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He fell down on his knees, while Mappo sailed through the air. Page 41.
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He fell down on his knees, while Mapposailed through the air.Page 41
"Caught in a net, eh?" said Tum Tum. "That is too bad. I was caught myself. But where are you going?"
"To a circus," answered Mappo.
"So am I!" cried Tum Tum. "This is fine! We'll be in the circus together!"
The monkey and the elephant were good friends, for they had known each other in the jungle, Tum Tum often having passed under the tree where Mappo's home was.
The sailor who had brought Mappo down to see the elephants, smiled as he saw Tum Tum making friends with him.
"I guess I'll leave them together," said the sailor.
So Mappo went to sleep on Tum Tum's big back.
The monkey had not slept very long, before he was suddenly awakened, by finding himself almost sliding off.
"What is the matter, Tum Tum?" asked Mappo.
"The ship is trying to stand on its head, I think," said the elephant. "Oh, here I go!" andhe fell down on his knees, while Mappo sailed through the air and fell on a pile of hay.
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With Mappo chattering in his monkey language, and the elephants in the lower part of the ship trumpeting through their trunks, there was so much noise, that it is no wonder many of the animals were frightened.
"Oh, what is it? What is it?" Mappo chattered.
"I don't know," answered Tum Tum, "unless the hunters are coming after us again," and, raising his trunk, he gave the call of danger, as he had heard Mr. Boom, the big leader elephant, give it in the jungle.
"Hush! Be quiet!" called an old elephant near Tum Tum. "Why do you call that way, brother?" he asked in elephant language.
"There is danger," replied Tum Tum. "I must tell the others to get out of here."
"That cannot be done," said the old elephant. "We are in a ship, on the big water, and if we got out now, in the ocean, we would surely drown. Be quiet!"
"But why am I tossed about so?" asked Tum Tum. "Why can I not stand up straight?"
"Because the ship is in a storm," answered the old elephant. "I know, for I have been on a ship before. The wind is blowing and tossing the ship up and down.
"But there is no danger. Only keep quiet, and, since you are the new leader of the elephants, tell them to be quiet, or some of them may be hurt. See, down come the sailors to see what is the trouble."
Surely enough, down came a whole lot of sailors, in white suits, to see why all the elephants had trumpeted so loudly, and why Mappo, the merry monkey, had squealed.
"Hush! Be quiet!" called Tum Tum to the other elephants. "Be quiet or I shall beat you with my trunk, and make you."
When Tum Tum spoke that way, all the other elephants heard him, and they grew quiet. Some, who had fallen on their knees, when the ship tossed from side to side, now got up. They placed their big legs far apart, so they could stand steadily.
"We will be all right when the storm passes," said the old elephant who had spoken to Tum Tum.
Mappo picked himself up off the pile of hay,and, just then, his friend the sailor came to get him.
"I guess you have been here long enough, Mappo," said the sailor. "You might get hurt down here, with all these big elephants."
Mappo was glad enough to go, not that he felt afraid of the elephants, but he knew that one of them might, by accident, fall on him, and an elephant is so large and heavy that, when he falls on a monkey, there is not much left of the little chap.
"Good-by, Tum Tum!" called Mappo to his big friend. "I'll come and see you, when the storm is over."
"All right," answered Tum Tum. "And I hope the storm will soon be over, for I do not like it."
The ship was swinging to and fro, like a rocking chair on the front porch when the wind blows. But finally the elephants became used to it, and some of them could even go to sleep. But Tum Tum stayed awake.
"There might be some danger," he thought to himself, "and if there was, I could warn the others. I am the leader, and must always be on the watch for danger, just as Mr. Boom would be, if he were here."
But I am glad to say no more danger came to the ship. It rode safely through the storm,and in a few days, it was gliding swiftly over the blue sea.
"What will happen to us, when the ship stops sailing?" asked Tum Tum of the old elephant, who seemed to know so much.
"After it gets to the other side of the ocean," said the old elephant, "we shall be taken out—we and all the animals. Then we shall go to the circus."
"Is the circus nice?" asked Tum Tum.
"I have been in one or two, and I like them," said the old elephant, whose name was Hoy. "There is hard work, but there is also fun."
"Tell me about the fun," said Tum Tum. "I do not like to hear about the hard work."
"The work goes with the fun," said Hoy, "so I will tell you about both. The hard work comes in marching through the hard city streets, that hurt your feet. That is when we go in the parade. I know, for I have been in many parades. But it is fun, too, for we elephants have a little house on our backs, and men and women ride in it. Then the bands play, and the people laugh and shout to see us pass by. Yes, that is fun," and the old elephant, who had been sent to make the voyage in the ship, so that he might keep the new, wild elephants quiet, shut his eyes as he thought of the circus days.
"Is there other hard work?" asked Tum Tum.
"A great deal," said Hoy. "You will have to push heavy wagons about with your head, and lift heavy poles, as you did in the lumber yard when you came from the jungle. And then you will have to do tricks in the circus ring."
"What are tricks?" asked Tum Tum.
"Tricks are what I call hard work, but they make the people in the circus laugh," answered Hoy. "You will have to stand on your head, turn somersaults and do many things like that."
"Now tell me about the fun," begged Tum Tum.
"Yes, there is some fun," spoke Hoy, slowly. "You will get nice hay to eat, and water to drink, and the children in the circus will give you popcorn balls and peanuts to eat. Also, you will wear a fine blanket, all gold and spangles, when you march around the ring in the tent. But now I am tired, and I want to go to sleep."
So the old elephant slept, and Tum Tum stood there, swaying backward and forward in the ship, wondering whether he would like a circus.
It took several weeks for the ship to make the journey from jungle land to circus land, and, during that period, Mappo, the merry monkey, came down to see Tum Tum several times.
"I am going to be in the circus, also," saidMappo, when one day Tum Tum spoke of the big show under the white tent.
"Are you?" asked the jolly elephant. "That will be nice. We'll see each other."
"And will you take care of me, so the tiger won't get me?" asked Mappo.
"Indeed I shall!" cried Tum Tum through his big trunk.
At last the day came when the ship reached her dock, and the animals were taken out. The chains were loosed from the legs of Tum Tum and the other elephants, and they were hoisted up from the lower part of the ship, and allowed to go ashore. Tum Tum was glad of it, for he was tired of the water. But his journey was not over, for, with the others, he was put in a railroad car, and hauled by an engine. At last, however, he reached a big wooden building, and the old elephant, Hoy, said:
"This is where the circus stays in winter. Now you will begin to have hard work, and also fun."
"Well," thought Tum Tum, as, with the other elephants, he marched toward the big barn-like building, "if there is enough fun, I shall not mind the hard work."
Then, as he felt rather jolly, after getting out of the big freight car, Tum Tum picked up apiece of stick from the ground, and began tickling another elephant in the ribs with it.
"Yoump! Umph! Woomph!" trumpeted this elephant. This was his way of saying:
"Hi, there! What are you doing? Stop it!"
"Oh, that's only in fun!" laughed Tum Tum.
"Well, my ribs are too sore to want that kind of fun," the other elephant said. "Now you just quit!"
But Tum Tum was so jolly that he wanted more fun, so he tickled another elephant. This elephant, instead of speaking to Tum Tum, just reached over with her long trunk, pulled one of Tum Tum's legs out from under him, and down he went in a heap.
"Ha! Maybe you like that kind of fun!" cried the elephant who had made Tum Tum fall.
"It didn't hurt me!" said Tum Tum, as he got up. But, after that, he was careful not to play any jokes on this elephant.
It was very cold in this new land to which Tum Tum had come, for it was winter. It was not at all like his green, hot jungle, and he was glad when he was led, with the other elephants, into the big barn, where the circus stayed in winter.
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"Well, this is certainly a funny place," thought Tum Tum, the jolly elephant, as he looked about him. And well might he say so.
He found himself inside a large barn, which was nice and warm, and for this Tum Tum was glad, for it felt more like the warmth of his jungle, and Tum Tum, who had been shivering in the cold, outer air, now felt much better.
The earthen floor of the barn was covered with sawdust, and all around the sides of the barn were cages containing many animals. There were lions, tigers, wolves, leopards, monkeys, snakes, and many other strange beasts, some of which Tum Tum had seen in his jungle home, and some of which he had never before seen.
"I suppose that is where Mappo will be put," thought Tum Tum, as he looked at the cages full of lively little monkey chaps.
Then Tum Tum looked and saw a number ofelephants, chained in a row on another side of the circus barn, and he knew that would be his place. Opening out of the big barn was a smaller one, and in that were many horses and ponies.
There were many men in the circus barn, and they all seemed to be doing something. Some were carrying pails of water to the animals, others were feeding hay to the elephants, and meat to the lions, tigers and spotted leopards. Tum Tum did not care for meat, but he was very hungry for some of the juicy, green leaves that grew on trees in his jungle.
As he could get none of those now, he had to eat dry hay, and very good that tasted, too. He had grown to like it on board the ship.
"Bring the elephants over here!" called one circus man to another, and Tum Tum felt himself being led along by a man who had a stick with a hook in the end of it. But the man did not stick the hook in Tum Tum, because Tum Tum was good and gentle now.
Tum Tum, though he had been a wild elephant in the jungle only a few weeks before, had learned many things, since he had been caught. He had learned that men were his friends, and would not hurt him, though they made him do as they wanted him to, and ordered him about as though he were a little dog insteadof a big, strong elephant. The men did not seem to be afraid of Tum Tum, though he was a little afraid of them, especially when they carried sharp hooks, which hurt one's skin.
"Come along!" cried the man who was leading Tum Tum and the others, and over to one side of the circus barn they went, to be chained by a leg to a very strong stake driven into the ground.
"Feed them up well," said the first man, "and then we'll see about putting them through some tricks."
"Ha!" thought Tum Tum. "So the tricks are to begin soon, are they? I wonder what kind I shall do, and whether I shall like them or not?"
Tum Tum waited anxiously to see what would happen next. What did happen was that he got something to eat, and a little treat into the bargain.
For with the big pile of hay that was given him, there were some long, pointed yellow things.
"Ha! What are those?" asked Tum Tum of Hoy, the big, tame elephant who had been in a circus before.
"They are carrots," said Hoy.
"Are they good to eat?" asked Tum Tum.
"Try and see," answered Hoy, with a twinklein his little eyes. He was eating the yellow carrots as fast as he could.
Tum Tum took one little bite, holding the carrot in his trunk. And, as soon as he chewed on it, he knew that he liked carrots very much.
"Ha! That is certainly good!" he said to Hoy. "I wish I had carrots every day."
"Oh, but you won't get them every day," said the old elephant. "They are just special, to get you to feeling jolly, so you will learn your tricks more easily."
"Well, I feel pretty jolly anyhow," said Tum Tum. "I'll do any tricks I can."
He did not know yet all that was to happen to him, before he learned to do his tricks.
Tum Tum had been in the circus nearly a week before he was taught any tricks. In that week he had plenty to eat, and good water to drink, some of which he spurted over himself with his trunk. That was his way of taking a bath, you see.
Then, one day, some circus men came to where Tum Tum was chained, and one of them said:
"Now, we'll take out this big elephant, and teach him some tricks. Get Hoy, so he'll show Tum Tum what we want done."
"Ha! So now the tricks begin!" cried Tum Tum to Hoy.
"Yes, and you want to watch out, and do asyou are told, or you may not like it," said Hoy.
Tum Tum and the older elephant were led to the middle of the circus ring. The chains were taken off Tum Tum's legs, but a rope was put around his front ones, and he wondered what that was for. Then Tum Tum and Hoy were stood in a line with some other big elephants.
"All ready now!" cried a circus man, snapping his long whip. "Stand up!"
Hoy raised himself up on his hind legs, lifting his trunk high in the air.
"Do as I do! Do as I do!" called Hoy to Tum Tum. "Stand up on your hind legs."
"I—I can't!" answered Tum Tum, who tried. But he found he could not.
Then a funny thing happened. All of a sudden Tum Tum found his front legs and head being pulled up in the air by the rope, and, before he knew it, he was standing on his hind legs whether he wanted to or not.
The circus men had pulled on the end of the rope, which ran through a pulley, hoisting Tum Tum in the air. That was the way they had of teaching him to stand up. Several times Tum Tum was let down to the ground, and hauled up again, and each time he was pulled up, the circus man would call out:
"Stand up on your hind legs! Stand up on your hind legs!"
"Is this a trick?" asked Tum Tum of Hoy, who did not have to have a rope around him to pull him up.
"Yes, it is one trick," answered the old elephant. "There are many more, though, to learn."
Tum Tum was beginning to be tired of being hauled up this way. So were some of the other elephants, and one of them tried to break loose. But he was hit with a rope, and squealed so that none of the others tried to get away.
"Now then, take off the ropes, and we'll see how many have learned their lesson," said the head circus man.
"Now's your chance to show how smart you are," whispered Hoy to Tum Tum. "When he tells you to stand up next time, do it all by yourself. Then you'll have learned this one trick."
"I'll try," promised Tum Tum.
The elephants stood in a row. The head circus man cracked his whip, and called:
"Up on your hind legs!"
Tum Tum gave a little spring, and raised his front legs from the ground. He settled back on his strong hind legs, and there he was, doing just as Hoy was doing! Tum Tum had learned his first lesson, just as he had learned to pile teakwood logs in straight piles.
"Ha! We have one smart fellow in the bunch, anyhow!" cried the circus man.
Tum Tum was glad when he heard this, just as you would be, if you had learned your lesson in school. For it is a good thing to learn to do things, even for an elephant.
But if Tum Tum thought he would get a rest after he had shown that he could do the trick without being hauled up by a rope, he was sadly mistaken. Over and over he had to do the trick, until he felt tired, large and strong as he was.
Some of the elephants could stand up on their hind legs for a second or so, and then they fell down again. They were made to practice again with ropes, but no ropes were needed for Tum Tum.
"Well, that's enough for one day," said the head circus man finally. "Give them all some carrots with their hay. To-morrow we shall try having them stand on their front legs."
"Will that be harder?" asked Tum Tum of Hoy as he marched to the side of the barn where the elephants were kept.
"Much harder," said the old elephant. "But I think you can do it."
"I'll try, anyhow," spoke Tum Tum, with a jolly laugh. "I think tricks are fun."
Standing on his front legs, with his hind onesin the air, was not as funny as he had thought. In the first place, he had to start with the rope, and, before he knew it, his hind legs were pulled out from under him, by the circus men, and Tum Tum was almost standing on his head. Hoy told him what to do, and how to balance himself, just as he told the other elephants, and soon Tum Tum could do it very well. When this practice was over, and when Tum Tum could stand on either his front or hind legs, without being pulled by a rope, he was given more carrots to eat.
Tum Tum could now do two tricks, but, as you children know, who have seen elephants in a circus, there are many others that can be done.
Elephants can be made to sit down in a low, strong chair, they can be made to stand on top of a small tub, to play see-saw, to ring bells, play hand organs with their trunks, and do many other queer things they never thought of doing in the jungle.
Why, I have seen elephants fire cannon, wave flags, and play baseball. Elephants are very wonderful, and very wise and lively, for such big animals.
As the winter days went by, Tum Tum learned many tricks in the circus. He learned to stand with other elephants, in a long row, and let the acrobats jump over him, and he alsolet the clowns jump right on his broad back. Tum Tum learned to do a little dance, too, but he never danced as well as the ponies could, for Tum Tum was very heavy. Tum Tum also learned how to walk across, and kneel down over his master, who lay flat on the sawdust, and though Tum Tum, with his big body, came very close to the man, he never touched him. If Tum Tum had stepped, even with one foot, on the man, he would have hurt him very much. But Tum Tum was careful.
One day, when spring was near at hand, and when it was nearly time for the circus to travel on the road, from one town to another, Tum Tum was out in front of the barn, helping push some of the big circus wagons about. He pushed them with his strong head.
All at once Tum Tum felt something bite him on the hind leg, and he heard a barking noise, such as monkeys sometimes make.
"Is that you, Mappo?" asked Tum Tum quickly. He could not turn around, for he was pushing the wagon up hill.
"Bow wow! Bow wow! Bow wow!" was the barking answer, and Tum Tum felt his legs nipped again.
"Stop that, Mappo, if you please," said the big elephant. "Please don't do that, when I am pushing this wagon."
But Tum Tum's leg was bitten again, and he cried:
"Mappo, I shall squeeze you in my trunk, if you do not let me alone. I like a joke as well as you do, but it is no fun to have your legs nipped when you are pushing a heavy wagon. Stop it!"
"Bow wow! Bow wow! Bow wow!" came the answer.
"That doesn't sound exactly like Mappo," said Tum Tum. "I wonder who it can be?"
When Tum Tum had pushed the wagon to the top of the hill, he could turn around. Then, instead of seeing the merry little monkey, he saw a big black and white dog, who was barking and nipping at his heels.
"Oh, ho! So it is you, eh?" asked Tum Tum. "Who are you, and what are you biting me for?"
"My name is Don," barked the dog, "and I am biting you to drive you away. I am afraid you might hurt my master. I never saw such an animal as you, with two tails. Go away!" and Don barked louder than before, and once more tried to bite the elephant's feet.
"Here, Don! Don!" called a man's voice. "Come away from that elephant!"
"Bow wow!" barked Don. "I am going to bite him!"
"Oh, are you?" asked Tum Tum. And withthat he reached out with his trunk, caught Don around the middle, and lifted him high in the air. Don did not bark now. He howled in fear.
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"Please let me down! Oh, please do!" begged Don, the dog, of Tum Tum, the jolly elephant, as the big creature from the jungle held the dog high up in the air.
Tum Tum did not feel so very jolly just then. He did not want to hurt Don, but neither did the elephant like to be nipped on his hind legs, when he was pushing a wagon.
"Oh, the elephant has our dog!" cried a boy who was with the man who had called after Don. "Oh, papa, will he hurt him?"
"No, Tum Tum won't hurt anyone," said a circus man. "I'll get your dog back for you, but he must be careful of elephants after this."
"He never saw one before," said the boy's father.
All this while Tum Tum was holding Don high in the air in his trunk.
"Oh, won't you let me down?" begged Don.
"I will, if you won't bark at me again, andbite me," said Tum Tum. "I don't want to hurt you, doggie boy, but I can't have you bothering me, when I'm doing my circus work."
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All this while Tum Tum was holding Don high in the air in his trunk. Page 60.
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All this while Tum Tum was holding Don high in theair in his trunk.Page 60
"Oh, I'll be good! I'll be good!" promised Don, and with that Tum Tum lowered him gently to the ground, uncoiled his trunk from around Don's middle, and the dog ran howling to his master and the boy.
"Don, what made you bite the elephant?" asked the boy.
Don only barked gently in answer. He could not speak man or boy talk, you know, any more than an elephant could, though he understood it very well.
"I told you the elephant wouldn't hurt your dog," said the circus man. "Tum Tum is very gentle."
Don crept behind his master, and looked at Tum Tum. The elephant walked down to get another wagon to push up hill, as all the circus horses were too busy to pull it.
"Bow wow!" barked Don, but this time he was talking to Tum Tum, and not barking angrily at him. "Are you an elephant?" asked Don, in his own language, which the elephant understood very well.
"Yes, I am an elephant," said Tum Tum.
"And you have two tails," went on Don.
Almost anyone who sees an elephant for the first time thinks that.
"No, I have only one tail," Tum Tum answered. "The front thing is my trunk, or long nose. I breathe through it, pick up things to eat in it, and squirt water through it."
"My! It is very useful, isn't it?" asked Don, wagging his tail.
"Indeed it is," said Tum Tum. The elephant and the dog were fast becoming friends now, and were talking together, though the boy and his father and the circus men did not know this.
"Then was it your trunk that you picked me up in?" asked Don, of the elephant.
"Yes," replied Tum Tum, "and I am sorry if I frightened you."
"Oh, well, that's all right," answered Don. "I am all right now, and I suppose I did wrong to bark at you, and bite. I am sorry."
"Then I'll excuse you," spoke Tum Tum. "But what is your name, and where do you live?"
"My name is Don, and I live on a farm," answered the dog. "We have a comical little pig on our farm named Squinty. Did you ever see him?"
"I think not," answered Tum Tum. "You see I haven't been in this country very long. Did you bring the pig to the circus?"
"Gracious, no!" barked Don. "He had to stay home in the pen. But my master, his boy and I came to see you elephants, and other circus animals. Only I never knew what an elephant was like before."
"Well, now you know," said Tum Tum, "so you won't bark at, or bite, the next one you see."
"Indeed I shall not," said Don. "I have to bark at Squinty, the comical pig, once in a while, when he gets out of the pen, and once I took hold of his ear in my teeth."
"I hope you didn't hurt him," said Tum Tum.
"No, I wouldn't do that for the world," said Don. And those of you who have read about "Squinty, the Comical Pig," know how kind Don was to him.
"So you came to see the circus?" went on Tum Tum to Don, as the dog's master and his boy looked about at the strange sights.
"Yes, though I don't know exactly what a circus is," said Don.
"Well, this is the start of it," Tum Tum said. "These are our winter quarters. Soon we shall start out on the road, and live in a tent. Then I shall do my tricks, the children and the people will laugh and shout, and give me popcorn balls and peanuts. Oh, yum-yum!" and Tum Tum smacked his lips because he thought of the goodthings he was going to have to eat a little later on.
"Can you do tricks?" asked Don.
"Indeed I can, a great many," the elephant said. "I can stand on my hind feet—so!" and up he rose in the air, until his little short tail dangled on the ground.
"Anything else?" asked Don. "That's a good trick. Let me see you do another."
"Look!" cried Tum Tum, and this time he stood on his front legs, and raised his hind ones in the air.
"That's harder to do," said the jolly elephant.
"I should think so," agreed Don. "I'm going to try it myself." Don did try, but when he wanted to stand on his front legs, he fell over and bumped his nose. And when he tried to stand on his hind legs, he fell over backward and bumped his head.
"I—I guess I can't do it," he said to Tum Tum.
"It needs much practice to do it well," spoke the jolly elephant.
"Here, Tum Tum!" called one of the circus men. "This is no time to be doing tricks. Come and help push some more of these wagons. If the circus is ever to start out on the road, to give shows in the tent, we must start soon.Come, push some of these wagons, with your big, strong head."
"I'll have to go now," said Tum Tum to Don, the dog, for they were now good friends. "I may see you again, sometime."
"I hope you will," spoke Don. "Your circus is coming to our town, I know, for the barns on our farm are pasted over with posters, and bills."
"Then I may see you when we get there," said Tum Tum, as he walked slowly forward to push the wagon pointed out by the circus man.
That is how Don and Tum Tum became acquainted. As the dog went off with his master and the boy, he barked a good-by to Tum Tum, saying:
"If you come near our place, I'll show you Squinty, the comical pig. One eye is wide open, and the other partly shut."
"He must be a funny chap," said Tum Tum. The big, jolly elephant pushed into place the heavy wagon. Then it was dinner time. But as Tum Tum was eating his hay and carrots in the animal tent, for he was kept in that, now that the weather was warmer, all at once Tum Tum heard a loud shouting.
"Look out for that wagon. The tiger cage wagon is rolling down hill. It will turn over,be smashed, and the tiger will get out! Stop that wagon, somebody!"
Tum Tum heard this shouting, and looking out of the side of his tent, he saw a big red and gold wagon rushing down the hill backwards.
"I must stop that wagon," said Tum Tum.
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Tum Tum, the jolly elephant, pulled hard on the chain that held his big leg fast to a stake driven into the ground. He wanted to get loose so he could stop the wagon from rolling down hill, maybe upsetting and letting the big tiger out.
"I know I can stop the wagon, if they will only take this chain off my leg, so I can get out there," thought Tum Tum, as he pulled and tugged at the chain and peg.
Outside the tent men were running and shouting. Some of them tried to put stones in the way of the wagon wheels, but the tiger's cage was so heavy that it rolled right over the stones.
The tiger was frightened and angry, and he growled and snarled, until you would have thought he was back in the jungle again.
"Let me loose! Let me loose!" trumpeted Tum Tum through his trunk, as he waved it to and fro. Of course none of the circus men could understand this language, but Tum Tum's keeper knew what the big elephant meant.
The keeper came running in the tent.
"Tum Tum!" he cried. "I believe you can stop that wagon. Stop the tiger cage! Get in front of it, and push on it with your big head. That will stop it from rolling down hill!"
"I will! I will!" said Tum Tum, only, of course, he spoke in elephant language.
The keeper soon took the chain off Tum Tum's leg, and the big elephant rushed out of the tent, and toward the rolling wagon. None of the men had yet been able to stop it, and it was half way down the hill now, going faster and faster. Inside, the tiger was growling and snarling louder than ever, and trying to break out through the iron bars.
"Look out! He'll get away!" cried Mappo, who had run and jumped inside the cage with the other monkeys. "Old Sharp Tooth will get loose."
"No, he won't!" said Tum Tum, who was now going toward the tiger's cage as fast as he could. "Don't be afraid, Mappo," the elephant went on, for he knew monkeys are very much afraid of tigers. "I won't let him get you, Mappo," said Tum Tum.
On rushed the big elephant toward the rolling cage. He got in front of it, and then he stood still, in the middle of the hill, waiting for the tiger's cage, on wheels, to roll down to him.
"Look out, Tum Tum, or it will hit you!" chattered Mappo.
"That's what I want it to do," said Tum Tum. "But it can't hurt me, as my head is so big and strong. Now you watch me!"
On came the tiger's cage. Tum Tum stood there ready to let it bunk into him. His legs were spread far apart so he himself would not be knocked over.
Bang!
That was the tiger's cage hitting Tum Tum on the head.
"Ouch!" yelled the big elephant through his trunk, for though it did not hurt him much, he felt a little pain.
Then he stood there, and pushed so hard on the big wagon, that it could not roll down hill any more. Instead, it began to roll back up the hill, as Tum Tum pushed on it.
"That's the way to do it, Tum Tum!" cried the elephant's keeper. "I knew you could do it. Come on now, old fellow. Push the cage right back where it belongs."
Tum Tum did so. Soon the tiger's cage was in line with those of the lions, wolves, bears and other animals, ready for the circus to begin.
"Oh, but I'm glad the tiger didn't get loose," said Mappo, to Tum Tum. "I was so afraid!"
"Why were you afraid?" the big elephant wanted to know.
"Oh, because Sharp Tooth, the tiger, does not like me. I am sure he would bite me, if he got loose."
"Why would he do that?" asked Tum Tum.
"Because I would not let him out of his cage, when he and I were caught in the jungle," answered the monkey.
Then he told about the time Sharp Tooth had tried to get out of his cage.
"Never fear, Mappo," said Tum Tum. "I'll not let Sharp Tooth hurt you as long as I am around."
"Thank you," said Mappo.
For several days after this the circus went from town to town, traveling after dark each night, so as to be ready to give a show in the day-time.
One day Sharp Tooth, the tiger, spoke to Tum Tum as the elephant was passing the cage.
"Why did you stop my wagon from rolling down hill, Tum Tum?" asked the tiger.
"Because I did not want to see it smashed, and see you thrown out, Sharp Tooth," answered Tum Tum.
"But that is just what I wanted to do—get out," spoke the tiger. "I want to get loose! I am tired of staying in the cage!"
"But if you got out, you might bite someone," went on Tum Tum.
"Yes, that is just what I would do," growled the tiger. "I would bite and scratch until the men would be glad to let me go back to my jungle again. I am mad at you for not letting my cage run on. If you had, I would now be free."
"Well, I am glad you are not free," said Tum Tum, as he looked at the sharp teeth and sharp claws of the tiger, and thought of little Mappo.
"Then I am mad at you, and I am going to stay mad," said the tiger, and he sulked in his cage.
Tum Tum was not very much afraid of the tiger now, even though he knew the bad animal might some day get loose and scratch him.
"I don't believe Sharp Tooth will ever get out," said Tum Tum to himself.
The big elephant had good times in the circus. He had to do only a few tricks in the afternoon, and some more in the evening. The rest of the time he could eat or sleep, except when the circus moved from place to place. Then he would have to help the other elephants push the heavy wagons up on the railroad trains. But Tum Tum did not mind this.
What he liked, best of all, was to stand in the animal tent, before and after his trick performances, and watch the children and grown people come in to look at him and the other animals. Some of the little children seemed afraid of the elephants, but when Tum Tum saw one of these frightened little tots, he would just put out his trunk, and gently stroke some other little boy or girl, so as to show how gentle he was. Then the frightened one's mother or father would say:
"See, the good elephant will not hurt you. Come, give him some peanuts or popcorn."
Then the child would hand Tum Tum a peanut, and Tum Tum would eat it with a twinkle in his little eyes.
Of course Tum Tum would much rather have had a whole bag full of peanuts at a time, for he could put them all in his mouth, and more, at once.
Still, Tum Tum was glad enough to get single peanuts at a time, and though it was hard work to chew a single one in his big mouth, just as it would be hard for you to chew just one grain of sugar, still Tum Tum was very polite, and he never refused to take the single peanuts.
"A big ball of popcorn makes something pretty good to chew on," said Tum Tum to one of the elephants chained near him. "I like that, don't you?"
"Indeed I do," the elephant said. "We nevergot anything as nice as popcorn and peanuts in the jungle, did we?"
"No," answered Tum Tum, thinking of the days in the dense jungle. Tum Tum wondered what had become of Mr. Boom and where his father and mother, and his other elephant friends, might be.
"I suppose they are still back in the lumber yard, piling up teakwood logs," thought Tum Tum. "I am glad I am in the circus, even if I did have to be pulled up with a rope to make me learn how to stand on my head and my hind legs."
Tum Tum could do many other tricks besides these now, and he was such a jolly old elephant, always doing as he was told without any grumbling, that all the circus men liked him.
If there was anything hard to do, or any trick that none of the other elephants could go through, Tum Tum was sure to be called on.
"He is the smartest elephant of all," his keeper would say, and this made Tum Tum feel very proud and happy.
One day there was much excitement in the animal tent, and at first Tum Tum thought maybe the tiger had gotten loose again, or that another big cage had rolled down hill.
When one of the animal men rushed in andcalled out something, Tum Tum knew it was not that.
"One of the monkeys is missing," said one trainer to another. "It is Mappo, that smart one."
"Ha! Is that so?" asked the other. "How did he get loose?"
"He must have slipped out of the cage, when we were on the road. Come, we are going to try to find him."
"I know a good way," said the keeper of Tum Tum. "I shall take my elephant with me. My elephant and that monkey Mappo were good friends. If Mappo sees Tum Tum, he will be glad to come back. So we will take Tum Tum to hunt Mappo."
"Ha! That is good!" thought Tum Tum, as he listened.
Soon the hunt for Mappo began. Many of the circus men started for the woods to look for the lost monkey. Tum Tum went along also, his keeper riding on his back.
"I wonder if we will find Mappo?" thought Tum Tum.