<h2><SPAN name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></SPAN>CHAPTER VI</h2><h3>TUM TUM AND THE WAGON</h3>
<p>"Please let me down! Oh, please do!"
begged Don, the dog, of Tum Tum,
the jolly elephant, as the big creature
from the jungle held the dog high up in the
air.</p>
<p>Tum Tum did not feel so very jolly just then.
He did not want to hurt Don, but neither did
the elephant like to be nipped on his hind legs,
when he was pushing a wagon.</p>
<p>"Oh, the elephant has our dog!" cried a boy
who was with the man who had called after
Don. "Oh, papa, will he hurt him?"</p>
<p>"No, Tum Tum won't hurt anyone," said a
circus man. "I'll get your dog back for you,
but he must be careful of elephants after this."</p>
<p>"He never saw one before," said the boy's
father.</p>
<p><SPAN name="while" id="while"></SPAN>All this while Tum Tum was holding Don
high in the air in his trunk.</p>
<p>"Oh, won't you let me down?" begged Don.</p>
<p>"I will, if you won't bark at me again, and<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</SPAN></span>
bite me," said Tum Tum. "I don't want to
hurt you, doggie boy, but I can't have you
bothering me, when I'm doing my circus
work."</p>
<SPAN name="Don" id="Don"></SPAN><span class="toill"><SPAN href="#Illus">Illus</SPAN></span>
<p class="center"><SPAN name="image-5" id="image-5"><!-- Image 5 --></SPAN>
<ANTIMG src="images/illus-062s.png" class="png" height-obs="673" width-obs="400" alt="All this while Tum Tum was holding Don high in the air in his trunk. Page 60." title="All this while Tum Tum was holding Don high in the air in his trunk. Page 60." /></p>
<p class="image"><SPAN name="Dog" id="Dog" href="images/illus-062x.png" class="image">
View larger image</SPAN></p>
<p class="center"><strong>All this while Tum Tum was holding Don high in the<br/> air in his trunk.</strong><br/> <SPAN href="#while">Page 60</SPAN></p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</SPAN></span><br/></p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>"Oh, I'll be good! I'll be good!" promised
Don, and with that Tum Tum lowered him
gently to the ground, uncoiled his trunk from
around Don's middle, and the dog ran howling
to his master and the boy.</p>
<p>"Don, what made you bite the elephant?"
asked the boy.</p>
<p>Don only barked gently in answer. He could
not speak man or boy talk, you know, any more
than an elephant could, though he understood
it very well.</p>
<p>"I told you the elephant wouldn't hurt your
dog," said the circus man. "Tum Tum is very
gentle."</p>
<p>Don crept behind his master, and looked at
Tum Tum. The elephant walked down to get
another wagon to push up hill, as all the circus
horses were too busy to pull it.</p>
<p>"Bow wow!" barked Don, but this time he
was talking to Tum Tum, and not barking
angrily at him. "Are you an elephant?" asked
Don, in his own language, which the elephant
understood very well.</p>
<p>"Yes, I am an elephant," said Tum Tum.</p>
<p>"And you have two tails," went on Don.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</SPAN></span>Almost anyone who sees an elephant for the
first time thinks that.</p>
<p>"No, I have only one tail," Tum Tum answered.
"The front thing is my trunk, or long
nose. I breathe through it, pick up things to
eat in it, and squirt water through it."</p>
<p>"My! It is very useful, isn't it?" asked Don,
wagging his tail.</p>
<p>"Indeed it is," said Tum Tum. The elephant
and the dog were fast becoming friends now,
and were talking together, though the boy and
his father and the circus men did not know this.</p>
<p>"Then was it your trunk that you picked me
up in?" asked Don, of the elephant.</p>
<p>"Yes," replied Tum Tum, "and I am sorry
if I frightened you."</p>
<p>"Oh, well, that's all right," answered Don.
"I am all right now, and I suppose I did wrong
to bark at you, and bite. I am sorry."</p>
<p>"Then I'll excuse you," spoke Tum Tum.
"But what is your name, and where do you
live?"</p>
<p>"My name is Don, and I live on a farm,"
answered the dog. "We have a comical little
pig on our farm named Squinty. Did you ever
see him?"</p>
<p>"I think not," answered Tum Tum. "You
see I haven't been in this country very long.
Did you bring the pig to the circus?"</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</SPAN></span>"Gracious, no!" barked Don. "He had to
stay home in the pen. But my master, his boy
and I came to see you elephants, and other circus
animals. Only I never knew what an elephant
was like before."</p>
<p>"Well, now you know," said Tum Tum, "so
you won't bark at, or bite, the next one you
see."</p>
<p>"Indeed I shall not," said Don. "I have to
bark at Squinty, the comical pig, once in a while,
when he gets out of the pen, and once I took
hold of his ear in my teeth."</p>
<p>"I hope you didn't hurt him," said Tum Tum.</p>
<p>"No, I wouldn't do that for the world," said
Don. And those of you who have read about
"Squinty, the Comical Pig," know how kind
Don was to him.</p>
<p>"So you came to see the circus?" went on
Tum Tum to Don, as the dog's master and his
boy looked about at the strange sights.</p>
<p>"Yes, though I don't know exactly what a
circus is," said Don.</p>
<p>"Well, this is the start of it," Tum Tum said.
"These are our winter quarters. Soon we shall
start out on the road, and live in a tent. Then
I shall do my tricks, the children and the people
will laugh and shout, and give me popcorn balls
and peanuts. Oh, yum-yum!" and Tum Tum
smacked his lips because he thought of the good<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</SPAN></span>
things he was going to have to eat a little later
on.</p>
<p>"Can you do tricks?" asked Don.</p>
<p>"Indeed I can, a great many," the elephant
said. "I can stand on my hind feet—so!" and
up he rose in the air, until his little short tail
dangled on the ground.</p>
<p>"Anything else?" asked Don. "That's a good
trick. Let me see you do another."</p>
<p>"Look!" cried Tum Tum, and this time he
stood on his front legs, and raised his hind ones
in the air.</p>
<p>"That's harder to do," said the jolly elephant.</p>
<p>"I should think so," agreed Don. "I'm going
to try it myself." Don did try, but when
he wanted to stand on his front legs, he fell
over and bumped his nose. And when he tried
to stand on his hind legs, he fell over backward
and bumped his head.</p>
<p>"I—I guess I can't do it," he said to Tum
Tum.</p>
<p>"It needs much practice to do it well," spoke
the jolly elephant.</p>
<p>"Here, Tum Tum!" called one of the circus
men. "This is no time to be doing tricks.
Come and help push some more of these wagons.
If the circus is ever to start out on the road, to
give shows in the tent, we must start soon.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</SPAN></span>
Come, push some of these wagons, with your
big, strong head."</p>
<p>"I'll have to go now," said Tum Tum to Don,
the dog, for they were now good friends. "I
may see you again, sometime."</p>
<p>"I hope you will," spoke Don. "Your circus
is coming to our town, I know, for the barns
on our farm are pasted over with posters, and
bills."</p>
<p>"Then I may see you when we get there,"
said Tum Tum, as he walked slowly forward to
push the wagon pointed out by the circus man.</p>
<p>That is how Don and Tum Tum became acquainted.
As the dog went off with his master
and the boy, he barked a good-by to Tum Tum,
saying:</p>
<p>"If you come near our place, I'll show you
Squinty, the comical pig. One eye is wide open,
and the other partly shut."</p>
<p>"He must be a funny chap," said Tum Tum.
The big, jolly elephant pushed into place the
heavy wagon. Then it was dinner time. But
as Tum Tum was eating his hay and carrots in
the animal tent, for he was kept in that, now
that the weather was warmer, all at once Tum
Tum heard a loud shouting.</p>
<p>"Look out for that wagon. The tiger cage
wagon is rolling down hill. It will turn over,<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</SPAN></span>
be smashed, and the tiger will get out! Stop
that wagon, somebody!"</p>
<p>Tum Tum heard this shouting, and looking
out of the side of his tent, he saw a big red and
gold wagon rushing down the hill backwards.</p>
<p>"I must stop that wagon," said Tum Tum.</p>
<span class="totoc"><SPAN href="#toc">Contents</SPAN></span>
<hr />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</SPAN></span></p>
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