Tum Tum, the Jolly Elephant Part 4

"Because it is for your good," said the tame elephant. "The white hunters are very strong. You may get away from them now, but they will come after you again. It is better to give in now. If you are good, and do not try to break down the fence, you will wear no chains."

"But what will happen to us--to me and my father and mother?" asked Tum Tum.

"You will be put to work, piling teak logs in the woods," said the tame elephant. "You will have enough to eat, you will have shelter from the rain and the flies. You will have water to drink and to wash in. It is a good life. I like it."

"Is that all that will happen to me?" asked Tum Tum.

"Perhaps not," answered the tame elephant. "You may be sent far across the big water, in a house that floats, and go, as other elephants have gone, to a circus, or menagerie, for the boys and girls to look at, and feed peanuts to."

"What are peanuts?" asked Tum Tum, who was hungry.

"I do not know, never having eaten any," said the tame elephant. "But one of my brothers, who was in a circus in a far off land, and who came back here, said they were very good. Now shall we put the chains on you--I and my tame brothers--or will you be quiet--you and the others?"

Tum Tum thought for a minute. After all he was caught, and it would be hard to get away, even if he were the strongest elephant in the herd, now that Mr. Boom was gone. Then, too, it might be nice in a circus, and Tum Tum certainly wanted to see what peanuts were like.

"I--I will be good, tame brother," he said. "You need not put the chains and ropes on me."

"You are wise, Tum Tum," said the tame elephant. "We will put no chains on you. And about the others?" he asked.

"The others will do as I do," said Tum Tum. "I am the leader now."

"Good!" trumpeted the tame elephant, whose name was Dunda. "My brother from the jungle is wise."

So Tum Tum had no more chains put on his legs or back, and those that were on him, with the ropes, were taken off.

"So we are not to try to break from the trap?" asked Whoo-ee.

"No, for we will be well treated here," said Tum Tum, "and some of us may go to a circus."

"What is a circus?" asked Zunga.

"It is a place where boys and girls look at us, and feed us peanuts,"

answered Tum Tum.

"I will not go to any circus!" cried Gumble-umble. "I am going to break out of this trap!"

"You must not!" cried Tum Tum. "I have said that we would all be good, and I am the leader."

"You cannot lead me!" trumpeted Gumble-umble, and he rushed at the fence of the stockade, or trap. But before he could reach it, two tame elephants rushed at him, and Gumble-umble was soon bound with strong chains and ropes, so that he could hardly move.

"It is all your fault!" he cried to Tum Tum.

"No, it is your own," said Gumble-umble's papa. "Now you must quiet down and be a good elephant. We are caught, we can go no more to the jungle, but perhaps it is best for us."

So Tum Tum and the wild elephants were thus caught.

For a time the herd of wild elephants was kept inside the fence. They were given good things to eat, and plenty of water to drink, and to blow over themselves with their trunks, to cool off. They did not try to get away, though once, in the night, Mr. Boom came as close to the outside of the trap, or stockade, as he dared, and trumpeted, trying to call his herd back to him. But they would not go. They were beginning to like it, with the tame elephants.

In a little while all the wild elephants, Tum Tum included, were quite tame. Then they were taken out, a few at a time, out to the forest, and shown how to pile up the heavy logs of teakwood, which is used for building s.h.i.+ps, and sometimes for making tables and chairs.

The tame elephants showed the wild ones how to carry the logs on their tusks, or in their trunks, and how to pile them up as neatly as you can pile up your building blocks.

Tum Tum learned to do this, and also how to push heavy wagons about with his head. He also learned much of the man-talk, so that his driver, or _mahoot_, as he is called, could, by a few words, make Tum Tum understand just what was wanted.

One day Tum Tum was taken away from the rest of the herd, and he did not even have a chance to say good-by. He was led up what seemed to be a little bridge, and Tum Tum was afraid it would fall with him. But it did not.

Next he walked down into a dark place, and he found other elephants there. Some of them he knew.

"Where are we, and where are we going?" he asked.

"We are in a s.h.i.+p, and we are being taken across the ocean to a circus,"

answered Whoo-ee, who was one of the elephants in the dark place, which was the inside of a steams.h.i.+p.

"A circus! Good!" cried Tum Tum. "Now I shall know how a peanut tastes."

The s.h.i.+p began to move and rock. It rocked and swayed for many days, for it was on the ocean. And then, one day, a sailor came down to see the elephants. He brought with him a queer little animal, with thick, brown hair. And this animal chattered in jungle talk.

"Ha! I seem to know who that is!" thought Tum Tum.

"Chatter! Chatter! Chat! Chur-r-r-r-r-r!" went the little brown-haired animal, as he sprang from the arms of the sailor.

"Umph! Umph!" trumpeted Tum Tum.

Then the little brown monkey, for such it was, gave a jump from the arms of the sailor, and landed up on the back of the elephant.

"h.e.l.lo, Tum Tum!" cried the monkey.

"Why, it's Mappo!" exclaimed Tum Tum. "How did you get here?"

"I was caught in a net, when I was eating some cocoanut," the monkey said. I have told you how that happened in a book called, "Mappo, the Merry Monkey."

[Ill.u.s.tration: He fell down on his knees, while Mappo sailed 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 pa.s.sed 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.