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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 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.
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.
"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! "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.
"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.
"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 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!"
The little favourite was wearing a complete Uhlan costume, even the four-cornered chako was stuck on the side of his head; he was flourishing a zinc sword and grumbling bitterly. "What's the matter with little Maksi? Has anybody been annoying him?"
"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.
"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.
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