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"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."
"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 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!"
"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."
"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!"
"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.
"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 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."
"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?"
"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.
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