It was hot in Champakvan. Summer had taken a toll on all animals. Meeku, the mouse wasn’t feeling well due to this sweltering heat. Inside the small hole he lived in, he felt suffocated. Outside, he found the hot wind difficult to deal with. He would often try to save himself from this heat but would get no respite.
One day, he was lazing under the shade of a tree. The heat was too for him to handle. There was no wind and sweat kept dripping from every corner of his body. Around that he noticed Jumbo, the elephant walking carefree by the river. Jumbo came stood next to Meeku.
“Hey Jumbo, you don’t look tired. Aren’t you feeling hot?” Meeku asked him.
Jumbo said, “Meeku, it is indeed hot but I am not as dirty and lazy as you are. I keep taking baths in the river, which keeps my body cool. Here, come and feel my fat skin, it is cold.”
Meeku, obviously, was not as tall as Jumbo and was not able to reach up to his back. So, Jumbo picked him up by his trunk and placed him on his back. He realised that Jumbo’s skin was cold.
After a while, when Jumbo was resting under the tree, Meeku jumped off his back. He thought about whispering something into Jumbo’s ear. But just at that moment, Jumbo flapped his fan-like large ears vigorously, which gave Meeku a whiff of fresh air. He instantly felt as if he was transported to the streets of Nainital.
More from Champak: Cheeku and Meeku are Walking into the Forest.
He was happy at the thought of using Jumbo’s ears to get rid of the afternoon heat. But then again, he did not want Jumbo to know about it. He was scared that if Jumbo found out, he would stop flapping his ears.
However, Meeku realised that Jumbo usually flaps his ears when a fly buzzes near his ear.
He thought to himself that it would be brilliant if flies constantly kept buzzing around Jumbo’s ears. Then, he would be able to enjoy the fresh air he got from the flapping of Jumbo’s ears all the time.
He came up with an idea. He knew that there was another tree somewhere close by with a beehive. He went to the beehive and got a couple of drops of honey from the queen bee and quietly put it on Jumbo’s ear.
The honey made all the bees buzz near Jumbo’s ears and he started flapping his ears so that the bees would fly off. That is exactly what Meeku wanted. The more Jumbo flapped his ears, the better it was for Meeku, as he was able to enjoy loads of fresh air. In this way, his afternoon was well spent.
Since then, every afternoon, Meeku would be on the lookout for Jumbo and Jumbo would always be found taking his afternoon nap somewhere below a tree. Meeku would quietly put some honey on Jumbo’s ears and Jumbo would start flapping his ears. Thus, Meeku’s “fan” saved him from the dreadful summer.
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