NCERT Book Class 7 English (The Alien Hand) Chapter 2 Bringing up Kari

Kari, a five-month-old baby elephant, lives and grows up
with his nine-year-old friend and keeper.
Kari doesn’t eat much—just about sixteen kilograms of
delicious twigs a day.
Playful and sensitive, Kari saves a boy from drowning.

KARI, the elephant, was five months old when he was given
to me to take care of. I was nine years old and I could
reach his back if I stood on tiptoe. He seemed to remain
that high for nearly two years. We grew together; that is
probably why I never found out just how tall he was. He
lived in a pavilion, under a thatched roof which rested on
thick tree stumps so that it could not fall in when Kari
bumped against the poles as he moved about.
One of the first things Kari did was to save the life of a
boy. Kari did not eat much but he nevertheless needed
forty pounds of twigs a day to chew and play with. Every
day I used to take him to the river in the morning for his
bath. He would lie down on the sand bank while I rubbed
him with the clean sand of the river for an hour. After that
he would lie in the water for a long time. On coming out his
skin would be shining like ebony, and he would squeal
squeal: cry/trumpet