TUM TUM AND THE LEMONADE
The little boy and girl, who had ridden on the back of Tum Tum, the
jolly elephant, stretched up their hands toward the balloons that had
caught in the tree. They even got up again into the little house, and,
standing up, tried to reach their floating toys.
"Sit down! Sit down!" called their father.
"Yes, you might fall," said Tum Tum's trainer, or keeper, who was also
riding in the little house on the elephant's back.
"But we want our balloons!" cried the little boy.
"Yes, our nice toy balloons!" said the little girl, and there were tears
in her eyes. Tum Tum felt sorry for her. He did not like to see little
girls cry.
"I must get those balloons back for them," Tum Tum said to himself, over
and over again.
"I'll get you other balloons," said the children's papa again, trying to
make them feel happier. But the boy and girl wanted the same balloons
they had had first.
"Now if Mappo were only here," thought Tum Tum, "he could easily climb
up that tree, even if it is a slender one, and will easily bend. For
Mappo is not very heavy, and he could go away up to the top of the tree.
"But no one else can, and none of the monkeys but Mappo is smart enough
to do it. So I'll have to get the balloons myself."
And how do you think Tum Tum did it? Of course he could not climb a
tree--no elephant could, even if it were a big tree. But Tum Tum was
very strong, and, just as he had often done in the jungle, he wrapped
his long, rubbery hose-like nose, or trunk, around the tree.
"Here, Tum Tum, what are you doing?" called his keeper.
"Umph! Umph! Wumph!" Tum Tum answered. That meant: "You just watch me,
if you please, and you'll see."
Then Tum Tum just pulled and pulled as hard on that tree, and up he
pulled it by the roots. Right out of the ground the big elephant pulled
the tree, and then, holding it in his strong trunk, he tipped it over so
the top branches were close to the children on his back.
And, tangled in the branches were the cords of the toy balloons, that
still bobbed about.
[Illustration: Right out of the ground the big elephant pulled the tree.
Page 98]
"Oh, look!" cried the boy. "Here are our balloons, sister!"
"Oh, so they are!" exclaimed the little girl. "Oh, what a good elephant
he is to get our balloons back for us!"
"I should say he was!" cried the papa. "That is a smart elephant you
have," he said to the keeper.
"Yes, Tum Tum is very good and smart," said the circus man. He reached
over, loosed the strings of the balloons from the tree branch, and gave
the ends of the cords to the children.
"Now you may let go of the tree, Tum Tum," the man said to the elephant,
and Tum Tum dropped the tree on the ground.
"Oh, papa, the elephant was so good to us, can't we buy him a bag of
peanuts?" asked the little girl.
"I guess so," answered her papa, with a laugh.
"And may I buy him some popcorn balls?" asked the boy.
"Oh, yes, but I hope Tum Tum doesn't become ill from all that sweet
stuff," said the papa.
"Oh, I guess he won't--he's used to being fed by the children," the
circus man said.
When Tum Tum heard the boy and girl talking about getting him good
things to eat, the big elephant felt very glad. For he was such a big
fellow that he was nearly always hungry, and, no matter how many
peanuts or popcorn balls he had, he was always willing to eat more.
It was now nearly time for the circus to begin, and Tum Tum was led back
toward the tent, the children still riding on his back, holding tightly
to the strings of their balloons. They were not going to lose them a
second time, if they could help it.
Near the tent was the same peanut man whose stand had nearly burned up
the time Tum Tum put out the blaze with water from his trunk. The boy
and girl bought two bags full of peanuts from this man, and from another
man they bought popcorn balls. These they fed to Tum Tum, who reached
out his trunk for them, and put them into his mouth.
"Good-by, Tum Tum!" called the little girl to him, waving one hand,
while in the other she held her balloon.
"Good-by, elephant!" called the little boy, also waving his hand. "I'll
see you in the circus," he added.
Tum Tum waved his trunk. He was too busy chewing popcorn and peanuts to
speak, even if he could have talked boy and girl language, which he
could not.
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 shells, 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 wishing."
"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.
"Oh, but that's good!" cried Tum Tum, for the lemonade happened to be
very sweet.
"It certainly is," said Maggo. "I wish there were more."