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Updated: June 15, 2025
"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 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.
"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.
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.
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.
"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?"
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.
"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.
"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.
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.
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