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diff --git a/old/umboo10.txt b/old/umboo10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..32e8483 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/umboo10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4006 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Umboo, the Elephant, by Howard R. Garis +#3 in our series by Howard R. Garis + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Umboo, the Elephant + +Author: Howard R. Garis + +Release Date: June, 2004 [EBook #5900] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on September 23, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UMBOO, THE ELEPHANT *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +Circus Animal Stories + +UMBOO, THE ELEPHANT + +By + +HOWARD R. GARIS + +Author of +"The Bedtime Stories" +"The Uncle Wiggily Series" +"The Daddy Series" +Etc. + +CONTENTS + +Chapter + +I Baby Umboo + +II On The March + +III Sliding Down Hill + +IV Umboo Learns Something + +V Picking Nuts + +VI Umboo Is Lost + +VII Umboo And The Snake + +VIII Umboo Finds His Mother + +IX To The Salt Spring + +X In A Trap + +XI Umboo Goes To School + +XII Umboo Is Sold + +XIII Umboo On The Ship + +XIV Umboo In The Circus + +XV Umboo Remembers + + + + +CHAPTER I + +BABY UMBOO + + +"Oh, my! But it's hot! It is just too hot for anything!" cried Chako, +one of the monkeys in the circus cage. "It is hotter under this tent +than ever it was in the jungle! Whew!" and he hung by his tail and +swung to and fro from a wooden bar. + +"In the jungle we could find a pool of water where we could keep +cool," said another monkey, who was poking around the floor of the +cage, hoping he could find a peanut. But there were only shells. "I +wish I could go back to the jungle," he chattered. + +"What did you come away from the jungle for, if you don't like it in +this circus?" asked Woo-Uff, the big yellow lion, who lay on his back +in his cage, his legs stuck up in the air, for he was cooler that way. +"Why did you come from the jungle, Chako?" + +"I didn't want to come," answered the swinging monkey. "But some white +and black hunters caught me, and a lot more of us chattering chaps, +and took us away from the jungle." + +"That's right, my boy!" exclaimed the deep, rumbly voice of Umboo, the +biggest elephant in the circus. "None of us animals would have come +away from the jungle if we could have had our way. But, now that we +are here, we must make the best of it." + +"How can one make the best of it when it is so hot?" asked Chako. "The +sun shines down on this circus tent hotter than ever it did in the +jungle. And there is no pool of water where we can splash and be +cool." + +"Oh, if water is all you want, I can give you some of that," spoke +Umboo. "Wait a minute!" + +Near the elephants, of whom Umboo was one on a long line, chained to +stakes driven in the ground, was a big tub of water, put there for +them to drink when they wanted to. Umboo put his long, rubbery hose of +a trunk down into this tub of water, and sucked up a lot, just as you +fill your rubber ball at the bathroom basin. + +"Look out now, monkeys!" cried the elephant. "It's going to rain!" and +he sort of laughed away down in his throat. He couldn't laugh through +his nose, as his nose was his trunk, and that was full of water. "Look +out for a shower!" he cried. + +With that the elephant went: + +"Woof-umph!" + +Out from his trunk, as if from a hose, sprinkled a shower of water. +Over the cage of monkeys it sprayed, wetting them as might a fall of +rain. + +"Here comes some more!" cried Umboo, and again he dipped his trunk in +the tub of water, sucked up some in the two hollow places, and again +squirted it over the monkeys' cage. + +"Oh, that's good! That's fine!" cried Chako. "That was like being in a +jungle rain. I'm cooler now. Squirt some more, Umboo!" + +"No, hold on, if you please!" rumbled another elephant. "It is all +right for Umboo to splatter some water on you poor monkeys, but if he +quirts away all in the tub we will have none to drink." + +"That's so," said Umboo. "I can't squirt away all the water, Chako. We +big elephants have to drink a lot more than you little monkeys. But +when the circus men fill our tub again, I'll squirt some more on you." + +"Thank you!" chattered Chako. "I feel cooler, anyhow. And we monkeys +can't stand too much water. This felt fine!" + +The monkeys in the cage were quite damp, and some began combing out +their long hair with their queer little fingers, that look almost like +yours, except that their thumb isn't quite the same. + +"If Umboo can't squirt any more water on us, maybe he can do something +else to help us forget that it is so hot," said Gink, a funny little +monkey, who had a very long tail. + +"What can he do, except squirt water on us?" asked Chako. "And I wish +he'd do that again. It's the only thing to make us cooler." + +"No, I wasn't thinking of that, though I do like a little water," +spoke Gink. "But don't you remember, Umboo, you promised to tell us a +story of how you lived in a jungle when you were a baby elephant?" + +"Oh, yes, so he did!" exclaimed Chako. "I had forgotten about that. It +will make us cooler, I think, to hear you tell a story, Umboo. Please +do!" + +"Well, all right, I will," said the big elephant, as he swung to and +fro; because elephants are very seldom still, but always moving as +they stand. And they sleep standing up--did you know that? + +"I'll tell you a story about my jungle," went on Umboo. "But perhaps +you will not like it as well as you did the story Snarlie the tiger +told you." + +"Oh, yes we will," said Snarlie himself, a big, handsome striped tiger +in a cage not far from where the monkeys lived. "You can tell us a +good story, Umboo." + +"And make it as long as the story Woo-Uff, the lion, told us," begged +Humpo, the camel. "I liked his story." + +"Thank you," spoke Woo-Uff, as he rolled over near the edge of his +cage where he could hear better. "I'm glad you liked my story, Humpo, +but I'm sure Umboo's will be better than mine. And don't forget the +funny part, my big elephant friend." + +"What funny part is that?" asked Horni, the rhinoceros. + +"Oh, I guess he means where I once filled my trunk with water and +squirted some on a man, as I did on the monkeys just now," said the +swaying elephant. + +"Why did you do that?" Chako wanted to know. + +"Well, I'll tell you when I get to that part of my story," said the +elephant. "Now do you all want to hear me talk?" + +"Oh, yes! yes!" cried the animals in the circus tent. "Tell us your +story, Umboo! Tell us about when you were a baby in the far-off jungle +of Africa." + +"I did not come from Africa; I came from an Indian jungle," said +Umboo. "My friends, the African elephants, are much larger than I am, +and they are wilder and fiercer, and so they are hardly every caught +for the circus." + +"I remember a great big elephant in a circus I was once with--not this +one, though," said Humpo, the camel. "His name was Jug--no it was not +Jug, and it wasn't Jig, but it began with a J." + +"Maybe it was Jumbo," suggested Umboo. + +"That was it--Jumbo!" cried Humpo. "He was a very big elephant." + +"Yes, I guess he was," said Umboo. "I have heard of him, but I never +saw him. He was an African elephant, and they are all large. Poor +Jumbo!" + +"Why do you say that?" asked Chako the monkey. "Poor Jumbo?" + +"Because he is dead," said Umboo. "Poor Jumbo was struck by one of +those big puffing animals, of steam and steel and iron, that pull our +circus train over the shiny rails." + +"You mean a choo-choo-locomotive-steam-engine," said Woo-Uff, the +lion. + +"I suppose that is the name," said Umboo. "Anyhow, Jumbo was hit by an +engine, and, big as he was, it killed him. His bones, or skeleton, are +in a museum in New York now." + +"Is New York a jungle?" asked Gink, who had not been with the circus +very long. + +"New York a jungle? Of course not!" laughed Snarlie, the tiger. "New +York is a big city, and sometimes we circus animals are taken there to +help with the show. I've been in New York lots of times." + +"Well, don't let it make you proud," said Chako, the other monkey. "I +have been there myself, and I'd much rather be in the jungle." + +"Say, are we going to listen to you animals talk or hear the story +Umboo is going to tell us?" asked Humpo, the camel. "I thought he was +going to make us forget the heat." + +"So I am," said Umboo, in a kind voice, "Only I wanted to speak about +old Jumbo, There used to be a song about him, many years ago. It went +something like this, and I heard a little English boy sing it: + + "Alice said to Jumbo: + 'I love you!' + Jumbo said to Alice: + 'I don't believe you do; + 'Cause if you love me truly, + As you say you do, + Come over to America + To Barnum's show!'" + +"That's the song they used to sing about Jumbo, more than twenty years +ago," said Umboo. + +"My! How can you remember so far back?" asked Chako. + +"Oh, we elephants live to a good old age," said Umboo. "Why, I am +fifty years old now, and yet I am young! Some of the elephants in the +jungle lived to be a hundred and twenty years old!" + +"Oh, my!" cried Chako. "Did they have circuses as long ago as that?" + +"Yes, but not the kind that traveled about, and showed in white +tents," said Umboo. "But I have heard my father and mother say that we +elephants live to be very old." + +"And can you remember so far back, when you were a baby in the +jungle?" asked Humpo. + +"Oh, yes, very easily," answered Umboo. "I am going to tell you a +story about how first I was a little elephant in the great, green +forest, or jungle, and then I'll tell you how I was caught, and worked +in a lumber yard in India, and how I was then sold to a circus." + +"Well, then, please begin!" begged Chako. "It is getting hot again in +this monkey cage, and if you haven't any water to squirt on us tell us +your story." + +"I will!" promised the elephant. And then, as the afternoon show was +over, and it was not yet time for the night one to begin, the animals +had a little quiet time to themselves. And, as they had done once +before, they got ready to listen to a story. + +In the book before this I have written for you the story of Woo-Uff, +the lion. And before that I gave you the story of Snarlie, the tiger. +And now we come to Umboo. + +"The first thing I remember," began the elephant, "was when I was a +little baby in the jungle." + +"Were you very little?" asked Snarlie the tiger. + +"Well, I have heard my mother say I weighed about two hundred pounds +the first day I came into the world," answered Umboo. "So, though I +was little for an elephant, I would have made a very big monkey, I +suppose. And for a time I just stayed near my mother, between her two, +big front legs, so the other elephants would not step on me, and I +drank the milk my mother gave me, for my teeth were not yet ready for +me to chew roots, leaves and grass." + +"Tell us something that happened!" begged Chako, "and make it +exciting, so we will forget about the heat!" + +"Well," said Umboo, "I'll tell you of a terrible fright we had, and +how--" + +But just then something else happened. Into the tent came running one +of the circus men, and he cried to another, who was asleep on some hay +near the elephants. + +"Come! Loosen Umboo! We need him to help us get one of the wagons out +of the mud! Bring Umboo, the strongest of all elephants!" + + + + +CHAPTER II + +ON THE MARCH + + +Umboo, the big circus elephant, was unchained from the stake in the +circus tent to which he was made fast, and led out by one of the men. + +"Oh, where are you going?" asked Horni, the rhinoceros, who had been +taking a little doze, and who woke up, just as the men came in. "I +thought I heard some one say you were going to tell a story, Umboo," +spoke the rhinoceros. + +"I was going to, and I started it," the elephant answered, "but now I +must go out and help push a wagon loose from where it is stuck in the +mud. I'll be back pretty soon, for it is no trouble at all for me to +push even a big circus wagon." + +"Yes, you are very strong," said Chako, the monkey. "Well, don't +forget to come back and tell us about the jungle. That will make us +forget the heat." + +"Come, Umboo!" called one of the men, as he loosed the heavy elephant +chains. "You must help us with the wagon." + +Out of the circus tent walked the big elephant. He could understand +some of the things the circus men said to him, just as your dog can +understand you, when you call: + +"Come here, Jack!" Then he runs to you, wagging his tail. But if you +say: + +"Go on home, Jack!" + +How his tail droops, and how sadly your dog looks at you, even though +you know it is best for him to go back, and not, perhaps, go to school +with you, like Mary's little lamb. + +So, in much the same way, Umboo knew what the men wanted of him. He +was led across the circus lot, outside the big, white tent, that was +gay with many-colored flags, and as Umboo swayed along, some boys, who +were watching for what they might see, caught sight of the great +elephant. + +"Hey, Jim! Here's one of the big ones!" shouted one boy. + +"Maybe he's going to take a drink out of the canal," said another. + +"Maybe they're going to give him a swim," spoke a third boy. + +But the men had something else for Umboo to do just then. They led him +to where one of the big wagons, covered with red and gold paint, and +shiny with pieces of looking glass, was stuck fast in the mud on a +hill. For it had rained the day before the circus came to show in the +town, and the ground was soft. + +"Now, Umboo!" called the circus man, who was really one of the +elephant keepers, and who gave them food and water, "now, Umboo, let +us see if you can get this wagon out of the mud, as you did once +before. The horses can not pull it, but you are stronger than many +horses." + +The horses, with red plumes on their heads, were still hitched to the +wagon. There were eight of them, but they had pulled and pulled, and +still the wagon was stuck in the mud. + +"Are you going to help us, Umboo?" asked one of the horses who knew +the elephant, for the circus animals can talk among themselves, just +as you boys and girls do. "Are you going to help us?" + +"I am going to try," Umboo answered. "You look tired, horsies! Take a +little rest now, while I look and see which is the best way to push. +Then, when I blow through my nose like a trumpet horn, you pull and +I'll push, and we'll have the wagon out of the mud very soon!" + +Umboo was led up to the back of the wagon. He looked at where the +wheels were sunk away down in the soft ground, and then, being the +strongest and most wise of all the beasts of the world, the elephant +put his big, broad head against the wagon. + +"Now, then, horsies! Pull!" he cried, trumpeting through his trunk, +which was hollow like a hose. "Pull, horsies!" + +The horses pulled and Umboo, the elephant, pushed, and soon the wagon +was out on firm, hard ground. + +"That's good!" cried the circus man. "I knew Umboo could do it!" + +Then he gave the elephant a sweet bun, which he had saved for him, and +back to the tent went Umboo. + +"Now, please go on with your story!" begged Chako. "Tell us what +happened in the jungle." + +"I will," said Umboo, and this is the story he told. Umboo was only +one of a number of baby elephants that lived with their fathers and +mothers in the deep, green jungles of India. Not like the other jungle +beasts were the elephants, for the big animals had no regular home. +They did not live in caves as did the lions and tigers, for no cave +was large enough for a herd of elephants. + +And, except in the case of solitary, or lonely elephants, which are +often savage beasts, or "rogues," all elephants live in herds--a +number of them always keeping together, just like a herd of cows. + +Another reason why elephants do not live in one place, like a lion's +cave, or in a nest or lair under the thick grass where a tiger brings +up her striped babies, is that elephants eat so much that they have to +keep moving from place to place to get more food. + +They will eat all there is in one part of the jungle, and then travel +many miles to a new place, not coming back to the first one until +there are more green leaves, fresh grass, or new bark on the trees +which they have partly stripped. + +So Umboo, the two-hundred-pound baby elephant, lived with his mother +in the jungle, drinking nothing but milk for the first six months, as +he had no teeth to chew even the most tender grass. + +"Well, are you strong enough to walk along now?" Umboo's mother asked +him one day in the jungle, and this was when he was about half a week +old. + +"Oh, yes, I can walk now," said the baby elephant, as he swayed to and +fro between his mother's front legs, while she stood over him to keep +the other big elephants, and some of the half-grown elephant boys and +girls, from bumping into him, and knocking him over. "I can walk all +right. But why do you ask me that?" Umboo wanted to know. + +"Because the herd is going to march away," said Mrs. Stumptail, which +was the name of Umboo's mother. "They are going to march to another +part of the jungle, and your father and I will march with them, as we +do not want to be left behind. There is not much more left here to +eat. We have taken all the palm nuts and leaves from the trees. We +have only been waiting until you grew strong enough to march." + +"Oh, I can march all right," said Umboo, telling his story to the +circus animals in the tent. "Look how fast I can go!" + +Out he started from under his mother's body, striding across a grassy +place in the jungle. But Umboo was not as good at walking as he had +thought. Even though he weighed two hundred pounds his legs were not +very strong, and soon he began to totter. + +"Look out!" cried his mother. "You are going to fall!" and she reached +out her trunk and wound it around Umboo, holding him up. + +"Hello!" trumpeted Mr. Stumptail, coming up just then with a big green +branch in his trunk. "What's the matter here?" + +"Umboo was just showing me how well he could walk," said his mother, +speaking elephant talk, of course. "I told him the herd would soon be +on the march, and that he must come along." + +"But we won't go until he is strong enough," said Umboo's father. +"Here," he said to Mrs. Stumptail, "eat this branch of palm nuts. They +are good and sweet. Eat them while I go and see Old Tusker. I'll tell +him not to start to lead the herd to another part of the jungle until +Umboo is stronger." + +Then, giving the mother elephant a branch of palm nuts, which food the +big jungle animals like best of all, Mr. Stumptail went to see Tusker, +the oldest and largest elephant of the jungle--he who always led the +herd on the march. + +"My new little boy elephant is not quite strong enough to march, yet," +said Mr. Stumptail to Tusker. "Can we wait here another day or two?" + +"Oh, yes, of course, Mr. Stumptail," said the kind, old head elephant. +"You know the herd will never go faster than the mothers and baby +elephants can travel." + +And this is true, as any old elephant hunter will tell you. + +"Thank you," said Mr. Stumptail, to Tusker; for elephants are polite +to each other, even though, in the jungle, they sometimes may be a bit +rough toward lions and tigers, of whom they are afraid. + +Back to the mother elephant and Baby Umboo went Mr. Stumptail, to tell +them there was no hurry about the herd marching away. And two or three +days later Umboo had grown stronger and was not so wobbly on his legs. +He could run about a little, and once he even tried to bump his head +against another elephant boy, quite older than he was. + +"Here! You mustn't do that!" cried his mother. "What trick are you up +to now?" + +"Well, this elephant laughed at your tail," said Umboo. "He said it +was a little short one, and not long like his mother's!" + +"Don't mind that!" said Mrs. Stumptail, with a sort of laugh away down +in her trunk. "All our family have short, or stumpy tails. That is how +we get our name. The Stumptail elephants are very stylish, let me tell +you." + +"Oh, then it's all right," said Umboo, who was called by that name +because he had made that sort of noise or sound through his nose, when +he was a day old. And elephants and jungle folk are named for the sort +of noises they make, or for something they do, or look like, just as +Indians are named. + +So Umboo played in the deep jungle forest with the other little +elephant boys and girls until his mother and father saw that he was +strong enough to walk well by himself. + +"Now we will start on a long march!" called Tusker one day. "The +jungle here is well eaten, and, besides, it is no longer safe for us +here. So we will march." + +"Why isn't the jungle safe here any more?" asked Umboo of his mother. + +"I'll tell you," answered Tusker, who heard what the little elephant +asked. "The other day," went on the big chap, "I went to the top of +the hill over there," and he pointed with his trunk. "I heard up there +a noise like thunder, but it was not thunder." + +"What was it?" asked Umboo, who liked to listen to the talk of the old +herd-leader. The other little elephants also gathered around to +listen. + +"It was the noise of the guns of the hunters," said Tusker. "They are +coming to our jungle, and where the hunters come is no place for us. +So we must march away and hide. Also there is not much food left here. +We must go to a new jungle-place." + +Raising his trunk in the air Tusker gave a loud call. All the other +elephants gathered around him, and off he started, leading the way +through the green forest. + +"Now if I go too fast for any of you baby elephants, just squeak and +I'll stop," said the big, kind elephant. "We will go only as fast as +you little chaps can walk." + +"You are very kind," said Mrs. Stumptail, helping Umboo, with her +trunk, to get over a rough bit of ground. + +On and on marched the elephants to find a new place in the jungle, +where they would be safe from the hunters, and where they could find +more sweet bark, leaves and palm nuts to eat. Umboo walked near his +mother, as the other small elephant boys and girls walked near their +mothers, and the bigger elephants helped the smaller and weaker ones +over the rough places. + +Pretty soon, in the jungle, the herd of elephants came to what seemed +a big silver ribbon, shining in the sun. It sparkled like a looking +glass on a circus wagon, though, as yet, neither Umboo, nor any of the +other big animals had ever seen a show. + +"What is that?" asked Umboo of his mother. + +"That is a river of water," she answered. "It is water to drink and +wash in." + +"Oh, I never could drink all that water," said the baby elephant. + +"No one expects you to!" said his mother, with an elephant laugh. "But +we are going to swim across it to get on the other side." + +"What is swimming?" asked Umboo. + +"It means going in the water, and wiggling your legs so that you will +float across and not sink," said Mrs. Stumptail. "See, we are at the +jungle river now, and we will go across." + +"Oh, but I'm afraid!" cried Umboo, holding back. "I don't want to go +in all that water." + +Mrs. Stumptail reached out her trunk and caught her little boy around +the middle of his stomach. + +"You must do as I tell you!" she said. "Up you go!" and she lifted him +high in the air. + +"Oh, did she let you fall?" suddenly asked Chako, who, with the other +animals in the circus tent, was eagerly listening to the story Umboo +was telling. "Did she let you fall?" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +SLIDING DOWN HILL + + +"Look here!" cried Snarlie, the tiger, when Chako, the monkey, had +asked his question. "Look here, Chako! You mustn't interrupt like that +when Umboo is talking! Let him tell his story, just as you let me tell +mine. And maybe Umboo's jungle story will go in a book, as mine did." + +"Is yours in a book?" asked Humpo, the camel. + +"It is," answered Snarlie, and he did not speak at all proudly as some +tigers might. "My story is in a book, and there are pictures of me, +and also Toto, the little Indian princess. For I came from India, just +as Umboo did." + +"Now who is talking?" asked Woo-Uff, the lion. "I thought we were to +listen to Umboo's story." + +"That's right--we were," said Snarlie. "I'm sorry I talked so much. +But I was telling Chako about the books we are in, Woo-Uff." + +"Yes, books are all well enough," said the lion, "but give me a good +piece of meat. Now go on, Umboo. What was it Chako asked?" + +"I wanted to know if Umboo's mother let him fall when she lifted him +high up in her trunk when they came to the jungle river," said the +monkey in the circus cage. + +"No," answered Umboo, "she did not drop me. My mother was very strong, +and her trunk had a good hold of me. She didn't drop me at all." + +"Then what did she lift you up for?" asked Chako. "Once, in the jungle +where I came from, I saw a big elephant lift up a tiger in his trunk, +and the elephant threw the tiger down on the ground as hard as he +could, and hurt him." + +"That was because the tiger was going to bite the elephant if he +could," answered Umboo. "Elephants only have their tusks, and trunk +and big feet to fight with. They can't bite as you monkeys can, nor as +lions and tigers can. But my mother lifted me up in her trunk to put +me on her back." + +"What did she want to do that for?" asked Humpo, the camel. "Was a +hunter coming with a gun?" + +"No, but she was going to swim across the river with the rest of the +herd," answered Umboo, "and she knew I was too little to know how to +swim yet. I learned how later, though, and I liked the water. But this +time my mother took me across the river on her back." + +"It's a good thing your mother didn't have a camel-back like Humpo," +said Woo-Uff, with a sort of chuckling laugh. + +"Why?" asked Horni, the rhinoceros. + +"Because, if Mrs. Stumptail had a back, with humps in, as the camels +have, Umboo would have fallen off into the water," said the lion, as +he opened his big mouth in a sleepy yawn, showing his big, white, +sharp teeth. + +"My mother's back was big and strong," said Umboo. "It was flat, and +not humpy, like a camel's, though their backs are all right on the +desert. My mother lifted me up on her back with her trunk, and there I +sat while she and the other elephants waded into the river." + +And then the circus elephant went on telling his story. + +Into the jungle river walked the elephants, the littlest ones on their +mothers' backs, and some, very small ones, held in their mothers' +trunks, which were lifted high in the air. These were the babies of +the herd who were too small to ride safely on the backs of the big +creatures. + +"Pooh! I'm bigger than you! I can swim like the other elephants!" said +Keedah; a large elephant boy, as he looked up and saw Umboo on his +mother's back. "I don't have to be carried across a river! I can swim +by myself." + +"And so will my little boy, soon," said Mrs. Stumptail. "Swim on your +own side, Keedah, and don't splash water on Umboo." + +But Keedah was a little elephant chap full of mischief, and he did not +do as he was told. Instead he filled his trunk with water and sprayed +it all over Umboo. + +"Ouch!" cried the little elephant baby, for the water felt cold, at +first. "Stop it, Keedah!" + +"Ha! Ha! I made you get wet, whether you swim or not!" laughed Keedah. +"I'll put some more water on you!" + +"No you don't! Now you swim along!" suddenly cried Mrs. Stumptail. +"Get away!" + +With that she tapped Keedah on his head with her trunk two or three +times, and, when an elephant wants to, it can strike very hard with +its long nose, even though it seems soft. + +"Ouch! Ouch!" trumpeted Keedah as he swam out of reach of Mrs. +Stumptail. "Ouch! Let me alone!" + +"Learn to behave yourself then," said Umboo's mother. + +"I'm going to tell my father on you!" cried the mischievous little +elephant. + +"Well, it won't do you any good," said a heavy voice behind him, and +there was Keedah's father himself swimming along. "I saw what you did +to Umboo," went on the old gentleman elephant, "and Mrs. Stumptail did +just right to tap you with her trunk. Now be a good boy, and don't +shower any more water on the baby elephants." + +So Keedah promised that he wouldn't, and Umboo clung as tightly as he +could, with his sprawly legs, to his mother's broad back as she swam +across the river. + +The water was wide, at this part of the jungle, but elephants are good +swimmers. They can go in very deep water, and as long as they can keep +the tip end of their trunk out, so they can breathe, the rest of their +body can sink away down below the surface. And when the elephants are +in the water the flies, mosquitoes and other biting bugs of the jungle +can not harm them. + +For, though the skin of elephants, rhinoceros beasts, and even the +hippopotami, is very thick, some bugs can bite through it enough to +give pain, and the animals don't like that. But in the water nothing +can bite them, unless it's a crocodile, and none of those big fellows +would come near a whole herd of elephants. + +"What are we going to do when we get on the other side of the river?" +asked Umboo of his mother, as he reached his trunk down in the water +and took a little drink. + +"Oh, we will rest a while, eat something, perhaps, and then we will +keep on marching to a better part of the jungle," she answered. + +"I know what I'm going to do when I get on the other shore," spoke +Keedah, as once more he swam up along side of Umboo and his mother. + +"What?" asked the little elephant who was having such a nice ride +across the river. "What are you going to do?" + +"I am going to have a slide down hill," went on Keedah, who did not +seem to be going to make any more trouble. + +"What's sliding down hill?" asked Umboo, and of course, you +understand, all this talk was in animal language. + +"Sliding down hill is fun," went on Keedah. "You know Old Tusker went +up to the top of a place, called a hill, to look and see about the +hunters in the jungle. Well, there is a hill on the other side of this +river, and when we get across I'm going to the top of it and slide +down. + +"It's hard work going up hill," went on the larger elephant boy, "but +it's easy coming down. You just sit on your hind legs, hold your trunk +up in the air and down you come as fast as anything!" + +"And be careful you don't bump into anything," said Mrs. Stumptail. +"Sliding down hill is all right if you don't bump into anything. You +must be careful, Umboo. Don't slide down any hills unless you ask me +first." + +"I won't," promised the baby elephant. "But tell me more about it, +Keedah. Did you ever slide down hill?" + +"Many a time. I was with the herd last year when we swam this same +river. I could swim then, too, and when we came to the hill I climbed +up. Then I came down lots faster than I walked up, and I went splash +into the river. That didn't hurt at all," he said to Umboo's mother. + +"No, it doesn't hurt to slide into the water," said the old elephant +lady. "If you do any sliding, Umboo, see that you splash into the +water, and not on the hard ground." + +"I will, after I learn to swim," spoke Umboo. + +A little later the herd of elephants were safely across the jungle +river. Some rested in the shade of trees, pulling off the low branches +and the palm nuts. Others rolled in the mud, to make a sort of coating +over their skins, to keep off the flies. Others went to the top of the +hill to slide down, and Keedah went with them. + +"Oh, mother! I wish I could slide!" said Umboo, when he saw what fun +the other elephants were having. They really did slide down hill, just +as otters do, only the otter, or beaver, likes to have water on his +slide, and the elephants did not care whether their slide was wet or +dry. Down they came, over sticks and stones, and their skin was so +tough that they never got hurt. And yet a fly could bite through that +same hide! But that is because a fly has a very fine, sharp bill, +which can go through the tiny pores, or holes, in the elephant's skin. + +"Oh, I want to slide!" said Umboo to his mother. "I'm big enough, and +if I can't swim when I splash in the water, you can be near to pull me +out. Please let me slide down hill!" + +"And did she let you?" asked Snarlie, the tiger, as the elephant +stopped in the telling his story long enough to take a bite of hay. +"Did she let you, Umboo?" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +UMBOO LEARNS SOMETHING + + +Umboo, the big circus elephant, swallowed the sweet hay he had been +chewing, and was about to keep on with the telling of his story about +the things that happened to him when he was a little chap in the +Indian jungle, when a lot of men came in the tent where the animals +were standing about, or resting in their cages. + +"Oh, now we can't hear any more of the story," said Chako, the big +monkey, to Gink the little, long-tailed chap. + +"Why can't we?" Gink wanted to know. + +"Because the circus is going to move on. Our cage will be put on the +steam cars, and away we will go, and Umboo, and the rest of the +elephants, will be put in big box-cars." + +"Won't we ever see him again, or hear more of his story?" asked Gink, +who had not been with the circus very long, and so did not know much +about it. + +"Oh, yes, of course we'll hear more later on," answered Chako, "but +not until tomorrow. Now the circus is going to move." + +And that is just what happened. The men closed the sides of the cages, +shutting the animals up in them. The tent was taken down, horses were +hitched to the wagons, and away went the whole, big circus on a train +to the next town where the show was to be given. + +"It's too bad!" exclaimed Horni, the rhinoceros, who had a big horn on +the end of his nose. "It's too bad, Umboo! I wanted to hear you tell +about sliding down hill." + +"I'll tell you tomorrow," said the elephant. "Now I have to go and +help the horses, by pushing on some of the heavy wagons with my head. +I'll finish the sliding-down-hill part of my story tomorrow." + +"All right, don't forget!" called Chako, just before the men closed +down the sides of the monkey cage. + +"I won't," promised Umboo. + +"It was the same way when I was telling my story," said Snarlie, the +tiger. "Every now and then I had to stop when the circus moved from +one place to another." + +All through the night the trains of cars, with the circus wagons, +tents, horses and performers, rolled along. In the morning the cars +stopped just outside a big city, where the show was to be given for +three days. + +"And now I'll have a chance to tell you a lot more about what we +elephants did in the jungle," said Umboo, when, once more, all the +animal friends were in the tent together. "That is I'll tell you more, +if you aren't tired of hearing it," he added. + +"Tired? I should say not!" chattered Gink. "Go on, Umboo, if you +please. Tell us a lot more!" + +"And don't forget about sliding down hill," added Woo-Uff, the lion. +"Did your mother let you?" + +"Oh, yes, she let me," answered Umboo. "At first she did not want to, +for a lot of the big elephants were having this fun. But, after a +while, when they went away from the hill, having slid down enough, and +when Keedah, and some of the other elephant boys and girls, took their +turn, I went with them. + +"At first I was a little afraid, when I got to the top of the hill, +and saw how steep it was, and how far it seemed down to the bottom +where the river ran. But I stuck my front feet out in front of me, and +I sat down on the back part of my hind legs, where my skin is very +thick, and then, all of a sudden Keedah came up behind me and gave me +a push." "Did you go down?" asked Snarlie, laughing so that his sharp, +white teeth showed in his red mouth. + +"Did I go down? I should say I did!" cried Umboo. "I went down so fast +I almost turned over in a somersault, the way the trick dogs do in our +circus. And, at first, I was scared. + +"But the hill of dirt was smooth, without any big stones in it, and +away I slid. When I got to the water, in I went with a big splash; +though of course I didn't make as much of a splatter as some of the +larger elephants did." + +"Was it fun?" asked Humpo, the camel. + +"At first I didn't like it," answered Umboo. "The water got up my +trunk, and choked me a little, and took my breath away. But my mother +stood on the bank of the river and soon pulled me out; and when I went +down next time I curled my trunk up, so then I was all right." + +The other circus animals liked so much to hear Umboo's story of +sliding down hill, that they kept asking him questions about it until +nearly dinner time. But when the men came in the tent, bringing hay +for the horses, elephants and camels, big chunks of meat for the lions +and tigers, and dried bread for the monkeys, then all the animals were +quiet for a time--at least they made no noise except chewing. + +And after their meal they all went to sleep for a little while, those +in cages curling up in a corner, and the horses lying down on straw, +but the elephants took their sleep standing up, for an elephant, even +in the jungle, never lies down except perhaps to roll in water, or a +mud-puddle. And the only time they lie down in a circus is when they +are doing some trick. + +"Now I guess you have slid down hill enough, Umboo," said the +elephant's mother to him. "It is all right to have some fun, but there +are other things to do in the jungle besides that. You must learn a +few things." + +"I had to learn things too," said Woo-Uff. "I had to learn how to +creep up on fat goats, and knock them over with my big paws. There was +an old lion named Boom-Boom, and he and I--" + +"Wait a minute! Wait a minute!" called Humpo, the camel, as he was +chewing some hay in the circus tent after his dinner. "Is this your +story, or Umboo's?" + +"Oh, I forgot. I beg your pardon, Umboo!" said the big lion. "Please +go on." + +So Umboo went on telling his story, speaking of how his mother told +him there were other things to do in the jungle besides sliding down +hill to splash into the river. + +It was some time after this, when Umboo had grown larger and stronger, +and two of his tusks or teeth, had grown out of his jaw, sticking far +beyond his lips, that his mother said to him: + +"Now, Umboo, it is time you learned how to get something to eat for +yourself. Up to now I have given you milk, or you have eaten the sweet +palm nuts or the tree branches I pulled down for you, or those the +other elephants left. Now it is time you learned to do things for +yourself. Come with me, Umboo." + +"Where are we going?" asked the small elephant. That is he was smaller +than his mother, though he was very large along side of a dog or a +cat. "Where are we going?" + +"Far into the jungle," answered Mrs. Stumptail. + +Umboo followed after her, brushing his way through the bushes, pushing +aside even those that had thorns on them, for he never felt the sharp +pricks through his thick skin, though, as I have told you, some kinds +of bugs can bite their way through even this. + +Suddenly, as Umboo walked along behind his mother, he began to sniff +the air through his trunk. + +"What is that good smell?" he asked, in elephant talk, of course. "It +smells just like those nice, sweet roots you gave me to eat the other +day." + +"And that is just what you do smell, Umboo," said his mother. "Near +here, in the jungle, grow trees with those sweet roots. If you want to +eat some now see if you can find any. In that way you will learn when +I am not with you. Hunt around now, and see if you can't smell where +the sweet roots grow." + +Umboo was hungry and he wanted, very much, to get the roots. So he +began sniffing with his trunk close to the ground. When he moved one +way the smell was not so strong. + +"That means you are moving away from the roots," his mother told him. +"Come over this way." + +So Umboo moved the other way, and the smell of the sweet roots grew +stronger, just as when you come nearer to a bakery or candy shop. + +"Ah! Here they are! Right down under the ground, here!" suddenly cried +Umboo, tapping with his trunk on a certain place under a big tree. +"The roots are here, mother," he said. "But how am I going to get them +out? I can't eat them if they are under the dirt!" + +"How would you think you might get them out?" asked Mrs. Stumptail. +"Come, be a smart elephant, Umboo. Use your brains. Elephants are the +smartest animals in the world. Think a little and then see what you +will do." + +So Umboo thought, and then he remembered seeing what the other +elephants did when they were hungry, and wanted to dig up tree roots. + +"I guess I'll poke away the dirt with my feet," he said. + +"Yes, that's a good way to begin," said Mrs. Stumptail. + +So Umboo, with his big, broad fore feet, loosened the dirt over the +tree roots. They were not down very deep, being the top roots, and not +the big heavy ones, buried far down in the earth. + +"Ha! Now I can see the roots!" cried the little boy elephant. "They +are uncovered, but still I can't lift them up with my trunk, mother. +What shall I do next?" + +"What are your tusks for?" asked Mrs. Stumptail. "Don't be so silly! +Pry up the roots with your tusks!" + +So Umboo knelt down and put one of his big long teeth under a root. +Then with a twist of his head he pried the root up from the ground. + +"There! See how easy it is!" said his mother. + +Then Umboo chewed the sweet root, but he did not swallow the hard, +woody part. That would not have been good for him. + +"Oh, but this is sweet!" he cried, shutting his eyes as he chewed +away. "This is the sweetest root I ever ate." + +"And you dug it up yourself! That is best part of it," said his +mother. "You have learned to do something for yourself. Now, when you +find yourself alone in the jungle, if you should stray away from the +rest of the herd, you will know how to get something to eat. You have +learned something." + +"Is this all I have to learn?" Umboo wanted to know. + +"Indeed not!" cried his mother. "There are many more things that you +must know. But one thing at a time. A little later I will show you how +to pull down a big tree, when there are palm nuts, or sweet branches, +growing near the top, which you cannot reach, no matter how you try. +Pulling trees down will be the next lesson. But dig up some more +roots." + +"I will dig some for you," said Umboo. + +"Excuse me for not giving you some of the first ones I dug." + +"Oh, that's all right," said Mrs. Stumptail. "I wanted you to learn, +but you may give me some of the next ones you pry up." + +Umboo uncovered more roots, and gave his mother some, and then, as he +was moving to another part of the jungle, there suddenly sounded +through the forest a loud, shrill cry. + +"Quick, Umboo, come with me!" cried his mother. "That is Tusker +calling us!" + +"What does he want?" asked Umboo. + +"He wants to tell us there is danger!" said Umboo's mother. "Hurry! +Come with me back to the rest of the herd!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +PICKING NUTS + + +Not stopping to dig up any more roots, Umboo rushed off through the +jungle after his mother, who hurried on ahead. As they crashed along, +breaking their way through bushes and knocking down small trees, they +heard again the shrill trumpet of Tusker, the oldest and largest +elephant of the jungle. + +"What is he saying?" asked Umboo of his mother, as he hurried along, +now close to her. "What is Tusker saying?" + +"He is telling of some kind of danger," said the older elephant. "Just +what it is I don't know. But the herd will be moving away very soon, +to hide in a dark part of the jungle, and we must go with them." + +As Umboo and his mother came out into an open part of the forest, +where they had left the other elephants, when Umboo had been led away +to be given his root-digging lesson, there was great excitement. +Tusker stood on top of a little hill, his trunk high in the air, +making all sorts of queer, trumpeting noises. + +"We were waiting for you," said Mr. Stumptail to Umboo's mother. "We +are going to run away and hide. Tusker is calling you." + +"Well, tell him we are here now," said Mrs. Stumptail. "I had to give +Umboo his lesson." + +"And I dug up some sweet roots," said the little elephant, "but I +didn't have time to bring you any," he told his father. + +"Some other time will do," spoke Mr. Stumptail. "Hello, Tusker!" he +called through his trunk to the old, big elephant. "Here they are now! +Umboo and his mother have come back. We can all go hide in the +jungle." + +"Why must we hide?" asked Umboo. + +"Because Tusker smelled danger," answered Keedah, who was with the +other small elephants where they were gathered together, the older +ones about them. "He smelled white and black hunters, with guns, and +they are coming to shoot us, Tusker says. So he called a warning to +all of us." + +"I heard it away off where I was digging up roots," said Umboo. "But +did Tusker see the hunters with their guns?" + +"No, I didn't see them," said Tusker himself, coming down from the +hill just then. "But I smelled them, and that is the same thing. The +wind was blowing from them to me, and I could smell them very plainly. +Come now, elephants! Into the deep, dark part of the jungle, where the +hunters can not find us, we will go--far into the jungle." + +Then the herd moved off, and Umboo's mother told him, as they hurried +along, that an elephant's eyes can not see very far. + +"We have not a very sharp sight, like the hawks or the vultures," said +Mrs. Stumptail, "so we have to depend on our noses. We can smell +things a long way off, and when you are older you will get to know the +difference between the sweet roots, under the ground, and the man- +smell, which means danger. + +"Tusker smelled the man-smell, even though he could not see the white +and black hunters, and then he trumpeted through his trunk to tell us +all to run away," said Mrs. Stumptail. + +Through the jungle crashed the herd of elephants, not going any +faster, though, than Umboo and the other small ones could trot along. +Though an elephant is very big and heavy he can move swiftly through +the forest, and go in places where no horse could travel, for the way +would be too rough, and great vines and trees would be strung across +the path. Indeed there is no path, the elephants making one for +themselves, and when once a herd starts off it can hardly ever be +caught by a hunter on foot. + +"Do you think any of us will be shot?" asked Umboo, as he shuffled +along beside his mother. "How does it feel to be shot?" + +"My! But you ask a lot of questions," said Mrs. Stumptail; and I think +Umboo was like a lot of boys and girls I know. But then if you don't +ask questions how are you ever going to find out anything? + +"I can tell you how it feels to be shot," said a middle-aged elephant, +who was hurrying along, next to Mr. Stumptail. "It hurts very much, +Umboo! It hurts very much, and worse than a whole lot of big bugs +biting you at once." + +"Were you ever shot?" asked Umboo. + +"Indeed I was," answered the elephant, whose name was Bango, called so +because he used to bang big trees down with his head. "I was shot +twice." + +"Tell me about it," said Umboo. + +"It was some years ago," went on Bango. "I was with another herd, and +we were eating away in the jungle. All at once I heard a noise like a +little clap of thunder, and I felt a sharp pain in my head. One of the +hard things the hunters shoot in their guns had hit me. Then another +struck me in the leg." + +"Didn't any of you smell the hunter coming?" asked Mr. Stumptail. +"Didn't you smell him and get out of the way?" + +"No," answered Bango, "none of us did. The wind was blowing the wrong +way, I guess. But as soon as we heard the gun, and when I gave a blast +through my trunk, as I felt myself hurt, then all the herd knew what +had happened, and away we rushed, just as we are rushing now. We went +very fast." + +"Did the hunter get any of you?" asked Umboo. + +"Not that time. I was the only one hit," said Bango. "But another time +five or six of the herd I was with were killed by hunters." + +"What for?" asked Keedah, who was now more friendly with Umboo. "Why +did the hunters kill the elephants, Bango?" + +"To get their big teeth, or tusks. Our tusks are ivory, you know, and +the hunter men, so I have been told, take our teeth to make into round +balls, with which they play games, or they use them to put on machines +that make tinkle-tinkle sounds." + +By this Bango meant pianos, the keys of which used to be made from +ivory, though now they are mostly celluloid. And the game men play, +with balls made from elephants' tusks, is called billiards. + +On and on through the jungle hurried the elephants, until at last +Tusker, who led the way, came to a stop. + +"This is far enough," he said. "I do not believe the hunters will find +us here. We will rest now." + +Indeed it was time to stop, for some of the smaller elephants were +quite tired out. Big elephants can hurry through the jungle very fast +for as long as twenty hours at a time, stopping, perhaps, only during +the very hottest part of the day. And when an elephant is very tired +it begins to perspire, or "sweat," over each eye, and two little +hollow places there look as though they had been wet with a sponge. + +In the cooler part of the shady jungle the elephants rested, some of +them pulling down branches from the trees to get at the leaves or +tender bark. Umboo began sniffing along the ground with his trunk. + +"What are you doing?" asked Keedah. + +"I am smelling for sweet roots," was the answer. "My mother showed me +how to do it. Do you want me to show you?" + +"I learned that long ago," said Keedah. + +"Why I can even get palm nuts off a high tree by knocking the tree +down. Can you do that? Smelling out earth-roots is nothing!" + +"I think it is something," spoke Umboo. "And, when I get a little +bigger my mother is going to show me how to pull over, or knock down, +a whole tree. But now I am hungry for roots." + +So Umboo kept on sniffing at the ground with his trunk. He was feeling +quite hungry. Suddenly Keedah cried: + +"Ha! I have found some sweet roots! I am going to dig them up!" + +"And I have found some, too!" exclaimed Umboo, as through his long +nose of a trunk he sniffed the good smell. + +Then the two elephant boys dug up the earth with their feet, sort of +pawing aside the soft dirt, and with their tusks they pried up the +roots, chewing the soft part. + +At first the older elephants were uneasy, or worried, for fear that, +even though they were in a deep part of the jungle, the hunters might +come after them. Tusker and some of the big father-elephants went +about, with their trunks high in the air, sniffing, sniffing and +sniffing for any smell of danger. + +But there seemed to be none. The hunters were left many miles away, +and the elephants could rest and eat in peace. For many months after +this they roamed about, going from place to place in the jungle as +they ate one spot bare of roots and leaves. Sometimes the place where +they drank water would dry up, and they would have to move to another +river or spring. For an elephant must have plenty of water. + +All this while Umboo kept on digging up sweet roots when ever he felt +he wanted some, until he could do it almost as well as his mother or +father could. + +One day, when the elephant boy was traveling through the jungle he +looked up and saw, growing on top of a tree, some palm nuts. Elephants +are very fond of these, and will go a great way to get them. There are +many kinds of palm trees, and on some grow cocoanuts, and on others +dates; but the palm nuts the elephants eat are different. + +Umboo looked up at the palm nuts growing on the tree in the jungle, +and said: + +"Oh, how I wish I had some of those." + +"Well," said Mrs. Stumptail, "how do you think you can get them?" + +"If I were a monkey," said the elephant boy, "I could climb up the +tree and pick them off." Umboo had often, in the jungle, seen the +monkeys do this. + +"But you are not a monkey," said his mother. "Can you reach up with +your trunk and pull down the nuts?" + +Umboo tried, but his trunk was not long enough. + +"I guess the only way to get the nuts is to break down the tree; but +how can I do that?" he asked. + +"Your head is the strongest part of you," said Mrs. Stumptail. "See if +you can knock the tree over." + +"Bang!" went Umboo's head against the tree. The tree shook and +shivered, and a few nuts were knocked down, but not enough. + +"Well," said the elephant boy, as he banged the tree again, "I don't +mind doing this for fun, as it doesn't hurt, but the tree doesn't seem +to be coming down very fast. And I can't get the nuts until it does. +What shall I do, mother?" + +"Just think a little harder," said Mrs. Stumptail. "I want you to grow +up to be a smart elephant boy, and to do that you must think for +yourself. I shall not always be with you. Try and think now how to get +the tree down." + +"I know!" cried Umboo. "I can pull it over with my trunk!" + +He wrapped his long trunk around the tree and began to pull. He had +often pulled up small trees and bushes this way, but the palm nut tree +was stronger. Though Umboo pulled and pulled, digging his feet hard +down into the ground, the tree did not come up. + +"Oh, dear!" said the elephant boy. "I don't believe anyone can get +this tree down, Mother!" + +"Nonsense!" exclaimed Mrs. Stumptail. "Don't be such a baby. Think +hard, Umboo! You can easily uproot that tree and get all the nuts you +want. Let me see you do it!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +UMBOO IS LOST + + +Umboo wanted to grow up to be a big, strong smart elephant. He wanted +to be like Tusker, the leader of the herd, and he thought if he were +as tall, and strong as that mighty fellow he would have no trouble at +all in uprooting the tree. + +"There must be some way of doing it," said Umboo to himself as he +looked up at the palm nuts on top of the tree, and then he glanced at +his mother who was watching him. Of course Mrs. Stumptail herself +could easily have pulled the tree for Umboo, as it was not very large, +but she did not want to do this. Just as your mother wants you to +learn to lace your own shoes, or button them, and tie your hair +ribbons. + +As he stood thinking of what best to do, Umboo scraped with his feet +in the dirt around the roots of the tree. Soon he uncovered some of +the roots. They were not a kind he liked to eat, but, as he saw the +roots laid bare, a new idea came into the head of the elephant boy. + +"Ha! I know what I can do!" he said. "I can make the roots loose with +my long tusks, and then it will be easy to push the tree over with my +head. The roots won't hold it up any more!" + +"That's it!" exclaimed his mother. "I was wondering how long it would +take you to think of that. And it is better that you should think of +it for yourself than that I should tell you. Now you will never +forget. So loosen the dirt around the roots, Umboo, and then see what +happens." + +Kneeling down, Umboo put his tusks under the roots and pried them up, +as he used to pry the sweet ones up which he liked to eat. In a little +while he had broken many of the big roots. Then he stood up, backed +away from the tree, and rushed at it to strike it with his big head +which was like a battering-ram. + +Once, twice, three times Umboo hit the tree. It shivered and shook, +and then, because the roots no longer held it up, over it went with a +crash. + +"Hurray!" cried Umboo, or what meant the same thing in elephant talk. +"Now I can get the palm nuts!" + +"Yes," said his mother. "You have learned something else." + +With the tree lying flat on the ground, it was easy for Umboo to reach +the palm nuts with his trunk. He pulled them off and ate them, first, +though, giving his mother some. For elephants, and other animals, know +how to be kind and polite, though of course, they are not so good at +it as are you boys and girls. + +As Umboo and his mother were eating the palm nuts, along came Keedah. + +"Hello!" cried the other elephant boy. "How did you get the palm tree +down, Mrs. Stumptail?" + +"I did it," said Umboo. + +"You?" cried Keedah. "No! You are not strong enough for that!" + +"No, I wasn't strong enough to knock this tree over with my head, or +pull it down with my trunk, until I loosened the dirt at the roots," +said Umboo. "After that it was easy." + +"Well, you are getting to be like us bigger boys," said Keedah. "May I +have some of the palm nuts, Umboo?" + +"Yes," was the answer, for Umboo felt a little proud at what he had +done, and, like a real person, he wanted others to know it. + +"Did you ever knock down a palm tree?" asked Umboo of Keedah. + +"Often," was the answer. "I learned to dig at the roots just as you +did. But when it rains you don't have to do that." + +"Why not?" Umboo wanted to know. + +"Because the rain water makes the dirt soft around the roots, and we +don't have to dig it loose with our tusks. Wait until some day when it +rains, and you'll see how easy it is to knock over bigger trees than +this." + +And Umboo found that this was so. About a week after that it rained +hard, and to the hot, tired and dusty elephants in the jungle the +cooling showers were a delight. The rain soaked into the ground, until +it was wet and soft, like a sponge. + +Umboo, splashing in a mud puddle, walked away from where he had been +standing near his mother. + +"Where are you going?" asked Mrs. Stumptail. + +"I am going to see if I can do as Keedah said he could do, and knock +over a tree without digging at the roots," answered the elephant boy. +"The ground is rain-soaked now, and soft." + +"Very well," spoke his mother. "You may try it. But don't go too far +away. The herd may move on through the jungle, and then you would be +lost." + +"I'll be careful," promised Umboo. + +Off started the elephant boy, splashing through the mud and water. He +did not need to wear rubber boots, or take an umbrella. In fact he +would not have known what to do with either, though once, in a circus, +I saw an elephant with an umbrella. But then I saw one with a hand +organ, too, and you'd never see that in the jungle. + +But Umboo's big feet were made for walking in mud and water, and his +thick skin, though bugs could bite through it at times, did not let +any rain leak through to wet him. There was plenty on the outside, +however, just as there is outside your rubber coat. + +"I'll just go off by myself and knock a great big tree over with my +head," thought Umboo. "Then the other elephants will see what I can +do. I wonder if it will be easy, on account of the ground being soft +from the rain?" + +On and on through the jungle wandered Umboo. He was big enough to +travel by himself now, though of course he did not want to leave his +mother, nor the herd, which was like home to him. He was one of a big +family of elephants, some being his sisters, his brothers or his +cousins. + +All around him, through the forest, Umboo could hear the other +elephants crashing about in the wet. They were looking for good things +to eat, and none of them went very far away from the others. They +wanted to be near where they could hear Tusker sound his trumpet call +of danger, if he had to do so. + +But Umboo being young, and perhaps rather foolish, thought he could go +off as far as he pleased into the jungle. + +"I can find my way back again, after I have knocked over a big tree," +he thought to himself. "It will be easy." + +The elephant boy saw several trees with bunches of palm nuts on them, +but none was large enough for him. He wanted to pick out an extra +large one; not as big, of course, as his mother or father or Tusker +could have butted over, but still one bigger than the other trees he +had been used to knocking down. + +At last, when he had tramped on quite a distance through the mud and +water of the jungle, Umboo saw before him a fine, large palm tree. +Growing in the top, so far up that he could not reach any except the +very lowest, and littlest, ones, were a number of clusters of palm +nuts. + +"Ah! That's the tree I'll knock down!" thought Umboo. + +He went up to it, and looked at the ground around the roots. It was +soft and spongy as he stepped on it, and water oozed out. + +"This ought to be easy," said the elephant to himself. "Very easy!" + +He put his head against the trunk of the tree and pushed. At first the +tree only swayed a little, as though blown by the wind. Then the +elephant boy, who was quite strong now, pushed harder and harder. Then +he drew back his head and struck the palm tree a hard blow. + +And then, all of a sudden, over it went, the roots pulling loose from +the soft, wet ground. Over the tree went, falling with a crash! + +"Ah ha!" laughed Umboo. "That's the way to do it! Keedah was right! It +is very easy to knock over a tree when the ground is soft and muddy. +Now for some good nuts to eat." + +With his trunk Umboo pulled the palm nuts off the tree and stuffed +them into his mouth. An elephant's trunk is to him what your hands are +to you children. + +After he had eaten as many of the nuts as he wanted (and you may be +sure that was quite a number, for elephants have big appetites) Umboo +tore off a large branch, with nuts clinging to it and started off +through the jungle with it. + +"I'll take this back to the herd with me," he thought. "My mother or +father may like it. And I can show it to Keedah. He can tell by the +size of this branch that the tree I knocked over must be a big one. +Then I'll bring him here and show him the tree. I'm almost as big and +strong as he is." + +So thinking, Umboo went on through the forest. Each tree, leaf and +vine was dripping water, for it was still raining hard. Steam arose +from the ground, for the earth was hot and the water was warm, as it +always is in the jungle. + +Perhaps it was this steam, which was like a fog, rising all around +him, that puzzled Umboo. And most certainly he was puzzled, for, when +he had been walking quite a distance, he suddenly stopped and +listened. + +"This is strange," he said to himself. "I don't hear any of the other +elephants. And I ought to be back with the herd now." + +He listened more carefully, flapping his ears which were, by this +time, about as large as a baby's bath tub. They were still growing. To +and fro Umboo moved his ears, listening first one way and then the +other. He could hear the patter of the rain, and the chatter of a +monkey now and then, also the fluttering of the big jungle birds, +with, every little while, the rustle of a snake. But the elephant boy +could not hear the noise made by the other elephants. + +"I guess I haven't walked far enough," he said to himself. "I must go +along through the jungle some more. But I did not think I came as far +as this when I was looking for a tree to knock over." + +So, taking a tighter hold of the branch of palm nuts in his trunk, off +started Umboo again, splashing through the muddy puddles. He looked +this way and that, and he listened every now and then, stopping to do +this, for he made so much noise himself, as he hurried along, that he +could hear nothing else. + +"Well, this is certainly funny!" thought Umboo, when he had stopped +and listened about ten times. "I can't hear any other elephants at +all. I wonder if they could have gone away and left me?" + +Then he knew, that, though the other animals might have gone away and +left him, his father and mother would not do this. + +"And," thought Umboo, "if there had been any danger from hunters and +their guns, Tusker would have sounded his call, and I would have heard +that. I guess I haven't gone back far enough." + +Then he hurried on again, but, after awhile, when he had listened and +could hear nothing of the herd of elephants, and could not see them +through the trees, Umboo began to be afraid. + +"I guess I must be lost!" he said. "That's it! My mother said it might +happen to me, and it has. I'm lost!" + +And so he was! Poor Umboo was lost in the jungle, and the rain was +coming down harder than ever! + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +UMBOO AND THE SNAKE + + +"Weren't you terribly frightened?" asked Chako, the lively monkey, as +he swung by his tail from a bar in the top of his circus cage. +"Weren't you dreadfully scared, Umboo, when you found out you were +lost in the jungle?" + +"Indeed I was," answered the elephant boy, who was telling his story +to his friends in the big, white tent. + +"I was lost once, in the jungle like that," went on the monkey chap, +"and all I had to eat was a cocoanut. And I--" + +"Wait a minute! Wait a minute!" cried Humpo the camel. "Are we +listening to your story, Chako, or to Umboo's?" + +"Oh, that's so! I forgot!" exclaimed Chako. "Go on, Umboo. I won't +talk any more." + +"Well, I won't either--at least for a while," said Umboo. "For here +come the keepers with our dinners. Let's eat instead of talking." + +And surely enough, into the circus tent came the men with the food for +the animals--hay for the elephants, meat for the lions and tigers, and +dried bread and peanuts for the monkeys. + +Then after a sleep, which most animals take about as soon as they have +eaten, it was time for the circus to begin. Into the tent where the +jungle folk were kept, came the boys and girls, with their fathers and +mothers, or uncles, aunts and cousins. + +"Oh, look at the big elephant!" cried one boy. "I'm going to give him +some peanuts!" and he stopped in front of Umboo. + +"No, don't!" cried a little girl who was with the boy. "He might bite +you." + +"Pooh! He can't!" said the boy. "He can only reach me with his long +nose of a trunk, and there aren't any teeth in that. His teeth are in +his mouth, farther up." + +"Well, he's got a pinching thing on the end of his trunk," spoke the +little girl, "and he can nip you." + +"I don't guess he will," went on the boy. "Anyhow I'd like to give him +some peanuts." + +"And I'd like to have them," said Umboo, in elephant talk, of course, +which the other animals could understand, but which was not known to +the little boy and girl, nor to the other children in the circus tent. + +Then the little boy grew brave, and held out a bag, partly filled with +peanuts, to Umboo, who took them in his trunk, and chewed them up, +first, though, taking them out of the bag, for he did not like to chew +paper. + +"I wish I could ride on the elephant's back!" said the little boy. + +"Children do ride on the backs of elephants in India, the country +where you and I came from, don't they, Umboo?" asked Snarlie, the +tiger, when the children had passed on to the tent where the +performers were to do their circus tricks. + +"Oh, yes, many a ride I have given children in India," said Umboo. +"But that was after I was caught in the jungle trap and tamed." + +"Tell us about that!" begged Chako. + +"All in good time! All in good time," said the big elephant, in a sort +of drowsy voice, for he had hardly slept through all his nap that day, +before the circus crowds came in. "I have yet to tell you how I was +lost, and how I got back to the rest of the herd. But seeing the +children remind me of the days in India," added Umboo. + +"And it reminded me also," spoke Snarlie. "Well do I recall how little +Princess Toto rode on the back of a great elephant like yourself, +Umboo, and how it was then I first saw her. Afterward I went to live +with her, and there was a palace, with a fountain in it where the +water sparkled in the sun." + +"What's a palace?" asked Chako, the monkey. "Is it something good to +eat, like a cocoanut?" + +"Indeed it is not," said Snarlie. "A palace is a big house, like this +circus tent, only it is made of stone. Princess Toto and I lived +there, but now I live in a circus, and I shall never see Toto again! I +liked her very much." + +"I like children, too," said Woo-Uff, the lion, in his deep, rumbly +voice. "Once a little African boy named Gur was kind to me, and gave +me a drink of water when I was caught in the net. He was a good boy." + +"Did he ride on an elephant's back?" asked Snarlie. + +"I never saw him do that," answered the lion, "though he may have. But +the elephants of Africa, where I came from, are wilder, larger and +more fierce than those of India, where our friend Umboo used to live. +People hardly ever ride on an African elephant's back." + +"Well, let us hear more of Umboo's story," suggested Humpo, the camel. +"It seems to me everyone is talking but him." + +"That's so," spoke Horni, the rhinoceros. "Please go on, Umboo. Tell +us about how you were lost in the jungle." + +So the big circus elephant, slowly swaying to and fro, and gently +clanking his chains, told more of his jungle story. + +When he looked all around among the trees, which were dripping water +from the heavy rain, and when he could not see any of the other +elephants, Umboo felt very badly indeed. For animals, even those who +live in the jungle, get lonesome, the same as you boys and girls do +when you go away from home. + +"Well, if I am lost," thought Umboo to himself, as he held the branch +of palm nuts, "I must see if I can not find the way home." For though +elephants have no real home, traveling as they do to and fro in the +jungle so much, Umboo called "home" the place where he had last seen +his mother and the rest of the herd. + +Since Umboo could not see a long way through the trees, as he might +have done if he had eyes as sharp and bright as a big vulture bird, he +had to do what most elephants do--smell. So he raised his trunk in the +air, dropping the palm branch to the ground, and sniffed as hard as he +could. He wanted to smell the elephant smell--the odor that would come +from the herd of the big animals who were somewhere in the jungle +eating leaves and bark. + +But Umboo could not smell them. Nor could he smell any danger, and he +was glad of that. + +All the smells that came to him were those of the jungle--the soft mud +smell, the odor of wet, green leaves and the smell of the falling +rain. All those smells Umboo knew and loved. But he could not smell +the other elephants, and if he could have done so he would have known +which way to walk to get to them. + +Slowly he turned himself around, so as to smell each way the wind +blew, toward him and from him. But it was of no use. No elephant smell +came to him. + +"I guess I am too far away," thought the elephant boy to himself. "I +must walk on farther. Then I'll come to where my mother is. I wish I +had not gone away from her." + +Picking up the palm branch again, with the sweet nuts still fast to +it, Umboo started off once more through the mud and water. The rain +came down harder than ever, but he did not mind that. It washed his +skin of the dried mud and dust that had been on it some time, and when +it rained the bugs did not bite so much. Also the rain was not cold, +for it was pleasant and warm in the jungle. Only it was lonesome to +the elephant boy, who, never before, had been so long away from his +mother. + +On he tramped, splashing this way and that through the puddles, wading +through little brooks and, once, even swimming over a small river, +for, by this time Umboo was as good a swimmer as the other elephants. + +"But I don't remember swimming that river before," said Umboo to +himself, as he crawled out on the farther bank, with the branch of +palm nuts held high in his trunk. "Surely I must have come the wrong +way. I am worse lost than ever!" + +And so Umboo was. But there was no help for it. He must keep on, and +he hoped, before it grew dark, that he would find the herd, and his +mother with it. + +After he had swum across the river Umboo pushed on through the jungle +for a mile or more. All at once he heard, off to one side, something +crashing through the bushes much as he was doing. + +"Ha! Perhaps that is another elephant!" thought Umboo. "Maybe it is my +mother or my father, or perhaps Old Tusker coming to look for me. I +shall be glad of that! + +"Hello there!" cried Umboo in elephant talk. "Is that you, Mother? +Here I am, over here!" + +The crashing of the bushes stopped, and a loud voice said: + +"No, I am not your mother. What is the matter with you, elephant boy?" +and out of the jungle came stalking a big rhinoceros. On his head, +close to the end of his nose, grew a long, sharp horn. At first Umboo +was afraid of this horn, but the rhinoceros did not seem to be cross, +and the elephant boy went closer to him. + +"The matter with me," said Umboo, "is that I am lost. I went out in +the jungle, away from where our herd of elephants was feeding, and now +I can't find my way back again. Can you tell me where my mother is, +Mr. Rhino?" + +"I am sorry to say that I can not," answered the rhinoceros, +scratching his leg with his horn. "But why did you go away from the +herd?" + +"I wanted to go out in the jungle and knock over a big tree," said +Umboo. "Keedah, one of the boys in the herd, said it was easy to do +when the ground was soft from the rain." + +"And did you do it?" asked the rhinoceros. + +"Yes," answered Umboo, "I did. This branch of palm nuts is from the +tree I knocked over with my head. I'd give you some, only I am saving +them for my mother." + +"Oh, that's all right; thank you," said the other jungle beast. "I +don't care much for palm nuts anyhow, and I'd rather you would save +them for your mother." + +"Do you know where my mother is?" asked Umboo eagerly. + +"I am sorry to say I do not," was the reply. "I have been wandering +about the jungle myself, looking for a rhinoceros friend of mine, but +I haven't found him." + +"Did you see a herd of elephants?" asked Umboo eagerly. + +"No, I didn't exactly see them," answered Mr. Rhino, "but about two +showers ago I heard a big noise in the jungle back of me, and perhaps +that was the elephant herd." + +Mr. Rhino said "two showers ago," instead of "two hours," you see, +because the jungle animals have no clocks or watches, and they tell +time by the sun, or by the number of rain-showers in a day. And Umboo +knew that very well, so he knew about how long ago it was that the +rhinoceros had heard the loud sounds of which he spoke. + +"Oh, so you heard the elephants, did you?" exclaimed Umboo. "I am glad +of that. Now I'll hurry off and find them. Thank you for telling me." + +"Oh, that's all right," politely answered the rhinoceros. "I hope you +find your mother and other friends. Good-bye!" + +He wiggled his horn at Umboo, who waved his trunk with the palm tree +branch in it, and once more, off through the jungle started the +elephant boy. + +On and on he went. But either he did not go the right way, or two +showers ago was longer than either he or the rhinoceros thought, for +Umboo did not even smell the other elephants, much less see them or +hear them. + +"Oh, dear!" thought Umboo again. "I'm surely lost as bad as before! +What shall I do?" + +He stood and looked about him in the dripping wet jungle. He felt +hungry, but he did not like to eat the palm nuts he was saving for his +mother, so he chewed some leaves from a tree, and nibbled a bit of +bark. But neither was as good as the palm nuts would have been. + +Then, as Umboo stood there, he suddenly heard a loud, hissing noise. +It seemed to come from right under his feet, and, looking down, he saw +a large snake. + +Now all jungle animals are afraid of snakes for the serpents can bite +and poison at the same time. So though a snake may not be very strong, +he can kill by poison some of the strongest beasts. Thus it was that +Umboo, who would have fought even a tiger, was afraid of the snake. + +"Ah, ha! You would nip me, would you?" cried the elephant, as he +raised his big foot to crush the snake before it had a chance to bite +and poison him. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +UMBOO FINDS HIS MOTHER + + +"Did the snake bite you?" asked Chako, the funny monkey chap, who was +hanging by his tail, upside down, listening to the story told by +Umboo. "Did the snake bite you?" + +"Oh, can't you keep quiet?" asked Woo-Uff, the lion, in his deep, +rumbly voice. "Let Umboo alone! He'll tell us what happened." + +"Oh, I beg your pardon," said Chako. "I was so anxious that I could +hardly wait to hear. We monkeys are very much afraid of snakes, you +know." + +"So I have heard," said Woo-Uff. "Please go on, Umboo." + +So Umboo told the rest of his story. + +In the jungle he stood, with one foot raised, ready to crush the big +snake. + +"Please do not step on me!" hissed the snake, for that was his way of +talking. "Please do not put your big foot on me, elephant boy!" + +"But I am afraid you will bite me," said Umboo. + +"No, I'll not do that," answered the snake. "I do sometimes bite, when +I am hungry, but I am not hungry now. Besides, you are quite too big +to bite." + +"Oh, ho, if you feel that way about it, all right," said Umboo, and he +put his foot down, but not on the snake. "There are much larger +elephants though, than I am. I wish I could see some of them now. Tell +me," he asked the hissing serpent, "did you see anything of the +elephant herd on your travels through the jungle?" + +"No, not exactly," the snake made answer. "But, as you were kind +enough not to step on me, I will do you a favor. I will show you the +way through the jungle to where the other elephants are. + +"Can you do it?" asked Umboo. + +"Surely," replied the snake. "We serpents are the wisest of all +creatures, not even excepting you big elephants. For we have to stay +so low down on the ground that we would easily be stepped on and +killed by other beasts, if we were not wise enough to keep out of the +way. So, though I have not seen your mother, or the elephant herd, I +can find them for you." + +"How did you know I was looking for my mother?" asked Umboo. "I did +not tell you that." + +"No, but you told the rhinoceros," said the snake. + +"Ha! Then you must have very good ears, Mrs. Snake, to have heard +that, for it was a long way from here," said Umboo. "You must have +very good ears indeed, though they are not as large as mine. In fact I +can not see them at all." + +"Never mind about my ears," said the snake. "I told you we serpents +were very wise. We know many things. And now, if you please, follow me +and I will show you the way through the jungle to where your mother +is, and the rest of the herd. But as I have to crawl along on the +ground, please be careful not to step on me. We snakes do not like to +be stepped on." + +"I'll be careful," promised Umboo. + +Then the snake glided, or crawled, along through the jungle, and +Umboo, watching which way she went, followed, carrying in his trunk +the branch of palm nuts for his mother. + +On and on went the snake, now and then stopping to coil and raise her +head above the ground so she might listen. The water drops glistened +on her shiny scales, and she was very beautiful in color, though she +was so dangerous and deadly. + +"What are you stopping for?" asked Umboo at one time. + +"I am trying to listen to hear the tramp of the herd of elephants," +the snake answered. "Do not make any noise." + +So Umboo stood still, and was very quiet, but he could hear nothing. +However, the snake must have heard, for she uncoiled herself and +started off another way, saying: + +"Follow me, Umboo." + +"How did you know my name was Umboo?" asked the elephant boy. "I did +not tell you that." + +"We serpents are wise, and know many things," was the answer, and +Umboo began to believe that. + +"It is a good thing I met her," he said to himself, as he followed the +glistening snake through the jungle. "I am glad I did not step on her +as I was first going to do." + +On and on through the jungle went Umboo, following the guiding snake, +whose glistening scales and bright colors he could easily see amid the +green leaves and bushes. At last the snake came to a stop and once +more coiled and reared up her head. + +"Make no noise, big elephant boy!" she hissed. + +Umboo stood still and was very quiet. + +"Ha! I thought so!" said the snake. "Go over that way," and she +pointed with her head. "Walk about a mile, straight along, and you +will come to your mother and the herd of elephants." + +"How do you know?" asked Umboo. + +"Because I can hear them," answered the snake. "I can hear the +tramping of their big feet. I can hear them trumpeting through their +long noses of trunks, and I can hear them tearing down the tree +branches and stripping off the bark. That is how I know. + +"I would go closer, and take you nearer to them, but some of them +might step on me, without finding out first, that I would do them no +harm. But you can easily find your way from here. Keep straight on," +said the snake. + +"Thank you, I will," answered Umboo. "I would give you some of these +palm nuts, only I am saving them for my mother." + +"Thank you," said the snake. "But I do not eat palm nuts. Take them on +to your mother, elephant boy." + +Then the snake glided away through the jungle, and, watching the end +of her tail vanish under a bush, Umboo started off by himself. He had +not heard the sounds spoken of by the serpent, but he knew the noises +were such as a herd of elephants would make. + +"She must have good ears, to hear what she heard," thought the +elephant boy. "And yet her ears were not as large as mine." + +So, flapping his own big ears, and wishing he could hear with them as +well as the snake could with her small ones, Umboo stalked on through +the jungle in the way she had told him to go. + +It was not very long before he heard a crashing sound. Then he lifted +his trunk, still holding the palm branch, and he sniffed and snuffed. +And then, to the long, rubbery nose of the elephant boy, came the wild +smell of other jungle animals. + +"Ah! Now I smell the herd!" he cried. "Now I am not lost any more! +Hurray!" + +Of course when an elephant says "Hurray" it is different than the way +you boys and girls say it. But it means the same thing. + +On hurried Umboo. The crashing noises sounded more plainly now, and +the elephant smell became stronger. Then, as he burst his way through +the bushes, Umboo saw the other elephants standing together in a +little clearing in the jungle, and Umboo's mother seemed to be talking +to them. + +"Ha!" suddenly cried Keedah, the larger elephant boy, as he saw the +lost one. "Here he comes now! Here is Umboo!" + +Mrs. Stumptail swung around and started toward him. + +"Where in the world have you been?" she asked. "Why, Umboo! I have +been so worried about you, and so has your father! We were just going +out into the jungle to look for you." + +"That's what we were," said Tusker. "And hard work it would have been +with night coming on. We want to travel to a new place, too, and +looking for you would have held us back. What do you mean by going off +by yourself this way?" + +"I went to see if I could knock over a big palm tree when the ground +was soft from rain," said Umboo. + +"And did you do it?" asked Mr. Stumptail. + +"I did," answered Umboo. "I knocked over a big tree. It was easy, and +here is a branch of it for you, and it has some nuts on," and he +handed his mother the one he had brought with him all the way through +the jungle. + +"Oh, thank you!" said Mrs. Stumptail. "You are a very good boy, Umboo, +and I shall like these nuts very much. But why did you stay away so +long?" + +"I was lost," answered the elephant chap. "I could not find my way +back after I knocked over the tree. I met a rhinoceros, but he could +not tell me where you were. Then I met a kind snake, and she showed me +how to find you." + +"Well, don't get lost again," said Umboo's mother. "We are glad you +have come back, for, as Tusker says, we are about to travel on, and we +did not want to leave you behind. So get ready now, we are going to a +new part of the jungle." + +A little later the herd started off, and Umboo walked with some of the +other young elephants, or calves, as they are called. He told them the +different things that happened to him when he was lost in the jungle. + +On and on went the herd of elephants. They traveled nearly all night, +and the next day they stopped to rest, for the sun was too hot for +even such big, strong beasts. + +Umboo and the others were feeding in a quiet part of the forest, when +suddenly Tusker, who was always on the watch, no matter whether he was +eating or not, gave a loud trumpet call. + +"Ha! That means danger!" thought Umboo, who, by this time knew the +meaning of the different calls. "I wonder what it can be?" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +TO THE SALT SPRING + + +Quickly, as the other elephants in the jungle heard the trumpet call +of Tusker, they ran in from the different trees, where they were +pulling off leaves or stripping bark, and gathered around the big +leader. Tusker stood with upraised trunk, his eyes flashing in the +sun. + +"What is it?" asked Mr. Stumptail, and some of the others. "What is +the matter now?" + +"I smell danger," cried Tusker. "I smell the man-smell, and that +always means danger to us. There are hunters coming--either black or +white--and they will have guns or bows and arrows to shoot us. We are +near danger and we must go far away. Come, elephants--away!" + +Tusker raised his trunk again, and took a long breath through it. He +was smelling to see in which direction the danger of the man-smell +lay, and he would turn aside from that. + +"The smell comes from the South," he said to the other elephants. "We +must march to the North! Come!" + +So he led the way through the jungle, Umboo and the other elephants +following. As yet only a few of the others had smelled the danger- +smell, and none of them heard any noise made by the hunters, if they +were coming to shoot their guns or bows and arrows. But they all knew +that Tusker was a wise elephant, and would lead them out of trouble. +So they followed him. + +On and on through the jungle crashed the big animals. They did not +stop when trees and bushes got in their way, but broke them down, and +stepped on them. A rush of elephants through the jungle to get away +from danger is almost as hard to stop as a runaway locomotive and +train of cars. + +"Can you keep up with us?" asked Umboo's mother of him as he trotted +along beside her. "Are we going too fast for you?" + +"Oh, no. I can go quite fast now," said the elephant boy, and he +really could, for he had grown much in the last few months. Plenty of +palm nuts and the bark and leaves of the jungle trees had made him +taller and stronger, and his legs were better fitted for running. + +Still Tusker was a wise old elephant, and he knew, even in running +from danger, that it was not well to go so fast that the smaller +animals in the herd could not keep up. If he did that they would fall +behind, and be caught or killed. So, every now and then the old +elephant leader stopped a bit, and looked back. If he saw any of the +boys or girls lagging, or going slow, he would stop for them to rest a +little. + +Still, even with rests now and then, the herd went on very fast, +crashing through the jungle, to get away from the danger. At last +Tusker stopped, and said: + +"Well, I think we have come far enough. We are beyond the reach of the +hunters now. We can stop and eat and sleep in peace." + +So the elephants stopped. You see, now, why it was they had no regular +homes. They have to move so often, either to go to new places in the +jungle to find food, or to run from danger, so that a cave, such as +lions or tigers have, or a nest, such as birds live in, would be of no +use to elephants. They must live in the open, ready to hurry on for +many miles at a moment's notice. + +Tusker, and some of the older and wiser beasts, listened as well as +they could, flapping their big ears slowly to and fro. They also +smelled the air with their trunks. And, as there was no sign of +danger, they felt that it would be safe to take a long rest. + +They were hungry; for running, or exercise, gives elephants appetites +just as it does you boys and girls. And some of the smaller elephants +were sleepy. For, though they do not lie down to rest, elephants must +sleep, as do other beasts, although they do it standing up. That night +the herd remained quietly in the new spot in the jungle whither Tusker +had led them. Some of them ate and some of them slept, and when +morning came they went to a river of water; and each one took a long +drink. Some of them swam about, and it was now that Umboo and the +young elephants had some fun. + +For you know that jungle beasts--even the largest of them--like to +play and have fun. You have seen kittens at play, and puppy dogs; and +little lions and tigers, as well as the smaller elephants, like to do +the same thing--have fun. + +Umboo was standing on the bank of the river, having just been in for a +swim, when Batu, another elephant boy, came up to him. + +"Do you want to have some fun?" asked Batu. + +"Yes," answered Umboo. "What doing?" + +"Do you see Keedah over there, scraping his toe nails on a big stone?" +asked Batu, for sometimes the toe nails of elephants grow too long and +too rough, and have to be worn down. Keedah was doing this to his. + +"Yes, I see him," answered Umboo. "What about him?" + +"This," answered Batu, with a chuckling laugh that made him shake all +over, for he was quite fat. "We will go up to him, as he stands with +his back to the water, and while I am talking to him, and asking if +his toe nails hurt, you can give him a push and knock him into the +river." + +"Oh, yes, we'll do that. It will be fun!" laughed Umboo. + +For he knew that it would not hurt Keedah to splash into the water, +and the elephant boys and girls used often to play that trick on one +another, just as you children, perhaps, do at the seashore. + +So up to the elephant boy, who was scraping his toe nails on a stone, +slyly went Umboo and Batu. And Batu said: + +"Ah, Keedah! Do your toes hurt you very much?" + +"Oh, no, not so very much," was the answer. "I am getting to be a big +elephant now, and I do not mind a little hurt." + +"Ha! Then maybe you won't mind this!" suddenly cried Umboo with a +laugh, as he quietly went up close to Keedah, and, butting him with +his head, as a goat butts, knocked him down the bank into the river. + +"Oh! Ugh! Blurg! Splub!" cried Keedah, as he splattered about in the +water. "What are you doing that for?" + +"Oh, just to have some fun," answered Umboo and Batu, laughing as they +ran off. + +"Well, I'll show you some more fun!" cried Keedah, as he scrambled up +the river bank, and ran after the other two elephant boys, his trunk +raised high in the air. + +Umboo and Batu ran as fast as they could, of course, and Keedah raced +after them. Finally he caught them, and struck them with his trunk. +But it was all in fun, and no one minded it. Then, a little later, +when Umboo was standing near the river, Keedah came up behind him and +knocked him into the water. + +"Now we are even!" laughed Keedah as he ran away. + +"I don't mind!" said Umboo. "I was going in for another swim, anyhow. +I like to be wet." + +So he splashed about in the water and had fun, as did the other +elephant boys and girls, and the larger elephants watched them, and +let the water soak into their own tough hides. + +For about a week the herd of elephants stayed near the jungle river. +It was a good place for them. Many palm trees grew about, and there +were plenty of other things to eat. There was water to drink and bathe +in, and shade to rest in when the sun beat down too hot on the jungle. +So the elephants liked it there. + +But one day when Umboo and Batu were thinking up another fun-trick to +play on Keedah, suddenly the trumpet call of Tusker was heard again. + +"More danger!" exclaimed Umboo. "I wonder what it is this time?" + +"Let us go ask," suggested Batu. "The others are getting ready to +leave. They are closing in. Perhaps we have to run away again." + +And that is just what the elephants had to do. + +"It is the hunters once more!" cried Tusker. "I smell the man-smell! +The danger-smell comes down to me on the wind. We must hurry on. Once +more the hunters are after us!" and he trumpeted loudly on his trunk, +to call in from the farthest parts of the forest the elephants who +might have wandered away for food. + +Soon the herd was on the march again. Swiftly they went through the +jungle, breaking down small trees and big bushes. They stopped not for +thorns, nor anything else in the path. On and on they went, crashing +along--anywhere to get away from the hunters with their guns and +arrows. + +"Are these the same hunters from whom we ran before?" asked Umboo of +his mother, as he trotted along beside her. + +"I do not know," she answered. "It may be that they are." + +For many miles Tusker led his elephant friends through the jungle. +Then suddenly he stopped and gave a loud trumpet call. + +"Does that mean it is all right, and that we can stop to rest?" asked +Umboo. + +"I do not think so," said Mr. Stumptail. "That still is Tusker's +danger call. Perhaps there are hunters ahead of us, as well as +behind." + +Tusker stopped, and around him gathered the other elephants. + +"What is the matter?" asked Umboo. + +"See, boy," answered the old elephant. "There is a fence of big trees +ahead. We can not get through that. It is right across our path," and +with his trunk he pointed to where there was, indeed, a high fence +made of trees, cut down and set closely in the earth and so strong +that even the biggest elephant would have had hard work to knock them +down. + +"Well, if we can't go that way we can go another," said Tusker. + +So he turned about, and walked off another way, the other elephants +following him. + +"Who put the fence there, Mother?" asked Umboo. + +"I do not know," answered Mrs. Stumptail. "Perhaps the hunters did, so +we could not get into their gardens and eat the corn and other things +that grow there. Very good things grow in the gardens which the white +and black men plant, and, more than once in the night, I have broken +in and eaten them. But it is dangerous, and Tusker does not want to +lead us into danger. We will keep away from the fence." + +Now, though the elephants did not know it, this fence was not built to +keep elephants out of a garden. There were no gardens in that part of +the jungle. The fence was put up by hunters on purpose to turn the +elephants back, and soon you shall hear why this was done. + +"Are we in danger now?" asked Umboo of his father as they hurried +along, close beside Tusker. + +"No, I think we are all right now," said the oldest, wisest and +largest elephant of the herd. "I am going to lead you to the salt +springs, where we can taste the salt of the earth. One way is as good +as another, and if the fence stops us on one path we will go a new +way. We are going to the salt springs." + +Every year the herds of elephants in India come down to eat salt, for +they need it to keep them well, as horses and cows do on the farm. And +the elephant hunters know this too, and so they get ready to capture +the wild elephants when they come down each season to get the salt. + +The herd was not going so fast now. Tusker felt that they were well +away from the hunters, and, though seeing the fence at first scared +him a little, he now thought everything was all right. + +"We will have good times when we get to the salt springs," said Tusker +to the other elephants. "There we can rest, and the hunters will not +shoot us." + +"Yes, I am hungry for some salt," said Mrs. Stumptail, for she had +been to the springs before, and so had many of the older animals. + +Along marched Tusker at the head of the herd, and after him came the +others. They, too, were hungry for salt, and Umboo was quite anxious +to taste some, for he had had very little, as yet. But he liked it +very much, and was anxious for more. + +But an hour or so later, when traveling along toward where the salt +springs bubbled up in the jungle, Tusker suddenly stopped again. Once +more he gave the danger signal through his trunk. + +"What is the matter now?" asked Mr. Stumptail. "More trouble?" + +"Another fence!" cried the old elephant. "The jungle is full of strong +fences! We can not go this way, either!" + +"What can we do?" asked Umboo. "There is a fence behind us, and now +one in front of us. What can we do?" + +"Let me think a minute," said Tusker. "I fear there is danger on both +sides of us." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +IN A TRAP + + +All the other elephants waited while Tusker stood there, swaying to +and fro in the jungle thinking. Some people say animals do not think, +but I believe they do. At least it is thinking to them, though it may +not seem so to us. + +"Well, are we going to stay here all day?" asked a young elephant, who +was crowded in among the others at the back of the herd. "I want to +get to some place where I can have palm nuts to eat. I am hungry. +Let's go on!" + +"Be quiet!" called Umboo's father to this elephant. "Don't you see +that Tusker is trying to think, and find the best way out of danger +for us. Wait a bit." + +So the elephants waited, and finally Tusker with a shake of his big +ears, said: + +"I never knew anything like this before. Always when we have come to +the salt springs the way has been clear. There have been no man-made +fences to stop us. But, since they are here it must be that it is not +meant for us to go where the fences are. Very well. I know how to get +to the salt springs without going near these things across our paths. +We can go straight ahead, between the two fences!" + +And that was just what the hunters, who had put up the fences in the +jungle wanted. They wanted the elephants to go along between them, +for, at the places where the fences came to an end, was a strong +stockade, or trap, to catch the wild elephants. + +Umboo, and none of the other elephants knew this at the time, but they +learned it later, to their sorrow, some of them. When hunters in the +Indian jungle wish to capture a lot of wild elephants, to work for +them, or to be turned into trick elephants for the circus, the hunters +do this. + +First they find the place where, each year, the wild elephants come +down from the hills, or out of the jungle, to taste the salt. For, as +I told you, elephants must have salt once in a while, just as horses, +cows and sheep on the farm need it. The elephants will travel a long +way, and brave many dangers, to get salt. + +Knowing this the hunters build long fences on each side of the road +leading down from the hills to the salt spring. When the elephants +crash their way through the jungle, on their way to the salt, they +come to one of the fences. This turns them aside, and they go along +until they come to another. + +Then, just as did Tusker, and his friend Umboo and the other +elephants, being between two strong fences, there is only one other +thing to do. They can go between them toward the salt spring, or away +from it. But, as they want salt very much, the big animals tramp along +the two miles of fence toward the salty place, and, knowing the +elephants will do this, the hunters are ready for them. Now I shall +tell you what happened. + +For a few minutes longer Tusker stood swaying in the jungle. He was +trying to think what was the best thing for him to do, for he was the +leader of the herd, and they would all do as he did, just as a flock +of sheep will follow the old ram, even on the dangerous railroad track +sometimes. + +"Come!" trumpeted Tusker through his trunk, "we will go between the +two fences to the salt springs." + +"Is the salt good, Mother?" asked Umboo, for he had only had a little +in his life, and as I told you, hardly remembered it." + +"Very good, indeed," said Mrs. Stumptail. "You shall soon see and +taste for yourself." + +So along through the jungle, half way between the two lines of fence, +went the elephants, little and big. They had not gone very far before, +all of a sudden, Tusker stopped and raised his trunk in the air. + +"Be careful!" he cried. "I smell danger! I smell the man smell! Oh, +elephants, I fear something is going to happen." + +And something did happen. + +From behind the herd of elephants, and from both sides of them, came a +terrible noise. It was as though a hundred thunderbolts had been shot +off at once, and a terrible clapping sound was heard, as if the wings +of great birds were flapping. + +These noises were made by hunters up in the trees on each side of, and +behind, the elephants. The hunters fired their guns, making the noise +like small thunder bolts and other black men banged pieces of dry wood +together, making the clapping sound. + +The elephants were very much frightened. Never before had they heard +anything like this. + +"Oh, what is it?" cried Umboo, keeping close to his mother. "What is +it all about. Does the salt spring make that noise?" + +"No, it isn't that," said Mrs. Stumptail. "That must be the danger of +which Tusker spoke. Be quiet and listen to what he is saying." + +The old elephant leader had to trumpet through his trunk as loudly as +he could to be heard above the noise of the guns and clappers. + +"There is danger, O Elephants!" cried Tusker. "The man-smell is all +around us, and the terrible noises are behind, and on both sides of +us. There is only one place that is quiet, and that is straight ahead. +We must go that way! Forward!" + +And straight ahead rushed the elephants, toward the place where there +was no noise. As they went on Mr. Stumptail looked to either side and +saw where the two lines of fence came together into a place like a big +ring, and the ring also had a fence around it. + +"Look, Tusker!" cried Umboo's father. "Is it all right to go there +where the fence is?" + +"It is the only place to go to get away from the hunters," said +Tusker. "They are behind us and on both sides. Only ahead of us is +there none. We must go that way!" + +And this is just what the hunters wanted. They made no noise in front +of the elephants on purpose so they would rush that way. For, in that +direction, was the strongly fenced-in stockade, or trap, with long +barriers on each side leading to it. + +To the elephants, who were frightened by the shooting and clapping +noises behind, and on both sides of them, the silence in front of them +seemed just what they wanted. Toward it they ran, not knowing that the +trap was waiting for them. + +Into it they rushed, the noise behind them sounding louder and louder +now, with more guns shooting and more clappers clapping. Into the +quiet of the stockade rushed Tusker, Mr. and Mrs. Stumptail, Umboo, +Keedah and all the others. + +And then, when they were safely in the trap, a great big door of logs, +as strong as the fence of trees of which the stockade was built, fell +with a bang behind them, shutting the elephants in. Then the shooting +and clapping stopped. + +For a moment it was quiet in the jungle, the only sound being the wind +blowing in the trees, or the rubbing of the rough-skinned elephants' +bodies, one against the other, making a queer, shuffling noise. The +big animals crowded together in the middle of the stockade trap, and +waited for what would happen next. + +"Is this the salt spring, Mother?" asked Umboo. + +"No," she sadly answered. "It is not. This is dreadful!" + +"What has happened?" asked Umboo. "And why do Tusker and the other big +elephants look so scared?" + +"Because we are caught in a trap," answered the boy elephant's mother. +"I have heard tell of these places, but I was never in one before." + +"Can't we get out?" Umboo wanted to know. + +"Tusker will try, and so will your father," said Mrs. Stumptail. "All +the strong elephants will try to break out. Perhaps it will be all +right yet. Listen, Tusker is going to speak." + +Tusker, the big bull, raised his trunk and said: + +"O, Elephants! I am sorry, but I seem to have led you into a trap. I +did not know it was here. I tried to lead you away from the man-smell +and away from the danger, but I have led you into worse. Now I will +try to get you out. I see what has happened. The hunters made their +fences in the jungle so we could only come this way--this way into the +trap. But we shall break out! + +"Come over here by me, Mr. Stumptail, and you too, Mr. One Tusk, and +you also, Bumper Head. Come, we will rush at the fence of this trap +and batter it down. In that way we can get out. We shall fool these +hunters yet. Come, we will batter down the fence and once more we will +be in our jungle!" + +"Yes, we will knock down the fence!" cried the other big elephants +through their trunks. And they made such a rumble, and struck the +ground so heavily with their great feet, that the earth trembled. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +UMBOO GOES TO SCHOOL + + +"What is going to happen now?" asked Umboo the big elephant boy of his +mother, as the great creatures stood huddled together in the middle of +the stockade, or trap. "What is going to happen now?" + +"Wait and see," advised Mrs. Stumptail, and she was much worried. + +I have called Umboo a "big" elephant boy, for he was small no longer. +He had grown fast since I began telling you about him as a baby +drinking milk, and now, though of course he was not as large as his +mother or father, nor as strong as Tusker, I must not call him +"little" any more. + +"Come, Elephant brothers!" cried Tusker. "We will break down the trap +fence, and then we shall be free to go out into our jungle again." + +But it was not so easy to do this as it was to say it. The men who had +built the fences and trap well know that the elephants would try to +get out, and the stockade had been made very strong. + +Besides this there had been dug, inside the trap, and close to where +the heavy tree-stakes had been driven into the ground, a ditch, or +trench. There was no water in this ditch but on account of the trench +the elephants could not get near enough the inside of the fence to +strike it with their heads. If they had done so they would have gotten +their front feet into the dug-out place, and, perhaps, would have +fallen over and hurt themselves. + +So when Tusker and the others hoped to knock the fence down by +hitting, or butting, it with their heads, they found they could not, +as the ditch stopped them. They could only just reach the fence by +stretching out their trunks; they could not bang it with their big +heads as they wanted to. + +"Can't we ever get out of the trap?" asked Umboo of his mother when +Tusker and the others had found they could not knock down the stockade +fence. "Can't we ever get out?" + +"And did you ever get out?" eagerly asked Snarlie, the tiger, who, +with the other circus animals, listened to Umboo's story. "Did you +ever get out of the trap, Umboo?" + +"Tell us about that part!" begged Woo-Uff, the lion. "Once I was +caught in a trap, but it was made of a net, with ropes of bark. It was +then that Gur, the kind boy, gave me a drink of water." + +"And I was in a trap also," spoke Snarlie, the striped tiger. "I fell +into a deep pit. It was almost like your trap, Umboo, except that the +sides were of dirt, and the pit was very deep. I could not jump out. +But after a while I did not mind being caught, for I was taken care of +by Princess Toto." + +"Let us hear how Umboo got out of the trap," said Chako, the monkey. + +"How do you know he got out?" asked Humpo, the camel. + +"Isn't he here with us now?" asked Chako, who was a very smart monkey. +"And if he hadn't got out of the trap he wouldn't be here. Anybody +knows that!" + +"Oh, yes; that's so," said Humpo, who did not think much, being quite +content to eat hay, and let others do most of the talking. "But, all +the same," went on the humpy creature, "I should like to hear how +Umboo did get out of the trap." + +"I'll tell you," said the elephant boy, and he went on with his story. + +When the big elephants found, because of the ditch, that they could +not get near enough the stockade fence to knock it down with their big +heads, they became very wild. They raised their trunks and made loud +trumpet sounds through them. They beat the earth with their feet until +the ground trembled, and some of them rushed at the gate, which had +fallen shut behind them, as they hurried into the trap to get away +from the noise. + +But the gate, which had no ditch in front of it, was the strongest +part of the trap, and the elephants could not batter it down, try as +they did. Tusker and the others banged into it, but the gate held +firmly. + +"Well, if we can't get out, what are we going to do?" asked Umboo of +his mother. + +"We shall have to stay here until the hunter-men come, I suppose," +answered Mrs. Stumptail. + +"Will they shoot us?" asked Umboo. + +"I hope not," his mother said. + +But Umboo need not have been afraid of that. Elephants in India are +worth too much to shoot. They can be sold to circuses and park +menageries. + +But, better than this, the elephants in India do much work. They pull +great wagons, that many horses could not move, and they work in lumber +yards, piling up the big, heavy logs of teakwood, from which those +queer, Chinese carved tables and chairs are made, and which wood is +also used in ships. The Indians teach the elephants how to pile up big +logs very carefully, and so straight that a big pile may be made +without one falling off. Besides this the rich men of India, the +Princes, own many elephants, which they ride on in little houses, +called howdahs which are strapped to the backs of the big animals. + +But before the wild elephants can be used thus they must go to school, +to learn to be gentle, and to do as their drivers, or mahouts, tell +them to do. And so Umboo went to school and I shall tell you about +that. + +Of course it was not such a school as you boys go to, and the big +elephant boy did not have to learn to read and write. But he had to +learn the meaning of Indian words, so that when he heard them he would +know which meant go to the right or which to the left, and which meant +to stand still, to kneel down or to go forward. + +But I am getting a little ahead of my story. Umboo was still in the +stockade trap with the other elephants. And there they were kept two +or three days, without anything to eat or anything to drink. Fast they +were kept in the stockade, where they could not get out, and as the +days passed, and they felt very badly at not having anything to eat, +or anything to drink, the elephants grew more quiet. No longer did +they rush at the fence, and fall into the ditch. They huddled together +in the middle part, and rubbed their trunks against one another, as +men, in trouble, might shake hands. + +"Oh, will we ever get out of this, and have sweet bark and palm nuts +to eat again?" asked Umboo. "It was almost better to be lost in the +jungle, as I was, than it is to be here, for then I had enough to eat. +But of course I was lonesome without you," he said to his mother. "But +I am hungry now." + +"Perhaps they will let us out, or feed us soon," she said. + +And, a little while after this, a noise was heard at the strong gate +of the trap. It was slowly opened, but the elephants that were caught +did not rush out. They feared more danger. + +And then, to the surprise of Umboo and the others, in through the gate +came great big elephants, and on the tops of their heads sat men, +dressed in black clothing. And the men had strong ropes in their +hands. + +As soon as Tusker saw these men, and smelled them, he cried through +his trunk: + +"Ho, Brothers! Here is danger indeed! I smell the man-smell, even +though it comes with other elephants like ourselves. We must get away +from the danger!" + +Tusker rushed at the gate, but before he could reach it two of the new +elephants, who were tame, hurried toward him. The men on their heads +threw the big ropes about Tusker, and he was pulled by the two +elephants over toward a tree in the stockade, where he was made fast. + +Tusker tried, with all his strength to break the ropes, but they only +slipped easily around the tree, from which the bark had been taken to +make it smooth and slippery for this very purpose. + +"Be quiet, big, wild elephant," said one of the tame ones with a man +on his head. "Be quiet and tell your friends to be quiet also. No one +will hurt them. They will have food to eat, and sweet water to drink, +if they are quiet." + +Tusker heard this, and so did some of the other wild elephants. They +were hungry and thirsty. + +"Will you give us water to drink?" asked Tusker, for his trunk and +mouth were very dry. + +"You shall have water enough to swim in," answered one of the +keonkies, or tame elephants. + +"And may we eat?" + +"You shall have all the palm nuts you want. That is if you are quiet." + +"Then," said Tusker to Umboo, and the other wild elephants, "we may as +well take it easy and be quiet. Raging about will do us no good, and +we must eat and drink." + +So most of the wild elephants became quiet. Some of them still tore +around, trumpeting, but the big tame elephants pulled them with ropes +to the trees where they were made fast. Mrs. Stumptail, and the other +mother elephants, soon calmed down, and the boys and girls, like Umboo +and Keedah, did as their mothers did. + +In a short time the wild elephants were all either tied fast to trees, +or were led away between two of the tame ones. Umboo was taken away +from his mother. + +"Oh, where am I going?" he cried to the tame elephants, one on either +side of him. "I want to stay with you, Mother! Where are you taking +me?" + +"Do not make such a fuss, elephant boy," spoke one of the tame ones. +"You will come to no harm, and you will see your mother again. You are +going to go to school. You are young, and you will learn much more +easily than some of the big elephants. Also you will have good things +to eat and water to drink. Be nice now, and come with us." + +Umboo had to go along whether he wanted to or not, for the big, tame +elephants would pull him by the ropes. They led him to a sort of +stable, and there he found some green fodder, some palm nuts and a tub +of water. And Umboo drank the water first, for he was very thirsty. +Then he ate and he felt better, though he wondered what had become of +his mother. + +But he did not wonder long, for elephants, and other animals, are not +like boys and girls. They grow up more quickly, and get ready to go +about for themselves, getting their own food, and living their own +lives. And Umboo was big enough, now, to get along without his mother. + +"Were you once living in the jungle, as I was?" asked Umboo of Chang, +which was the name of one of the tame elephants. + +"Surely," answered Chang, "I was as wild as Tusker, your big herd- +leader. But when I was caught in the trap, as you were, and sent to +school, I found the life here was much easier than in the jungle. It +is true I have to do as the mahouts tell me, but they treat me kindly, +they feed me and I never have to go thirsty, and when my toe nails get +too long they smooth them down for me with a rough brick. Also they +scrub my skin to keep away the biting bugs. You will like it here, +Umboo, and soon you will go to school and learn how to pile the +teakwood logs." + +"And will I ride men on my head?" asked Umboo. + +"Yes, you will learn to do that, and many things more," said Chang. +But even he did not know all the wonderful things that were to happen +to Umboo, nor how he was to go in the circus. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +UMBOO IS SOLD + + +Umboo, the big elephant boy, did not at once begin to learn the +teakwood log-piling lesson. Just as in school you do not learn to read +the first day, so it was with Umboo. He had to be trained by his +keeper and the keonkies, or tame elephants. + +And, after the first feeling of being sorry at having been taken away +from his mother, Umboo grew to like the new life. His mother was sent +to another big stable, farther away, though Umboo saw her once in a +while. With him, however, were many of the wild elephants he had known +when the herd was in the jungle. Keedah was one of these elephants. + +"I don't like it here at all!" snarled Keedah, when he had been led up +beside Umboo, a few days after they had all been caught in the trap. +"I don't like it, and I'm not going to stay!" + +"What are you going to do?" asked Umboo. + +"I am going to run away," said the elephant boy, whom Umboo had once, +in fun, knocked into the river. "I am going to run away, and go out in +the jungle." + +"Oh, no. I wouldn't do that if I were you," quietly said one of the +tame elephants, coming up behind Keedah just then, and the half-wild +elephant was so surprised that he nearly dropped a wisp of hay he was +eating. + +"If you ran away we should have to run into the jungle after you," +went on the tame elephant. "And when we brought you back you would not +have a nice time. It is better to do as you are told, and to learn to +do what the black and white men tell you. For then you will be kindly +treated, and have plenty to eat. And the work you will learn to do, +after you go to school, as you and Umboo will go, will not be hard. +Take my advice and stay where you are." + +"Well, I guess I'll have to," said Keedah, with a funny look at Umboo. +"I didn't know he heard me," he whispered, as if the tame elephant +were a teacher in school, which, in a way, he was. + +And then began long days and months of lessons for Umboo and the other +wild elephants. They were not wild any longer, for the first thing +they learned was that the tame elephants would help them, and next +that the white and black men would be kind to them and feed them. So +the jungle elephants, who used to roam about with Tusker for their +leader, lost most of their wildness, quieted down, and were sent to +different places in India to work in the lumber yards, or to carry +Princes on their backs. + +Umboo and his mother had to say good-bye, but they hoped to meet +again, and though for a time Umboo felt sad, he soon forgot it as he +had many things to learn. + +One of the first was to let a man come near him to pat his trunk, and +to feed him. In the beginning Umboo was very much afraid, because he +smelled the man-smell, which Tusker had so often said meant danger. +But Umboo grew to know that not all men were dangerous. For, though +some might be hunters, with guns and sharp arrows, those who had +caught the wild elephants were kind to the big animals. + +"I wonder why I am afraid of the man?" thought Umboo. "He is much +smaller than I am. His head hardly comes up to my tusks, and some of +the tame elephants are even larger than I. Why are we so afraid of the +men as to do just as they tell us?" + +Of course Umboo did not know, but it is because man, who is also an +animal, is put in charge of all the beasts of the jungle, the woods +and fields. Animals are given to help man, and to feed him. And as a +man has more brains--that is he is smarter than animals--he rules over +them. Thus it is that even great elephants, and savage lions and +tigers, as well as horses, know that man is their master, and must do +as he wants them to. + +So, though he could see that he was larger than a man, Umboo did not +think much farther than this, and so he never made up his mind that, +if he wanted to, he could run away, and that no one man could hold +him. But perhaps it was just as well as it was, and that the elephant +remained gentle and did as he was told, not trying to use his great +strength against his friends. + +One of the first things Umboo learned was to walk along, when he was +told to do so in the Indian language. + +At first Umboo did not know what this word meant. But his keeper +gently pricked him with a sharp hook, called an "ankus," and to get +away from the prick, which was like the bite of a big fly, Umboo +stepped out and walked away. + +"Ha! That is what I wanted you to do, little one," said the Indian, +speaking to Umboo as he might to a child. And indeed the Indian +mahouts consider their elephants almost like children. + +When Umboo had learned that a certain word meant that he was to walk +along, he was taught two others, one of which meant to go to the left, +and the other to go to the right. Then, in a few weeks, he learned a +fourth word, which meant to stand still, and then a fifth one, which +meant to kneel down. + +And though, at first, the elephant boy did not like doing the things +he was told to do, as well as he had liked playing about in the +jungle, he soon grew to see that his life was easier than it had been +with Tusker and the others. + +He never had to hunt for food, as it was brought to him by the +keepers. Nor was he ever thirsty. And, best of all, he never had to +drop what he was eating and run away, crashing through the jungle, +because Tusker, or some other elephant had trumpeted the call of: + +"Danger! I smell the man-smell!" + +Umboo was used to the man-smell now, and knew that no harm would come +to him. He knew the men were his friends. + +And so he who had once been a wild baby elephant, grew to be a tame, +big strong beast, who could carry heavy teakwood logs on his tusks, +and pile them in great heaps near the river, where they were loaded +upon great ships. Umboo did not know the boats were ships, but they +were, and soon he was to have a ride in one. But I have not reached +that part of his story yet. + +Sometimes, instead of being made to pile the logs in the lumber yard, +Umboo would be taken into the forest, where the Indians cut the trees +down. The forest was something like the jungle where the boy elephant +had once lived with Tusker and the others, and where he had played, +and once been lost. + +In the forest were great trees of teakwood and these the elephant +workers had to drag out so they could be loaded upon carts, with great +wooden wheels, and brought to the river. One day Umboo and Keedah were +taken together to the teak forest. + +"Now is our chance, Umboo," said the other elephant after a while as +they went farther and farther into the woods. "Now is our chance!" + +"Our chance for what?" asked Umboo, speaking in elephant talk, of +course, and which the Indian keepers did not always understand. + +"This is our chance to run away and go back to the jungle," went on +Keedah. "When the men are not looking, after we have hauled out a few +big logs, we will go away and hide. At night we can run off to the +jungle." + +"No," said Umboo, shaking his trunk, "I am not going to do it. If we +run away they will find us and bring us back. Besides, I like it in +the lumber yard. It is fun to pile up the big logs, and lay them +straight." + +"Pooh! I don't think so," said Keedah, who had not given up all his +wild ways. "I am going to run!" + +And so, watching his chance, when the Indian men were not looking, +Keedah sneaked off into the dark part of the woods. In a little while +he was missed, and the keepers, with shouts, started after him. They +tied Umboo to a tree with chains, leaving him there while they went to +hunt Keedah. + +"They need not have chained me," thought Umboo. "I would not run away. +I like my men friends too much, for they are good to me." + +The keepers got other elephants and hunted Keedah in the forest. For +three days they searched for him, and at last they found him and +brought him back. For Keedah had forgotten some of his wildness, and +did not know so well how to keep away from the men who were after him, +as he had known when he lived in the herd, with Tusker to lead the +way. + +So Keedah, tired and dirty, and hungry too, it must be said--for he +had not found good things to eat in the woods--Keedah was brought +back. And he was kept chained up for a week, and given only water and +not much food. This was to tame him down, and make him learn that it +did not pay to run off when he was taken to the teakwood forest. + +"I wish I had done as you did, and stayed," said Keedah sorrowfully to +Umboo. "I am not going to run away any more." + +So Umboo and the other wild elephants who were caught at the same time +as he was, stayed around the lumber camp, and did work for their white +and black masters. Sometimes a few of the elephants were sold, and +taken away by Indian Princes, to live in stables near the palaces, to +have gold and silver cloths fastened on their backs, and then the +howdahs, in which rode the rich Indians, would be strapped on. + +Sometimes other wild elephants were brought in, having been caught as +Umboo had been. And once Umboo helped to tame one of these little wild +ones, telling him to be nice, as he would be kindly treated and have +food and water. + +And one day new adventures came to Umboo. + +By this time he was a big, strong elephant, nearly fully grown, for it +was now many years since he had been a baby in the jungle. And one +day, as he was standing near a pile of lumber, that he had helped to +build, one of the white men, whom he knew, and who had been kind to +Umboo, took a handkerchief from his white, linen coat pocket, and +wiped his face, for the day was hot. + +Then a little spirit of mischief seemed to enter Umboo. And this +little spirit, or fairy, seemed to whisper: + +"Take his handkerchief out of his pocket with your trunk, Umboo, and +make believe wipe your own face with it. That will be a funny little +trick, and will make the men laugh, and maybe they will give you some +soft, brown sugar." This the elephants like very much. + +Umboo saw the edge of the handkerchief sticking out of the man's +pocket. Very softly the elephant reached put his trunk and took it. +Then Umboo flourished the piece of white linen in the air, as the man +had done, and pretended to use it, though Umboo's face was much larger +than the man's, and really needed no handkerchief. + +The man turned around, as he heard his friends laughing, and when he +saw what Umboo had done the man smiled and said: + +"Ha! That elephant is too smart to be piling lumber. I heard the other +day where I could sell one to go in a circus. I'll sell Umboo! He will +make a good circus elephant, to do tricks." + +And so Umboo was sold, though at first he did not know what that was, +nor where he was to be taken. He only thought of how the men laughed +when he took out the handkerchief from the pocket. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +UMBOO ON THE SHIP + + +The man who bought Umboo was one who owned part of a circus. He +traveled about in India, and other far-off countries, looking for +strange animals that he could send to America, across the ocean, where +they would be put in cages and tents and shown to boys and girls, and +also grown-up folk. You may think a circus is all fun and peanuts and +pink lemonade, but it also teaches us something. Without a circus many +boys and girls would never know what an elephant looks like; or a +lion, or tiger or camel, except, perhaps, by pictures. + +"And I'll send this trick elephant over to a circus," said the man who +had bought Umboo from the lumber yard. "I think he will be a smart +elephant, and make the boys and girls laugh." He knew Umboo liked boys +and girls, for many of them had ridden on his back as he worked in the +lumber yard. + +"I thought Umboo was smart as soon as I saw him take the handkerchief +from my pocket,' said the lumber man to the circus man. "That is why I +sent for you to let you buy him. For I knew you wanted a smart, young +elephant for your circus." + +"Yes, I am glad to get Umboo," spoke the circus man. "I wonder if he +will do that handkerchief trick again? I'll try him." + +So the circus man stood near our elephant friend, and let the end of +his handkerchief stick a little way out of his pocket. + +Umboo knew at once what was wanted of him. + +"I'll just pull that white rag out and hear the men laugh," thought +the elephant boy to himself. "I don't know why they think it is so +funny, but I'll do it. I guess they would think it more funny if they +could have seen me knock Keedah into the river." + +Umboo reached out his trunk, when the man's back was turned toward +him, and gently took out the handkerchief. Then the big elephant boy +pretended to wipe his face with it. + +"Ha! Ha!" laughed the circus man. "That is a good trick! I must give +the elephant a big lump of sugar." + +He did so, and Umboo liked it very much, letting the sweet juice +trickle down his throat. + +"I wish they would give me sugar every time I take out the white rag," +thought Umboo. "It's fun!" + +After this Umboo did not pile lumber any more. He was taken out of the +yard, and kept by himself in a small stable, and given nice things to +eat until one day the circus man opened the door and called: + +"Well, Umboo, I guess we are ready to start now. You are going to say +good-bye to India and to the jungle. You are going where Jumbo went-- +off to America to be in a circus show!" + +Of course Umboo did not understand all that the circus man said to +him, but the elephant boy thought to himself: + +"Well, he is kind to me. He gives me sugar. I'll go with him, and pull +that white rag out of his pocket as often as he lets me. I wonder what +he was saying about Jumbo?" + +For Umboo remembered hearing the other elephants talking about Jumbo, +who, however, came from Africa and not from India. + +"Come, Umboo!" called the circus man. "You are going on a big ship, +and take a long ride. I hope you will not be seasick." + +Umboo did not know exactly what a ship was. He had seen big boats come +up the river, near where he worked, to get lumber, and some of the +elephants, who had been down near the ocean shore, said those boats +were ships. And of course Umboo did not know what it meant to be +seasick. + +However he liked the circus man, and when the elephant boy came out of +the stable he felt around with his trunk in the man's pocket. + +"For," thought Umboo, "if I pull that white rag out of his coat again, +maybe he'll give me some more sweet sugar." + +So, with the tip of his trunk, which could pick up little things, even +as you can with your fingers, Umboo felt about for the handkerchief. +He did not find it, however. + +"Ha! Ha!" laughed the circus man, "You did not forget, did you? You +are going to be a good trick elephant, I'm sure. Here is my +handkerchief, in my other pocket. I put it there to fool you!" and he +turned about so that the white cloth could be seen hanging down on the +other side of his coat. + +"Ha! That's funny!" thought Umboo. "I did not know the man had two +pockets!" + +Then the elephant pulled out the handkerchief again, and the man +laughed and gave him a extra large lump of sugar. + +"Now come with me, Umboo," said the man, and he led him away, out of +the lumber yard. + +"Where are you going?" called Keedah, and some of the other boys. + +"I don't know," answered Umboo, in elephant talk, of course. "But I +heard the man say something about making me do tricks in a circus." + +"Oh, then you are going to have a fine, time," said one of the +keonkies, or tame elephants, that help train the wild ones. "If you go +to the circus you will have fun. A friend of mine was once in one, and +then, in his old age, he came back to India to live. And he said he +never enjoyed himself so much as in a circus. And how he did used to +talk about the peanuts!" + +"What are peanuts?" asked Umboo. + +"I don't know," answered the keonkie, "but Zoop--that the was the name +of my friend--said they were almost as good as the sweet sugar and +palm nuts." + +"Then they must be very good," said Umboo, "and I shall like them. +Good-bye, friends!" he called. "Maybe some day I'll come back from the +circus." + +"But you never did; did you?" asked Snarlie the tiger, who, with the +other animals in the tent, was listening to Umboo's story. "You never +did go back, for you are here yet." + +"No, I haven't gone back to India, and I don't believe I ever shall," +spoke Umboo. "Sometimes I wish I could go back in the jungle for a +little while, and get a few palm nuts, but the peanuts here are just +as good, and there is never any danger." + +"Please go on with your story," begged Horni, the rhinoceros. "I want +to hear how you got over here, and joined the circus." + +"I came on a ship, just as you did," answered Umboo, and then he went +on to tell how he was led away from the lumber yard. + +To get from the place where he had, for a year or more, been piling up +teakwood logs, to the great, salt ocean which the ships crossed, Umboo +had to take a ride on the railroad. He might have walked, but this +would have taken too long. + +Umboo had never before seen a railroad, a railroad car or a +locomotive, and when he first noticed the big, black engine, puffing +out smoke and steam, the elephant boy was as frightened as when he had +seen the snake in the jungle. Umboo raised his trunk in the air, and +made a loud trumpet sound of danger. + +"Don't be afraid," said a tame elephant near by. "There is nothing to +hurt you." + +"Nothing to hurt me!" cried Umboo. "What do you call that big, black +thing, whose breath steams out of the top of his head, as mine +sometimes comes out of my trunk on a cold morning? Nothing to be +afraid of? Why, that is worse than a big rhino! Much worse!" + +"That is the engine, and it will give you a nice ride," said the tame +elephant. "It will pull you along the shiny rails, and you will never +have to lift your foot. Go close up to it, and see that it will not +hurt you. Don't be afraid!" + +Umboo trembled, but the circus man spoke kind words to him, and then +the elephant walked slowly up to the engine, or locomotive. It snorted +and puffed and tooted its whistle, and at each new sound Umboo started +back, and would have run away. But the man spoke to him, and the tame +elephant talked to him, and finally Umboo saw that the engine did not +get off the shiny rails. + +"Well, if it stays on them it can't chase after me," thought Umboo. "I +can run to one side, but that big, black animal, that puffs steam out +of the top of its head, can't. I guess I'll be all right." + +Then Umboo was led past the engine, (which, of course, did him no +harm) up a sort of little bridge of wood--a runway--that went from the +ground into a big freight, or box car. At first Umboo feared this +bridge might break with him, as he was so heavy, and an elephant +doesn't like to step on anything that will give way and let him fall. + +So Umboo first tried it with one foot, and then with another, and, +finding it would not break, he stepped on it and walked into the car. +There was plenty of straw in it, so Umboo would not be hurt if the car +jolted as it rumbled along over the railroad tracks, and inside his +new stable the elephant boy found some sweet roots and palm nuts. + +He was so interested in eating these that, at first, he did not notice +when the train started, and before he knew it Umboo found himself +being pulled along without having to take a step. + +"Ha!" thought the elephant. "It's just as the keonkie told me, I can +move without lifting a foot! I am having a fine ride!" + +Two days later Umboo reached the seashore and was led from the +railroad car, and over to a big ship that was waiting in the harbor. +To Umboo it looked more like a big house than a ship, and when they +took him to the gang-plank, or another run-way, as they had taken him +to the one that led into the freight car, he was again afraid +something would break and let him fall. But when he tried it with his +fore-feet, and found it firm, up it he walked and soon he was in a +sort of stable, on board the big ship. + +To his surprise, Umboo found other elephants there also, and from +various parts of the ship came the smell of many different wild +animals--camels, sacred cows from India, a rhinoceros, a buffalo and +many strange beasts. + +For this was a circus ship, and was bringing to America many strange +birds and animals from the jungle. + +"Now, Umboo, we are off!" said the circus man, as he came down to see +the elephants and other creatures. "You are all going to start across +the ocean in this big ship, and I hope none of you will be seasick." + +Of course Umboo and the other elephants did not understand exactly +what the man said, but they knew he was kind to them, for he gave them +some food to eat and water to drink. + +Pretty soon the ship began to pitch and toss and roll. It was out on +the big ocean. The elephants did not so much mind the rolling motion, +as they never stopped swaying themselves, and they were used to it, +but some of the other animals had a bad time. + +I wish I could tell you all that happened on board the ship, that was +taking Umboo to the circus, but I have not room in this book. I'll +tell you one thing that happened, though, and Umboo often used to +laugh about it later. + +One day, when the ship had been sailing about a week, a man came down +in the hold, or stable where the elephants were. This man was a sort +of joker. He liked to play tricks on animals and sometimes on his +friends, and this time he thought he would play a trick on Umboo. + +The man took a sour lemon, and plastered it all on the outside with +some sticky brown sugar. This he held out to Umboo, saying: + +"Here; have a nice, sweet lump!" + +Of course Umboo thought it was all sugar, but when he chewed it, and +found inside a sour lemon, it made tears come into his eyes, and he +curled his trunk, and made such a funny, wrinkled face, that the man +laughed and exclaimed: + +"Oh, see how the elephant likes a lemon! Isn't that a funny trick!" + +But I don't think it was a funny trick at all, and neither did Umboo. +As soon as he could do so, he let the sour lemon drop out of his mouth +into the straw on which he stood. + +"Ha!" said the elephant next to Umboo. "If I could reach that man I'd +tickle him with my trunk, and maybe pinch him, too." + +"So would I," said Umboo. "But I can't reach him," and he could not, +for the elephant was chained fast to the wall of the ship. + +"But I'll know him when I see him again," exclaimed Umboo, "and the +next time he comes near me maybe I can play a trick on him." + +"I hope you can," said the other elephant. + +And now you wait and see what happened. + +The ship sailed on and on over the sea, each day coming nearer and +nearer to America, which is the land of the circus. And Umboo and the +other animals grew tired of being kept below decks, in the darkness. +They wanted to get out into the sunshine. + +Each day Umboo kept watch for the man who had given him the lemon in +the lump of sugar, but the trick-player did not again come down where +the elephants were. + +And finally, one day, the circus man came down. He quietly rubbed the +trunk of Umboo, patted him, and spoke kind words to him, feeding him +good sugar. + +"Now, my trick elephant," he said, "we will soon be going ashore, and +we will see how you like a circus." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +UMBOO IN THE CIRCUS + + +Many things happened to Umboo after he was taken out of the ship in +which he had crossed the ocean. And there were so many of them that he +could not remember all of them to tell his circus friends who were +listening to his story. + +"But did you get seasick?" asked Humpo, the camel. "That's what I want +to know. Did you get seasick?" + +"No, I did not," answered Umboo. "But I was tired of staying in the +dark part of the ship so long. I wanted to get out in the sun. And I +wanted to see if I could do that trick again, of taking the white rag +from the man's pocket." + +"And did you?" asked Snarlie, the tiger. + +"I did, the first chance I had," answered Umboo. "But that was not +until I had been off the ship for a day or so." + +Umboo and the other animals were taken from the ship, and again put in +railroad cars to be taken to a sort of training place. Wild animals, +fresh from the jungle, are not taken at once to the circus. If they +were the lions would roar, the tigers would snarl and the elephants +would try to break loose and run away, and this would so scare the +boys and girls who went to the circus that they would never come +again. + +So circus men first send the animals to a sort of training camp. There +is one in Bridgeport, Conn., and another in New Jersey, on the +Hackensack meadows. There the wild beasts are taken in charge, by men +who know how to train them. + +And it was to a place like this that Umboo was taken. It was not at +all like a circus, except for the number of wild animals about. There +was no big white tent; nothing but a sort of large barn, and there +were no gay flags fluttering, and no bands playing music. All that +would come later. + +Umboo was chained in the middle of the barn, with the other elephants, +and some hay was given him to eat. At first the elephant, who, not +long before, had been wild in the jungle, and later piling teakwood +logs, was uneasy and a bit frightened. So were his companions. + +"But don't be afraid, Umboo," said the kind man who had come all the +way from India with the elephant. "You will soon like it here, though +you may not like being taught tricks. But you will like it when you +can do funny things, and make the boys and girls laugh. Also, when you +do your tricks well, you shall have lumps of sugar." + +"Well, I hope there will be no lemons inside the lumps," said Umboo to +Char, another big beast next to him. + +"What is that about lemons in sugar?" asked Char. + +"Oh, a man on the ship played a trick on me," answered Umboo. "I +haven't seen him since, but I am on the lookout for him, and when I do +see him, if I get near enough--well, I'll make him wish he hadn't +fooled me." + +"It was a mean trick," said Char. "I hope you find that man." + +For a few days the elephants, and other wild jungle animals, who were +to be tamed and taught to do things in the circus, were left to +themselves. This was to get them quiet after their long trip, and to +make them feel at home. + +Umboo did not have to be tamed, for he was already kind and gentle. +But some of the lions and tigers were fierce and wild, and they had to +get to know that the circus men would not harm them. Most of the +elephants, like Umboo, were no longer wild, but they knew nothing +about being trained to do tricks. None of them could even so much as +take a handkerchief out of a man's pocket, so really Umboo was one +class ahead of them. But that did not make him proud. + +One day, about a week after he had come to the circus-barn, Umboo saw +some men coming toward him with ropes and other things. Among the men +was the one from India, and this man Umboo liked. + +"Now, Umboo" said this man, "you are going to learn a harder trick +than that of taking a handkerchief from my pocket. You are going to +learn to stand on your hind legs. It may seem hard to you at first, +but it is easy when you know how, and you will like it. The boys and +girls who come to the circus to see you, will like it, too, and you +will get sugar if you do the trick well." + +Of course Umboo did not know all that the man said to him, but he +understood that something new was going on, and he reached out his +trunk to touch his friend. + +"I haven't any sugar for you now," said the man with a laugh, "but I +may have some later. Let me see how you behave." + +The men began putting ropes around Umboo's big neck. He did not mind +this, for it had been done before, in India, when he was to pull a +heavy wagon of teakwood logs. But this time it was different. + +All of a sudden Umboo felt his front legs being lifted from the +ground. His head and trunk went up in the air, and all his weight came +on his hind legs. They were strong enough to bear it, but the elephant +did not know what was going on. + +"It's all right, my elephant friend!" said the man from India. "Up! +Up! Stand up! Stand on your hind legs, Umboo!" + +And Umboo had to do this whether he wanted to or not. The rope, on +which the men were pulling, and which was fast to a hook in the +ceiling of the barn over head, was lifting Umboo's front feet from the +ground. This left him only his hind legs, and he had to stand on them +whether he wanted to or not. + +If you have ever tried to teach your dog to stand on his hind legs, +you will know what was being done to Umboo. When you try to teach your +dog this trick, you generally take him where he can stand up in a +corner, so he can lean against the wall and will not fall over +backwards or sideways; for that is what he feels like doing when you +lift up his front legs. + +But an elephant is so big, you see, that it would take a very large +corner for him to back into. And he is so big and heavy that not even +ten men could lift up his front legs. So they just hitch a rope around +his head, and then men, hauling on the rope and pulleys, lift the +front of the elephant, as men hoist up a piano. + +"Ugh!" grunted Umboo through his trunk, as he felt his head and front +legs going up. "What in the world is this?" + +"Don't be afraid, my jungle friend," said an old big, tame elephant, +who was kept in the circus barn just to make the others feel more at +home. "Don't be afraid. You are only being taught the first of your +tricks. I was taught the same way. It won't hurt you. Here, throw your +weight on your back legs, and stand on them--this way." + +And, to the surprise of Umboo, the other elephant, without the help of +any ropes, reared himself up in the air and stood on his hind legs +just as your dog can do. + +"That's the way to do it!" said the trick elephant. + +"I wonder if I can?" said Umboo. + +"Try it," urged his new friend. + +And when the man loosed the ropes, and let Umboo's front legs down, +after they had hoisted them up once, he suddenly gave a little spring, +and up he went, standing on his hind legs all by himself, and almost +as good as the trick beast could do it. + +"Well, I declare!" cried one of the men. "That elephant is the +smartest one we ever trained. He does the trick after being shown just +once!" + +"Oh, yes, I knew he was smart when he did that handkerchief trick," +said the man from India. "Umboo will be ready to join the circus +before any of the others." + +Once more Umboo was hoisted up by the ropes, but there was really no +need for it. He knew what was wanted of him, and he did it. + +"That's fine!" said the big elephant. "If you learn the other things +as easily as you learned this trick, you will have no trouble." + +"Are there other tricks to learn." asked Umboo. + +"Oh, many of them," answered Wang, the best trick elephant in the +circus. "You have only just begun." + +And Umboo found that this was so. In the ten days that followed he was +taught many more tricks. Some of them he did not learn so easily as he +had the one of standing on his hind legs, and the ropes had to be used +many times. But the other trick elephants, of whom there was more than +one, showed the untrained ones what to do, and, in time, Umboo and his +friends could go through many "stunts," as the circus men called them. + +Umboo learned to lie down and "play dead," he learned to stand on a +little stool, like an over-turned washtub, he learned to kneel down +over a man stretched on the ground, and not crush him with the great +body, weighing more than two tons of coal. + +Other tricks, which Umboo learned, were to take pennies in his trunk, +lift up a lid of a "bank," which was a big box, drop the pennies in +and ring a bell, as if he had put money in a cash drawer. He also +learned to turn the handle of a hand organ with his trunk, to ring a +dinner bell, and do many other tricks, such as you have seen elephants +do in a circus. + +Then, one day, the man from India came where Umboo was, and giving him +some peanuts, which our friend had learned to like very much, said: + +"Well, now it is time you joined the circus. You know enough tricks to +make a start, and your circus-trainer will teach you more. So off to +the circus you go, Umboo! Off to the circus!" + +And the next day Umboo went. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +UMBOO REMEMBERS + + +Brightly in the sun gleamed the white tents. In the wind the gay flags +fluttered. Here and there were men selling pink lemonade and peanuts. +Around the green grass were the big wagons--wagons that needed eight +or ten horses to pull, wagons shining with gold and silver mirrors-- +heavy, rumbling wagons, which Umboo and the other elephants had to +push out of the mud when the horses could not pull them. + +"And so this is the circus, is it?" asked Umboo, as his friend, Wang, +and he were led up to the tents. + +"This is the circus," spoke Wang. "But I forgot. This is your first +one; isn't it?" + +"The very first," answered Umboo. "My! It's lots different from the +barn where I learned my tricks, isn't it?" + +"Oh, yes, heaps different. It's more jolly," said Wang. + +"And it's different from the jungle," went on Umboo. + +"Oh, yes indeed! It isn't at all like the jungle," said Wang. "I +remember the jungle very well. I always had to be sniffing here and +there for danger, and often I had to drink muddy water, or else I went +hungry. Here that never happens. All we have to do here is to perform +our tricks, push a wagon out of the mud now and then, and eat and +sleep. You'll like it here, Umboo." + +"I'm sure I shall," he answered. "But what is that funny noise?" + +"That is the music playing," answered Wang. "In the circus we do our +tricks to band music. It's more fun that way." + +Umboo liked the music, and there was one man who played a big horn-- +larger than himself, and the horn went: "Umph-umph!" just as Tusker +used to trumpet through his trunk. + +Umboo and the other elephants were taken into the animal tent, and +placed around the outer ring, their legs chained to stakes driven in +the ground. In cages were monkeys, lions, tigers and other beasts of +the wood or jungle. + +"Was it this circus of ours which you were first taken to, Umboo?" +asked Humpo. "I came here about a year ago." + +"No, it was not this one, but it was one like it," said the elephant. +"I came here about a year ago." + +"I remember that time," said Snarlie. "I liked you as soon as I saw +you, Umboo." + +"So did I," spoke Woo-Uff, the lion, stretching out his big paws. + +"Let us hear the rest of Umboo's story," suggested Chako, the monkey. +"Did you like the circus?" + +"Indeed I did, very much," Umboo answered. + +Then he told how he stood in the ring, and watched the boys and girls, +and the men and women, come in to look at the animals before they went +in the main tent, to sit down and watch the performers and animals do +their tricks and "stunts." + +Boys and girls, and some grown-folk, too, gave the elephants peanuts +and bits of popcorn balls which the big fellows liked very much, +indeed. + +While Umboo was standing in line, with the other elephants, waiting +until it was time for them to go in the big tent, and perform their +tricks, such as standing on their hind legs and getting up on small +barrels, our jungle friend saw a man coming toward him with a bag in +his hand. + +And, all at once Umboo remembered something. He looked sharply at the +man and thought: + +"Ha! There is the fellow who gave me the sour lemon inside the lump of +sugar. Now is my chance to play a trick on him." + +The man, with the bag in his hand, walked toward Umboo. To that man +all elephants looked alike. He did not know he had ever seen this one +before, and had played a mean trick on him. And the man said to +another man who was with him: + +"Watch me fool this elephant. I have an empty bag. I have blown it up +full of wind, so that it looks like a bag of peanuts. I'll give it to +this elephant and fool him." + +"Maybe he'll bite you," said the other man, and the first one +answered: + +"Pooh! I'm not afraid. Watch me! I fooled an elephant once before. I +gave him a lemon in some candy, and you should see the funny face he +made. Ha! ha!" + +"Ah, ha!" thought Umboo to himself. "He laughs, does he? Wait until I +see what a funny face he is going to make." + +The man held out the bag of wind to Umboo. But, instead of taking it, +and getting fooled, the wise elephant suddenly dipped his trunk into a +tub of water that stood near. Umboo sucked his trunk full of water and +then, all at once, before the man knew what was going to happen, Umboo +blew the water all over him. + +"Whewiff!" went the water in the man's face, and all over his new +suit, that he had put on to wear to the circus. + +"Oh, my!" cried the man. "What happened?" and he spluttered and +stuttered and gurgled. "What happened?" he asked, as he backed away +and wiped the water from his face. + +"I guess what happened," said the man who was with him, but who did +not get wet, "was that the elephant played a trick on you, instead of +you playing one on him. That's what happened!" + +"I guess it did," said the man, whose windblown bag was all wet and +flabby now. "But I don't see why he did it. I never fooled him +before!" + +"Maybe this is the same elephant you fooled with the lemon," said the +second man. + +"It couldn't be," spoke the wet one. "That was a long while ago, on a +ship, and an elephant can't remember." + +"But I did remember," said Umboo, as he told his story to his circus +friends. "I could remember that man even now, if I saw him. And so I +got even with him for giving me a lemon," and the big elephant +laughed, until he shook all over like a bath-tub full of jelly. + +"What happened after that?" asked Umboo. + +"Oh, after that the man went out of the circus tent," said the +elephant. "Everybody was laughing at him and the funny faces he made. +But the water didn't hurt him much, and he soon dried for it was a hot +day." + +"And did you do your tricks in the circus?" asked Chako. + +"Oh, yes, I went in the ring, and heard the music play. Then all us +elephants stood on our hind legs, and I played the hand organ, rang a +bell, put pennies in my bank and did many tricks. And one I did I +liked best of all." + +"What was that?" asked Horni, the rhinoceros. + +"It was firing a little brass cannon," answered Umboo. "Some other +elephants and myself played soldiers at war, and toward the end I had +to pull a string with my trunk. In some way, I don't just know how, +the string fired the cannon. None of the other elephants would do it. +They were afraid, but I wasn't. I saw that the cannon wouldn't hurt me +if I didn't get in front where its black mouth was, so I pulled the +string. And when I did the cannon went 'Bang!' And the band played, +and the big drum went 'Boom!' and the big horn went 'Umph-umph!' and +the boys and girls yelled like anything. It was lots of fun! + +"I liked that circus very much. I hope, someday, they'll let me shoot +a cannon here." + +"Maybe they will," said Woo-Uff, the lion. "I should like to hear it. +But is that all your story, Umboo?" + +"That is all, yes. I stayed with that circus for some time, and then +was sold again, and as you all know, brought here. And I like it here +very much, because you are all so kind to me. And I enjoyed listening +to the story you told, Woo-Uff, and to Snarlie's story also." + +"Well, we liked yours," said Chako, the monkey, as he hung by his tail +and ate a peanut. + +"Is there any one else who can tell a story?" asked Snarlie. "We will +soon be traveling on again, but after that, when we settle down to +rest, I should like to hear another tale." + +"I can tell about my jungle," said Chako. + +"We have had enough of jungles," said Woo-Uff. "Does any circus animal +know any other kind of stories?" + +"How would you like to hear one about the hot, sandy desert?" asked +Humpo, the camel. + +"That would be fine!" cried Umboo. "Tell us your story, Humpo!" + +"I will," promised the camel. And, if all goes well, that story will +be in the next Circus Animal Book; if you think you would like to read +it. It will be called "Humpo, the Camel." + +The elephants swayed to and fro, their leg-chains clanking in the +tent. The monkeys chattered among themselves. Snarlie, the big, +striped tiger yawned and stretched. Woo-Uff, the lion, laughed. + +"Ha! I wonder what makes that lion so jolly?" said one of the circus +keepers. + +"Perhaps the elephant tickled him," suggested a second man. + +"Maybe he had a funny dream," spoke another. + +"Both wrong!" said Woo-Uff, in animal language that the other circus +beasts could understand. "I was laughing at the way Umboo squirted +water on the lemon-man." + +"Yes, that was funny," said Umboo. "Very funny!" And he, too, laughed +as he chewed his hay. + +And, now that his story is finished, we will say good-bye to him and +his friends for a while. + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Umboo, the Elephant, by Howard R. Garis + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UMBOO, THE ELEPHANT *** + +This file should be named umboo10.txt or umboo10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, umboo11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, umboo10a.txt + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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