TAMBA PLAYS A JOKE
Just as Tum Tum had said, a lion’s cage was being wheeled into the
circus animal tent, and in the cage was a big, tawny, yellow animal,
which Tamba knew, at once, was a lion.
But, to the surprise of the tame tiger and his friends, it was not a
new lion at all, but Nero himself. There he was, looking almost the
same as when he had disappeared the night of the big storm, the night
when Tamba thought he could get away.
“Why, Nero!” exclaimed the tiger, as his friend’s new cage was wheeled
in, “where in the world have you been?”
“Oh, almost everywhere, I guess,” answered Nero. “I’ve had a lot of
adventures!”
“Ha! Then you’ll be put in a book,” said Tum Tum quickly. And, as those
of you who have read the volume which comes just before this one know,
Nero was put in a book.
“Yes, I had adventures enough for a book,” went on the big lion, who
had been caught by some circus men in a farmer’s woodshed and brought
back to the show. “I had a pretty good time, too, while I was away,
though I didn’t get as much to eat as we do here in the circus. I guess
I’m glad to be back, my friends!” and he curled up in his cage and got
ready to go to sleep.
“Ho! Glad to get back, are you?” asked Tamba. “Well, I won’t say that
if I get a chance to run away! I’ll stay, when I go!”
“That’s what you think now,” said Nero. “But really it isn’t as much
fun as you’d think――running away isn’t.”
“Couldn’t you find your jungle?” asked Tamba.
“No,” answered Nero, “I couldn’t.”
“Well, I’ll find mine,” declared Tamba. “That’s why I want to run
away――so I can get back to my jungle. And I’m going to do it, too!”
Of course all this talk went on in animal language, and none of the
circus helpers or the trainers could understand it. If they could, they
might have guarded Tamba more closely.
“Well, please don’t bother me now,” said Nero, as he curled his paws
under his chin, just as your cat sometimes does when she goes to sleep.
“I am going to have a nap after all my adventures and travels.”
“All right, go to sleep,” said Tum Tum. “We won’t bother you, Nero.
Only, some day, I hope you’ll tell us more of your adventures.”
“I will,” promised Nero.
Tamba, the tame tiger, paced up and down in his cage after Nero had
gone to sleep.
“I wish I had had his chances!” thought Tamba, as he looked over toward
the sleeping Nero. “I wouldn’t have let them catch me! I’d have run on
and on until I found my jungle, no matter how far away it was.”
And then Tamba began to think of the life in India and of the days when
he, a little tiger cub, was hiding in the deep, dark, green jungle. He
thought of how he had tumbled about in the leaves, playing with his
brother and sister, and of his mother sitting in the mouth, or front
door, of the cave and watching her striped babies.
They had learned how to walk, and how to jump and stick out their claws
whenever they wanted to catch anything. Their father and mother had
taught the little tiger cubs how to hunt in the jungle for the meat
they had to eat. They could not go to the store and buy something when
they were hungry. Tigers, and other wild animals, must hunt for what
they eat.
Of course, after he had been caught and sent to the circus, Tamba no
longer had to hunt for his food. It was brought to him by the circus
men, and thrust into his cage. Nor did he have to hunt for water, the
way the jungle animals have to go sniffing and snuffing about in the
forest to find a pool or a spring. Tamba’s water was brought to his
cage in a tin pail, and very glad he was to get it.
“But, for all that,” thought the tame tiger, as he paced up and down,
“for all that I’d rather be loose and on my way back to the jungle
instead of being cooped up here. Much as I like the things they give
me to eat, I want to go home. And I’m going to get loose, too, and run
away as Nero did. Only I won’t come back!”
The more Tamba thought of the green jungle, so far away in India, the
more sad, unhappy and discontented the tame tiger became. He did not do
his tricks as well as he used to do, and he was often cross in speaking
to the other circus animals. Sometimes he wouldn’t speak at all, but
only growl, or maybe grumble deep down in his throat, and that isn’t
talking at all.
“I declare! I don’t know what’s the matter with Tamba,” said Tum Tum
one day. “He doesn’t seem at all happy any more. Dido, do some of your
funny dances and see if you can’t cheer up Tamba!”
So the dancing bear did some of his tricks, capering about in his cage,
but Tamba would hardly look at him. Some boys, though, who had come
to the circus, gathered in front of the bear’s cage and laughed and
laughed at his funny antics. They liked Dido. The boys liked to look at
Tamba, also, but they were a little afraid of the big, striped tiger.
One day, when the afternoon performance was over, and Tamba, Nero
and the other animals who had done their tricks in the big tent were
brought back to the smaller one, where they were kept between the times
of the shows, Nero said:
“Now I am going to lie down and sleep, and please don’t any one wake me
up. I’m tired, for I did a new trick to-day, and it was very hard, and
I want to rest so I can do better in the show to-night. So everybody
let me alone.”
“We will,” said Tum Tum, the jolly elephant.
Now the lion is called the “King of Beasts,” and in the jungle he comes
pretty near to being that, for all the other animals, except perhaps
the elephant, are afraid of him.
So when a lion says he wants a thing done, it generally is done. Of
course Nero could not have got out of his circus cage to make the other
animals do what he wanted them to do, but most of them made up their
minds that they wouldn’t bother him, even though they knew he couldn’t
hurt them. Nero was still “King” in a way.
But that day Tamba was cross. Or perhaps I might say he felt as though
he wanted to “cut up.” He wanted to play some tricks, make some
excitement. He wanted to do something!
I dare say you have seen your dog or cat act the same way. For days at
a time they may be very quiet, eating and sleeping and doing only the
things they do every day. And then, all at once, they will begin to
race about and “cut up.” Your dog may run away with your cap, and, no
matter how many times you call him, he’ll just caper about and bark, or
perhaps pretend to come near you and then run off again. And your cat
may dig her claws into the carpet, jump up on the window sill and knock
down a plant or a flower vase, and do all sorts of things like that.
Well, this is just the way Tamba felt that day. He wanted to do
something, and when he saw Nero sleeping so quietly in his cage the
tame tiger made up his mind to play a trick on the lion.
“It isn’t fair that he should sleep so nicely when I have to stay
awake!” grumbled Tamba. “He can dream of the good times he had when he
ran away and had adventures, and all I can think of is how much I want
to go back to my jungle! It isn’t fair! I’m going to make Nero wake up!
I’ll play a trick on him!”
Of course this wasn’t right for Tamba to do, but circus tigers don’t
always do right any more than boys, girls, or other animals.
Tamba’s cage was next to that of Nero, and close beside it, instead of
being at one end. The cages were left that way when they were brought
in from the larger performing tent, after the animals had done their
tricks. So it happened that Tamba could look out through the bars of
his cage in between the bars where Nero was kept. And Tamba could stick
his paws out through the bars, but he could not quite reach over to the
sleeping lion.
“If I could reach him,” said Tamba to himself, “I’d tickle him and wake
him up. I wouldn’t let him sleep!”
But Tamba’s paws were not quite long enough to reach through the bars
of the two cages. Again and again the tiger tried it, but he could not
manage.
Then Tamba sat down on his haunches and looked at the sleeping Nero. At
last a tricky idea came to Tamba.
“Ha!” exclaimed the tiger. “If I can’t reach him with my paws I can
reach him with my tail! That’s what I’ll do! I’ll reach in between the
bars with my long, slender tail, and I’ll tickle Nero on the nose!”
Tamba sort of laughed to himself as he thought of this trick. And he
had no sooner thought of it than he began to try it. He turned about,
so his back was toward Nero. Standing thus, Tamba’s long, slender tail
easily reached into Nero’s cage. Nearer and nearer the tip of Tamba’s
tail came to the big black nose of the sleeping lion.
Tamba looked sideways over his back to see where to put his tail. At
last the fuzzy tip-end of it touched Nero’s nose and tickled it. The
big lion twitched in his sleep, just as your cat does, if you lightly
touch one of her ears.
“Ha! I’ve found a good way to play a trick on Nero!” laughed Tamba.
“I’ll keep on tickling him!”
He waved his tail to and fro, Tamba did, and once again he let the tip
of it touch Nero’s nose. The sleeping lion raised his paw, and brushed
it over his face. He must have thought some bug was crawling on his
nose.
“Oh, this is lots of fun!” thought Tamba. So it was, for him. But was
it fun for Nero?
“Now for a good tickle!” thought Tamba, as, once again, he put his tail
over toward the sleeping lion’s nose. And this time something was going
to happen.