SHAGGO AND TUM TUM
Shaggo knew what rattlesnakes were, for sometimes, in the hot summers,
they were seen in the National Park on the buffalo range.
He had heard his father and mother, as well as Wuffo, the old bull
leader of the herd, speak of rattlesnakes, and tell what great pain
followed if a buffalo were bitten on the leg or the nose by one. So
when Shaggo saw the long, snaky thing stuck into his cage, near the
bunch of hay, the buffalo cried:
“Get out of here!”
“Easy now! Easy!” answered a voice, which was almost as rumbly as his
own, and not at all like the hissing talk of a snake. “I am not going
to hurt you.”
“I don’t know whether you are or not,” answered Shaggo, shrinking back
into a corner of his cage. “But I was always told to keep away from
rattlesnakes; and, though you haven’t rattled yet, I’m sure you’re one
of those crawling serpents.”
“Ha! Ha! Ha!” laughed the other voice. “That’s where you’re fooled.
Though I’m sorry that I frightened you. Look up and you’ll soon see
that I am not a snake. Though I must admit my long trunk does twist
like one.”
Shaggo looked up and to one side. He saw a great, gray-colored animal,
much larger than himself, standing near his cage. And it was this
animal that had thrust in between the bars, something that the buffalo
had taken for a snake. Then he saw it was not――that it was part of the
great animal.
“Well, I see you’re not a snake,” said the buffalo; “but, if it’s all
the same to you, please take your tail out of my hay.”
“This isn’t my tail,” went on the big creature. “My tail is on the
other end. This is my trunk that you see.”
“Your trunk!” cried Shaggo. “What do you do with a trunk?”
“It is really only my nose, made extra long so I can pick up things
with it and feed myself,” was the answer.
“Nonsense!” exclaimed Shaggo, who was beginning to feel friendly toward
this new, big circus animal. “Do you mean to tell me you can pick up
things with your nose?”
“Of course I can!” was the answer. “Do you want to see me? If you don’t
mind I’ll take a little of your hay. It is fresher than mine.”
“Help yourself,” replied Shaggo.
The long thing, which Shaggo had thought was a snake, was once more
thrust in between the bars of his cage. And then, to his surprise, the
buffalo saw that on the end of the long object was something like a
finger and thumb. This picked up a wisp of hay, more hay was encircled
in a coil of the trunk, and then the fodder was lifted up and stuffed
down a large, red mouth.
“There, Shaggo, as I heard the circus men call you, do you believe I
can pick up things with my nose?” asked the big animal.
“Yes,” answered the buffalo, “I do. But I never would have believed
it if I had not seen it. Who are you, if you please, and what are you
called?”
“I am Tum Tum, the jolly elephant,” was the answer. “I have been in the
circus for some time, and I am glad that you have come to live with
us. I suppose you are a new kind of sacred cow, for those are the only
animals I ever saw with humps on their backs, except the camels, and I
know you aren’t a camel. You’re too good-looking to be a camel, though
the camels are friends of mine,” went on the jolly elephant, who never
spoke a bad word against any of his circus companions.
“No, I am not a camel, nor am I a sacred cow,” said Shaggo. “I did not
know there were any animals other than myself who had humps.”
“Oh, yes,” said Tum Tum. “Look over there and you can see the camels.”
Shaggo looked, as Tum Tum pointed with his trunk, and saw some rather
ugly animals chewing hay. Some had two humps and some had one.
“They are taller than I am, but they are not so strong,” said Shaggo.
“And they have no horns. I should not object to meeting them in a
fight.”
“Oh, my dear Shaggo! We never think of fighting!” laughed Tum Tum. “All
of us, here in the circus, are friends. You’ll soon get used to us.”
“Yes, I suppose I shall, after my sore shoulder stops hurting,” said
the buffalo.
“Is that where your shoulder is swelled?” asked Tum Tum. “I’m sorry. I
heard some of the circus men talking about it. At first I thought you
had two humps, like some of the camels.”
“No, there is something queer growing on my shoulder,” went on Shaggo.
“It hurts and I don’t like it. But perhaps I got that for running away.”
“Did you run away?” asked Tum Tum, and he took a little more of the
buffalo’s fresh hay. “I did once, but I was glad to run back. Tell me
about it, please.”
So in animal talk Shaggo told Tum Tum how the big jump had been made
over the fence and how the buffalo had hurt himself.
He turned to get a drink of water from the tub full in his cage when,
all of a sudden, he heard a loud, roaring sound.
“What’s that?” asked Shaggo of Tum Tum.
“Oh, that’s Nero, the circus lion,” was the answer. “He smells the meat
the men are bringing for his dinner, and he’s telling them how glad he
will be to get it.”
“Well, I don’t know who Nero is,” remarked Shaggo, “but he certainly
makes a lot of noise.”
“Who is talking about me?” roared the lion, whose cage was not far from
that of the buffalo.
“It’s a new circus animal,” answered Tum Tum. “Nero, allow me to
introduce you to Shaggo, the mighty buffalo.”
“Pleased to meet you,” roared Nero. “Were you ever in a book?”
“Did you say a _brook_?” asked Shaggo. “Yes, I have often waded in a
brook. It’s lots of fun, isn’t it?”
“No, I didn’t say _brook_!” roared Nero, who was not impolite. That was
his lion manner of speaking. “I said _book_. I don’t know how you spell
it, but it’s something that tells stories of animals.”
[Illustration: “Pleased to meet you,” roared Nero.]
Shaggo shook his head.
“No,” he answered, “I don’t believe I was ever in a book. Though Wuffo,
the leader of our herd, used to tell stories of the days when millions
of buffaloes wandered over the prairies.”
“He must have been in a book to know about stories,” said Nero. “I’m in
a book; and so is Tum Tum and several of us circus animals. Chunky, the
happy hippo, is in a book, too. But now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll eat.
Here comes the meat I was hoping for.” And Nero, the big circus lion,
growled and roared his thanks to the man who brought him some bones and
a chunk of meat.
“Well,” thought Shaggo, “I don’t know anything about this book
business, but if it will cure my aching shoulder the sooner I get in
a book the better. I say!” he suddenly called to Tum Tum. “Who’s that
funny animal with the long tail? It looks as if somebody got hold of
it, stretched it away out long and that it stayed that way. Who is he?”
“That’s Mappo, the merry monkey,” was the answer. “He’s in a book,
too,” went on the elephant, “and he has had many adventures.”
“Indeed I have,” said Mappo, with a laugh. “And let me tell you,
Shaggo, that nobody stretched out my tail. It was always long that way,
so I could swing by it from trees in the jungle. But now I only swing
from this trapeze in my cage, or hang by a bar in the big tent when I
do tricks, after the circus starts on the road. Watch me!”
As he spoke Mappo gave a jump across his cage, caught his tail on the
bar of a swinging trapeze, and swayed to and fro like the pendulum of a
clock.
“That’s quite a trick!” cried Shaggo. “I could never do that, though
once I did give a big jump.”
The buffalo was beginning to like it in the circus, and he told his new
friends so.
“Oh, the fun here in the winter barns is nothing to what will happen
when the circus starts out on the road and we show in a tent in a
different city every day,” said Tum Tum. “I’m just waiting for that
time to come!”
“So am I!” chattered Mappo, the merry monkey.
Sometimes Tum Tum, and again Nero or Mappo, would be taken out of the
barn where they had been stationed near Shaggo. Then, in an hour or so,
men would bring them back.
“Where have you been?” Shaggo would ask.
“To practise our tricks,” Tum Tum answered. “We are getting ready to
travel out on the road.”
In another week Shaggo noticed a busy time in the barn. Men began
touching up the wagons with paint, new wheels were put on some, and
then, one day, dozens of horses came in and were hitched to the cages
that could be drawn from place to place.
“Hurray! Now we are going to travel!” said Tum Tum.
Shaggo’s cage was drawn outside the barn, and for the first time in
many weeks the buffalo saw the shining sun and felt the warm summer
breezes blowing on him. His cage was rolled to one side, and the horses
went back into the barn to haul out others.
How it happened no one seemed to know, but, all of a sudden, Shaggo’s
cage, with him in it, began to roll down a hill. It went slowly at
first, but soon began to roll faster, and men cried:
“Oh look! The buffalo will be hurt! His cage will roll down on the
rocks and be smashed!”