to tell such rubbish,” said the schoolmaster. Then addressing the other boy, he said, “Tell me, Clarence, whose baby was brought up on elephant’s milk?” Clarence replied, “It was the elephant’s baby, Sir.”
The point
Schoolmaster corrects student Clarence's exaggeration about elephant's milk—the joke being the baby was the elephant's baby. Clever wordplay on literal versus figurative meaning.
Audience
Adults
Tone
Humorous
To tell aloud
under a minute · 86 words