TUM TUM AND THE TIGER
The two elephants sucked up all the pink lemonade from the washtub near
the stand outside the tent. Then they felt much better, and cooler. They
did not mind the heat so much.
But, in a little while, there was a great sound of some one shouting and
calling outside the tent. It was the voice of the man who had made the
pink lemonade to sell to those who came to see the circus.
"Oh, my lemonade!" cried the man. "My pink lemonade! It is all gone!
Some one drank it all up, or else it leaked out of the tub! What shall I
do? What shall I do?"
The man ran up and down, trying to find his lemonade, but it was all
gone.
"Say, Tum Tum," said Maggo, "was that his lemonade we drank?"
"I--I guess it must have been," said Tum Tum. "But I didn't know it
belonged to anybody. I thought it was just standing there in the tub,
and that we might as well take it as anyone else."
"Well, it's too bad if we've taken the poor man's lemonade, that he was
going to sell for money," said Maggo.
"Yes, it is," agreed Tum Tum. "But we can't help it now."
"Yes," spoke Maggo. "We can't do anything."
Just then the man who owned the lemonade looked up, and saw the trunks
of the two elephants sticking out over the top of the tent. The man
guessed what had happened.
"Ha! They took my lemonade!" the man cried. "They sucked it up through
their trunks. Oh, they took my lemonade, and I'll make the circus pay
for it!"
Tum Tum's keeper heard the noise the man was making, and came running
up.
"What is the matter?" asked the circus man.
"Oh, yoy! Yoy!" cried the man. "Your elephants took all my pink
lemonade, from the washtub where I had ice in it! They sucked it up in
their rubber-hose trunks!"
"Tum Tum, did you and Maggo do that?" asked the keeper.
Tum Tum could not answer, of course. But the circus man looked at Tum
Tum's long, white ivory tusks, and on one of them were some splashes of
pink lemonade.
"Yes, Tum Tum, you did it," said the man. "Well, I won't punish you,
for you did not know any better, I suppose."
"But what about my lemonade?" asked the peddler. "Don't I get paid for
it?"
"Yes, I guess the circus will have to pay you," spoke the keeper. "After
all, I am glad Tum Tum had it, for he has been a good elephant, and so
has Maggo. I am glad they had it!"
The other elephants wished they had had some also, but there was not
enough to go around. The keeper paid the man for the lemonade the
elephants had taken, and the man made another washtub full. But this he
took care to place far enough away from the tent, so the elephants could
not reach over and suck it up in their trunks.
"Well, we made a lot of trouble, even though we did not mean to," said
Tum Tum to Maggo that evening, when they were cooling off after the
show. "But that lemonade tasted good, didn't it?"
"It certainly did," said Maggo with a sigh that almost shook the tent.
That night Tum Tum, and all the elephants, had to work very hard,
pushing the heavy animal cages down the road to where they were loaded
on the railroad cars to go to a distant city. As Tum Tum was pushing the
cage of Sharp Tooth, the big tiger, he heard that striped animal
talking with Roarer, the lion.
"Can you hear me, Roarer?" asked Sharp Tooth, as her cage was pushed
alongside that of the King of Beasts.
"Yes, I can hear you, Sharp Tooth," said Roarer. "What is it you want to
say?"
At this Tum Tum lifted wide his ears away from his sides, so he could
hear better.
"I think something is going to happen," mused Tum Tum.
Then Tum Tum made up his mind that he would listen and find out what it
was. He knew the tiger and lion were dangerous animals. They had never
become tame, and were always trying to find a way to escape, or get
loose from their cages.
"And if that's what they're trying this time, I'll stop them if I can,"
thought Tum Tum.
So, while he was pushing first the tiger, and then the lion cage along,
he listened, though he pretended not to hear anything.
"What is it you want to tell me, Sharp Tooth?" asked Roarer.
"Listen carefully," answered the tiger. "Can you hear me?"
"Yes, yes," growled the lion again. "What is it? Be quick!"
"I know a way to get out of our cages," said the tiger. "If I tell you,
will you come with me? Then we can run off to the woods, and live there
until we can find our way back to the jungle. Will you come with me,
Roarer?"
"Yes," said the lion, "I will. Tell me how to get out of my cage and
back to the jungle."
The lion and tiger did not know that the jungle, where they had lived,
was many miles away, across the big ocean.
"This is how we can get out," said Sharp Tooth. "You know when the man
cleans our cages each night, he leaves the door unlocked so the feeding
man can follow and put meat in easily."
"Does he do that?" asked the lion. "I never noticed."
"Yes, he always does that," said the tiger. "For a little while each
evening, just before we are fed, the doors of our cages are not locked.
We can easily push them open, before the meat man comes to feed us and
closes them. We can get out then."
"But if we go before we get our meat, we shall be hungry," roared the
lion.
"What of it, silly?" cried Sharp Tooth. "Is it not better to get away,
and be hungry for a little while, than to stay here shut up in a cage
all your life?"
"Well, I suppose it is," said the lion with a big sigh. "Then we are to
come out of our cages to-night?"
"Yes, soon after the man has finished cleaning them, and has left the
door unlocked. He does not know that I know about the door. I suppose he
imagines I think it is as tightly shut as ever. But it isn't!"
"Good!" cried the lion. "Then we'll run away! But when?"
"To-night," hissed the tiger. "Be quiet now, some one may hear us."
"Ha! Some one has already heard you," thought Tum Tum. "So you are going
to get away to-night, are you? Well, not if I know it! I'll stop you all
right! It would never do to have you loose in the woods; all the people
would be scared. Let me see, how can I stop you?"
Tum Tum wished he could speak man-talk, so he could tell the keepers
what the lion and tiger were going to do. But Tum Tum could speak only
animal language.
"But I can stay near the tiger's cage, and when he does get out, I can
grab him in my trunk, before he has time to scratch me, and push him
back in his cage again," thought Tum Tum. "By that time the keepers will
come, and shut the cage doors. Yes, I'll do that with Sharp Tooth; but
what about Roarer? I need help there. I'll get Maggo."
So Tum Tum told Maggo, about the lion and tiger going to escape from the
circus.
"And if you'll stand in front of the lion's cage, he won't dare run very
far," said Tum Tum to Maggo. "If you'll look after the lion, I'll look
after the tiger."
"All right," said Maggo, "I shall. It would not be right for those
fierce animals to get away."
Toward evening, when the show was over for the afternoon, Maggo and Tum
Tum were allowed to roam about the animal tent a little, the chains
being taken off their feet.
"Now's our time, Maggo," whispered Tum Tum. "You go over by the lion's
cage, and I'll stay by the tiger's."
"All right, I will," said Maggo.
Over she went to stand in front of the lion's cage. The cleaning man had
been around, and the doors of the cages were open.
Then, before Tum Tum could get to the tiger's cage, that big, striped
beast gave one blow with his paw on the unlocked door, pushing it open.
He sprang out, crying:
"Come on, Roarer! Come on with me. I'm out! Jump out through the door
and we'll go to the jungle!"