In a kingdom there was very large tree that had grown so big, its shadow covered lands for miles. The king offered anyone who could chop it down with a wooden axe an elephant. Almost everyone thought that this was impossible feat, but Anansi took a wooden axe and went to the king to show that he would try to chop it down. In his bag he had a steel axe, and the king sent a servant to make shore that Anansi only used the wooden axe, and the king did not see the steel axe. Anansi started to chop the tree, but he did not make a dent, so he told the servant that he had just seen an antelope, and that if he ran fast, he could catch it. Off went the servant, and Anansi chopped the tree down with his steel axe. Then he took the servant and went to the king to receive the elephant. On the way home, Anansi decided that he would keep the elephant hidden from his family and eat it himself. So he started for a hiding place, but he thought about his family would eat. Then he saw a wren sitting in a tree, and he tied the elephant to a tree and tried to catch it, but the wren got away. Anansi just decided that his family would not eat that night, and he went back to where his elephant had been, but the elephant had escaped and Anansi and his family had no food that night.
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Read this story at this link: http://www.gatewaytotheclassics.com/display.php?author=barker&book=folktales&story=elephant