Tum Tum, the Jolly Elephant Part 8

[Ill.u.s.tration: All this while Tum Tum was holding Don high in the air 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 b.a.l.l.s and peanuts. Oh, yum-yum!" and Tum Tum smacked his lips because he thought of the good things 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 b.u.mped his nose. And when he tried to stand on his hind legs, he fell over backward and b.u.mped 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 rus.h.i.+ng down the hill backwards.

"I must stop that wagon," said Tum Tum.

CHAPTER VII

TUM TUM LOOKS FOR MAPPO