CHAPTER IIITAMBA PLAYS A JOKE
Just as Tum Tum had said, a lion’s cage was being wheeled into the circus animal tent, and in the cage was a big, tawny, yellow animal, which Tamba knew, at once, was a lion.
But, to the surprise of the tame tiger and his friends, it was not a new lion at all, but Nero himself. There he was, looking almost the same as when he had disappeared the night of the big storm, the night when Tamba thought he could get away.
“Why, Nero!” exclaimed the tiger, as his friend’s new cage was wheeled in, “where in the world have you been?”
“Oh, almost everywhere, I guess,” answered Nero. “I’ve had a lot of adventures!”
“Ha! Then you’ll be put in a book,” said Tum Tum quickly. And, as those of you who have read the volume which comes just before this one know, Nero was put in a book.
“Yes, I had adventures enough for a book,” went on the big lion, who had been caught by some circus men in a farmer’s woodshed andbrought back to the show. “I had a pretty good time, too, while I was away, though I didn’t get as much to eat as we do here in the circus. I guess I’m glad to be back, my friends!” and he curled up in his cage and got ready to go to sleep.
“Ho! Glad to get back, are you?” asked Tamba. “Well, I won’t say that if I get a chance to run away! I’ll stay, when I go!”
“That’s what you think now,” said Nero. “But really it isn’t as much fun as you’d think—running away isn’t.”
“Couldn’t you find your jungle?” asked Tamba.
“No,” answered Nero, “I couldn’t.”
“Well, I’ll find mine,” declared Tamba. “That’s why I want to run away—so I can get back to my jungle. And I’m going to do it, too!”
Of course all this talk went on in animal language, and none of the circus helpers or the trainers could understand it. If they could, they might have guarded Tamba more closely.
“Well, please don’t bother me now,” said Nero, as he curled his paws under his chin, just as your cat sometimes does when she goes to sleep. “I am going to have a nap after all my adventures and travels.”
“All right, go to sleep,” said Tum Tum. “Wewon’t bother you, Nero. Only, some day, I hope you’ll tell us more of your adventures.”
“I will,” promised Nero.
Tamba, the tame tiger, paced up and down in his cage after Nero had gone to sleep.
“I wish I had had his chances!” thought Tamba, as he looked over toward the sleeping Nero. “I wouldn’t have let them catch me! I’d have run on and on until I found my jungle, no matter how far away it was.”
And then Tamba began to think of the life in India and of the days when he, a little tiger cub, was hiding in the deep, dark, green jungle. He thought of how he had tumbled about in the leaves, playing with his brother and sister, and of his mother sitting in the mouth, or front door, of the cave and watching her striped babies.
They had learned how to walk, and how to jump and stick out their claws whenever they wanted to catch anything. Their father and mother had taught the little tiger cubs how to hunt in the jungle for the meat they had to eat. They could not go to the store and buy something when they were hungry. Tigers, and other wild animals, must hunt for what they eat.
Of course, after he had been caught and sent to the circus, Tamba no longer had to hunt for his food. It was brought to him by the circus men, and thrust into his cage. Nor did he haveto hunt for water, the way the jungle animals have to go sniffing and snuffing about in the forest to find a pool or a spring. Tamba’s water was brought to his cage in a tin pail, and very glad he was to get it.
“But, for all that,” thought the tame tiger, as he paced up and down, “for all that I’d rather be loose and on my way back to the jungle instead of being cooped up here. Much as I like the things they give me to eat, I want to go home. And I’m going to get loose, too, and run away as Nero did. Only I won’t come back!”
The more Tamba thought of the green jungle, so far away in India, the more sad, unhappy and discontented the tame tiger became. He did not do his tricks as well as he used to do, and he was often cross in speaking to the other circus animals. Sometimes he wouldn’t speak at all, but only growl, or maybe grumble deep down in his throat, and that isn’t talking at all.
“I declare! I don’t know what’s the matter with Tamba,” said Tum Tum one day. “He doesn’t seem at all happy any more. Dido, do some of your funny dances and see if you can’t cheer up Tamba!”
So the dancing bear did some of his tricks, capering about in his cage, but Tamba would hardly look at him. Some boys, though, who had come to the circus, gathered in front of thebear’s cage and laughed and laughed at his funny antics. They liked Dido. The boys liked to look at Tamba, also, but they were a little afraid of the big, striped tiger.
One day, when the afternoon performance was over, and Tamba, Nero and the other animals who had done their tricks in the big tent were brought back to the smaller one, where they were kept between the times of the shows, Nero said:
“Now I am going to lie down and sleep, and please don’t any one wake me up. I’m tired, for I did a new trick to-day, and it was very hard, and I want to rest so I can do better in the show to-night. So everybody let me alone.”
“We will,” said Tum Tum, the jolly elephant.
Now the lion is called the “King of Beasts,” and in the jungle he comes pretty near to being that, for all the other animals, except perhaps the elephant, are afraid of him.
So when a lion says he wants a thing done, it generally is done. Of course Nero could not have got out of his circus cage to make the other animals do what he wanted them to do, but most of them made up their minds that they wouldn’t bother him, even though they knew he couldn’t hurt them. Nero was still “King” in a way.
But that day Tamba was cross. Or perhaps I might say he felt as though he wanted to “cut up.” He wanted to play some tricks, makesome excitement. He wanted to do something!
I dare say you have seen your dog or cat act the same way. For days at a time they may be very quiet, eating and sleeping and doing only the things they do every day. And then, all at once, they will begin to race about and “cut up.” Your dog may run away with your cap, and, no matter how many times you call him, he’ll just caper about and bark, or perhaps pretend to come near you and then run off again. And your cat may dig her claws into the carpet, jump up on the window sill and knock down a plant or a flower vase, and do all sorts of things like that.
Well, this is just the way Tamba felt that day. He wanted to do something, and when he saw Nero sleeping so quietly in his cage the tame tiger made up his mind to play a trick on the lion.
“It isn’t fair that he should sleep so nicely when I have to stay awake!” grumbled Tamba. “He can dream of the good times he had when he ran away and had adventures, and all I can think of is how much I want to go back to my jungle! It isn’t fair! I’m going to make Nero wake up! I’ll play a trick on him!”
Of course this wasn’t right for Tamba to do, but circus tigers don’t always do right any more than boys, girls, or other animals.
Tamba’s cage was next to that of Nero, and close beside it, instead of being at one end. The cages were left that way when they were brought in from the larger performing tent, after the animals had done their tricks. So it happened that Tamba could look out through the bars of his cage in between the bars where Nero was kept. And Tamba could stick his paws out through the bars, but he could not quite reach over to the sleeping lion.
“If I could reach him,” said Tamba to himself, “I’d tickle him and wake him up. I wouldn’t let him sleep!”
But Tamba’s paws were not quite long enough to reach through the bars of the two cages. Again and again the tiger tried it, but he could not manage.
Then Tamba sat down on his haunches and looked at the sleeping Nero. At last a tricky idea came to Tamba.
“Ha!” exclaimed the tiger. “If I can’t reach him with my paws I can reach him with my tail! That’s what I’ll do! I’ll reach in between the bars with my long, slender tail, and I’ll tickle Nero on the nose!”
Tamba sort of laughed to himself as he thought of this trick. And he had no sooner thought of it than he began to try it. He turned about, so his back was toward Nero. Standingthus, Tamba’s long, slender tail easily reached into Nero’s cage. Nearer and nearer the tip of Tamba’s tail came to the big black nose of the sleeping lion.
Tamba looked sideways over his back to see where to put his tail. At last the fuzzy tip-end of it touched Nero’s nose and tickled it. The big lion twitched in his sleep, just as your cat does, if you lightly touch one of her ears.
“Ha! I’ve found a good way to play a trick on Nero!” laughed Tamba. “I’ll keep on tickling him!”
He waved his tail to and fro, Tamba did, and once again he let the tip of it touch Nero’s nose. The sleeping lion raised his paw, and brushed it over his face. He must have thought some bug was crawling on his nose.
“Oh, this is lots of fun!” thought Tamba. So it was, for him. But was it fun for Nero?
“Now for a good tickle!” thought Tamba, as, once again, he put his tail over toward the sleeping lion’s nose. And this time something was going to happen.