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Updated: June 10, 2025
"Caught in a net, eh?" said Tum Tum. "That is too bad. I was caught myself. But where are you going?" "To a circus," answered Mappo. "So am I!" cried Tum Tum. "This is fine! We'll be in the circus together!" The monkey and the elephant were good friends, for they had known each other in the jungle, Tum Tum often having passed under the tree where Mappo's home was.
"And will you take care of me, so the tiger won't get me?" asked Mappo. "Indeed I shall!" cried Tum Tum through his big trunk. At last the day came when the ship reached her dock, and the animals were taken out. The chains were loosed from the legs of Tum Tum and the other elephants, and they were hoisted up from the lower part of the ship, and allowed to go ashore.
"He hasn't two tails," he said. "One is his tail and the other is his trunk. That is Tum Tum, the circus elephant. And you needn't be afraid of him, for he is the jolliest elephant in the whole show. "But I'm not going to be caught," went on Mappo. "I want to run away farther, and have more adventures. So I guess I'll go before Tum Tum and the men see me. Good-by, Squinty. I'm glad I met you."
I guess I told you Mappo was a smart little chap. The rest of that day he spent practicing jumping through more paper-covered hoops, doing some of his jumps from the back of Trotter, the pony. Then other monkeys were brought in, and they watched Mappo. "Now let's see if they can do it," said the man, after Mappo had done his trick several times.
In fact, it was a small circus marching through the jungle, and all the animals had been caught, in one way or another, to be sold to circuses and menageries. But in this book I will tell you mostly about Mappo, just as in other books I have told you of Squinty, the comical pig, and Slicko, the jumping squirrel. "Oh, I do wish I had something to eat!" thought poor Mappo.
The kind circus man who had taught the little monkey, came and dressed him up in a nice red suit, with a little red cap. Then Prince, the dog, was led in, wearing a fine yellow blanket. "Now for the race!" cried the man, as Mappo jumped up on Prince's back. The other monkeys jumped up on the backs of other dogs, and, as the band played, off they ran.
When the cage, in which Sharp-Tooth, the tiger, was pacing up and down, came along, the big striped beast growled and roared, and to Mappo it sounded just as if he were saying: "Where's that monkey? Oh, wait until I get hold of him! He wouldn't let me out of my cage, and I'll fix him!"
On and on went Tum Tum and the men, looking for the lost monkey. After the search had gone on for several hours, Mappo, who was walking along through the woods with Squinty, saw the circus men coming after him. "Here's where I have to run and hide," said Mappo. "Why?" grunted Squinty, the comical pig. "Because the circus men are after me.
All day long through the jungle tramped the natives, carrying the wild animals in their crates. There were several besides Mappo and Sharp-Tooth. There were snakes, in big boxes, other monkeys, a rhinoceros, a hippopotamus, two lions, who roared dreadfully all the while, and many other beasts.
He was looking to see if his papa or mamma were in sight. "Ha! There is no use looking up there!" said the cunning tiger, lashing his striped sides with his long tail. "There's no one up there to help you!" Poor Mappo saw that this was so. There was none of his brothers or sisters up in the tree-house. Nor was his papa or mamma there.
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