Tum Tum, the Jolly Elephant Part 14

Later on, in the show, Tum Tum, as he went through his tricks, saw the little boy and girl sitting near the ring, with their papa, watching the animals and performers.

Two or three days after that something else happened to Tum Tum, and it made him very happy.

He was in the tent, after the show, eating his hay, and blowing dust over his back now and then to keep away the flies and mosquitoes, when, all of a sudden, in came a monkey. Tum Tum gave one look at the monkey, and then another look.

"Why--why!" cried Tum Tum, in elephant language. "That looks like Mappo."

"I am Mappo!" cried the little chap. "Oh, don't let him get me!"

"Let who get you?" cried Tum Tum. "What is the matter?" for Mappo looked very frightened.

"The hand-organ man is after me!" chattered Mappo, and with that he gave a jump, and landed right upon Tum Tum's broad back.

"Don't be afraid," said the elephant. "No one will get you while I am here, Mappo," and Tum Tum swung his long trunk.

Then in came the hand-organ man after the monkey, just as I have told you he did in the book about Mappo. But the circus men and Tum Tum would not let Mappo go. And Tum Tum looked so big and fierce and strong that the hand-organ man was afraid to try to take Mappo away.

So that is how Mappo came back to the circus again, after having had many adventures. He told Tum Tum all about them.

"Are you going to run away again?" asked Tum Tum.

"No, I guess not," answered Mappo, hanging by his tail.

Tum Tum was glad Mappo had come back, for the big elephant was lonesome for his little friend, and I guess Mappo was also lonesome for Tum Tum.

At any rate, the two were soon as good friends as before.

The show went on from town to town, and it was nearing the time for the circus season to be over. Then the animals would be taken back to the big barn, there to stay all winter, until spring and summer should come again.

One day a bad man came into the tent where the elephants were standing, eating their hay, and held out something in his hand. Tum Tum, and the other elephants, stretched out their trunks, for it seemed as if the man had something good for them to eat. And Tum Tum, being the nearest, reached it first.

The thing the man held out was in a bag, and it smelled like peanuts. In fact, there were a few peanuts, and sh.e.l.ls, in the bag but, besides that, there were also some sour lemons, which Tum Tum did not like at all. But he had chewed on them before he knew what they were, not stopping to open the bag the bad man gave him.

As he felt the sour juice running down his throat, Tum Tum gave a squeal. He was angry at the man who had played this trick on him.

"Ha! Ha!" laughed the man. "I fooled you that time, Mr. Elephant. How do you like lemons?"

Tum Tum did not answer.

He just reached his trunk in his mouth, and pulled out the sour stuff, and threw it away. The man laughed very hard at his mean trick, and one of the keepers said to him:

"You had better look out. Elephants have good memories, and if ever you get near Tum Tum, where he can reach you, you may be sorry for what you did."

"Oh, I'm not afraid of an elephant!" cried the man with another laugh.

"If ever I can reach that man with my trunk, I'll make him wish he'd never given me lemons," thought Tum Tum. But, try as he did, he could not stretch himself far enough to reach the man, for there were chains about the legs of the elephant.

Later on that day, the same man came walking past the elephants in the animal tent, after the circus was over. I guess he had forgotten about the trick he played. But Tum Tum and the other elephants had not forgotten.

All of a sudden Maggo, the elephant standing next to Tum Tum, saw the bad man, and, reaching out her trunk, Maggo caught him around the waist, and lifted him off his feet.

"Oh! Oh! Put me down! Oh, an elephant has me!" cried the man.

Instantly there was great excitement in the animal tent. The people yelled, and the trainers came running over to see what was the matter.

They saw the man lifted high in the air in Maggo's trunk.

"Put him down! Put him down at once!" cried Maggo's keeper.

But Maggo was not going to do that at once.

"Now is your chance, Tum Tum," said Maggo. "I'll hold this bad man, who gave you lemons instead of peanuts, and you can hit him with your trunk."

"No, I'll not do that," said Tum Tum, who was very gentle. "If I did, I might hurt him, for I strike very hard with my trunk. But I will fix him, so he will not play any more tricks on elephants."

Then Tum Tum dipped his trunk in a tub of water near by, and, suddenly, spurted it all over the man, making him as wet as if he had gone in swimming.

"Oh, my! Oh, dear! Oh, stop it!" cried the man excitedly, with the water squirting all over him.

"Let him down now, Maggo," said Tum Tum, with a queer little twinkle, like laughter, in his eyes. "I guess he won't want to play any more tricks."

Maggo set down the dripping man, who was glad enough to run away. He did not once look back.

"It served you right, for giving Tum Tum lemons," said a keeper. "Some elephants would have done worse than just to squirt water on you."

One afternoon it was very hot in the circus. It was so hot that the sides of the animal tent were lowered to let in the air, but, even at that it was not very cool.

"Don't you wish we were back in the jungle, near some river, where we could wade in and float until the sun went down?" asked Maggo of Tum Tum.

"Indeed I do," was the answer. "But there is no use wis.h.i.+ng."

"It doesn't seem so," spoke Maggo, and she fanned herself with her large ears, in a way elephants have. "I wish I had something cool to drink,"

went on Maggo.

"Yes, a nice, cool drink would be just fine," said Tum Tum. "But I do not see where we are going to get it," he went on.

Then he happened to look over the side of the tent, which had been let down low, to allow the breeze to come in. What Tum Tum saw made him feel very good.

Just outside the tent, was a lemonade stand, and on the ground by it was a big washtub full of pink lemonade, the kind they always sell at circuses. Tum Tum stretched out his trunk, and found that he could easily reach the pink lemonade.

"I say, Maggo," called Tum Tum, in an elephant whisper. "I know how to get a cool drink."

"How?" asked Maggo. "Now, don't play any joke on me. I could not bear that. I am so thirsty!"

"No, this isn't a joke," said Tum Tum. "At least it isn't a joke on you.

Come, we shall both have a drink. Put your trunk out over the side of the tent. On the ground outside is a big washtub, full of pink lemonade.

We can easily suck it up through our trunks and drink it. Come on, I'll show you how to do it."

"Oh, fine!" cried Maggo. Then she and Tum Tum, not thinking it was wrong, put their trunks down in the pink lemonade, and sucked it all out, putting it into their mouths.