"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. "weren't you dreadfully scared, umboo, when you found out you were lost in the jungle?"
"indeed i was," answered the elephant boy, who was telling his story to his friends in the big, white tent.
"i was lost once, in the jungle like that," went on the monkey chap, "and all i had to eat was a cocoanut. and i—"
"wait a minute! wait a minute!" cried humpo the camel. "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."
and surely enough, into the circus tent came the men with the food for the animals—hay for the elephants, meat for the lions and tigers, and dried bread and peanuts for the monkeys.
then after a sleep, which most animals take about as soon as they have eaten, it was time for the circus to begin. into the tent where the jungle folk were kept, came the boys and girls, with their fathers and mothers, or uncles, aunts and cousins.
"oh, look at the big elephant!" cried one boy. "i'm going to give him some peanuts!" and he stopped in front of umboo.
"no, don't!" cried a little girl who was with the boy. "he might bite you."
"pooh! he can't!" said the boy. "he can only reach me with his long nose of a trunk, and there aren't any teeth in that. his teeth are in his mouth, farther up."
"well, he's got a pinching thing on the end of his trunk," spoke the little girl, "and he can nip you."
"i don't guess he will," went on the boy. "anyhow i'd like to give him some peanuts."
"and i'd like to have them," said umboo, in elephant talk, of course, which the other animals could understand, but which was not known to the little boy and girl, nor to the other children in the circus tent.
then the little boy grew brave, and held out a bag, partly filled with peanuts, to umboo, who took them in his trunk, and chewed them up, first, though, taking them out of the bag, for he did not like to chew paper.
"i wish i could ride on the elephant's back!" said the little boy.
"children do ride on the backs of elephants in india, the country where you and i came from, don't they, umboo?" asked snarlie, the tiger, when the children had passed on to the tent where the performers were to do their circus tricks.
"oh, yes, many a ride i have given children in india," said umboo.
"but that was after i was caught in the jungle trap and tamed."
"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 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?"
"indeed it is not," said snarlie. "a palace is a big house, like this circus tent, only it is made of stone. princess toto and i lived there, but now i live in a circus, and i shall never see toto again! i liked her very much."
"i like children, too," said woo-uff, the lion, in his deep, rumbly voice. "once a little african boy named gur was kind to me, and gave me a drink of water when i was caught in the net. he was a good boy."
"did he ride on an elephant's back?" asked snarlie.
"i never saw him do that," answered the lion, "though he may have. but the elephants of africa, where i came from, are wilder, larger and more fierce than those of india, where our friend umboo used to live. people hardly ever ride on an african elephant's back."
"well, let us hear more of umboo's story," suggested humpo, the camel.
"it seems to me everyone is talking but him."
"that's so," spoke horni, the rhinoceros. "please go on, umboo. tell us about how you were lost in the jungle."
so the big circus elephant, slowly swaying to and fro, and gently clanking his chains, told more of his jungle story.
when he looked all around among the trees, which were dripping water from the heavy rain, and when he could not see any of the other elephants, umboo felt very badly indeed. for animals, even those who live in the jungle, get lonesome, the same as you boys and girls do when you go away from home.
"well, if i am lost," thought umboo to himself, as he held the branch of palm nuts, "i must see if i can not find the way home." for though elephants have no real home, traveling as they do to and fro in the jungle so much, umboo called "home" the place where he had last seen his mother and the rest of the herd.
since umboo could not see a long way through the trees, as he might have done if he had eyes as sharp and bright as a big vulture bird, he had to do what most elephants do—smell. so he raised his trunk in the air, dropping the palm branch to the ground, and sniffed as hard as he could. he wanted to smell the elephant smell—the odor that would come from the herd of the big animals who were somewhere in the jungle eating leaves and bark.
but umboo could not smell them. nor could he smell any danger, and he was glad of that.
all the smells that came to him were those of the jungle—the soft mud smell, the odor of wet, green leaves and the smell of the falling rain. all those smells umboo knew and loved. but he could not smell the other elephants, and if he could have done so he would have known which way to walk to get to them.
slowly he turned himself around, so as to smell each way the wind blew, toward him and from him. but it was of no use. no elephant smell came to him.
"i guess i am too far away," thought the elephant boy to himself. "i must walk on farther. then i'll come to where my mother is. i wish i had not gone away from her."
picking up the palm branch again, with the sweet nuts still fast to it, umboo started off once more through the mud and water. the rain came down harder than ever, but he did not mind that. it washed his skin of the dried mud and dust that had been on it some time, and when it rained the bugs did not bite so much. also the rain was not cold, for it was pleasant and warm in the jungle. only it was lonesome to the elephant boy, who, never before, had been so long away from his mother.
on he tramped, splashing this way and that through the puddles, wading through little brooks and, once, even swimming over a small river, for, by this time umboo was as good a swimmer as the other elephants.
"but i don't remember swimming that river before," said umboo to himself, as he crawled out on the farther bank, with the branch of palm nuts held high in his trunk. "surely i must have come the wrong way. i am worse lost than ever!"
and so umboo was. but there was no help for it. he must keep on, and he hoped, before it grew dark, that he would find the herd, and his mother with it.
after he had swum across the river umboo pushed on through the jungle for a mile or more. all at once he heard, off to one side, something crashing through the bushes much as he was doing.
"ha! perhaps that is another elephant!" thought umboo. "maybe it is my mother or my father, or perhaps old tusker coming to look for me. i shall be glad of that!
"hello there!" cried umboo in elephant talk. "is that you, mother?
here i am, over here!"
the crashing of the bushes stopped, and a loud voice said:
"no, i am not your mother. what is the matter with you, elephant boy?" and out of the jungle came stalking a big rhinoceros. on his head, close to the end of his nose, grew a long, sharp horn. at first umboo was afraid of this horn, but the rhinoceros did not seem to be cross, and the elephant boy went closer to him.
"the matter with me," said umboo, "is that i am lost. i went out in
the jungle, away from where our herd of elephants was feeding, and now
i can't find my way back again. can you tell me where my mother is,
mr. rhino?"
"i am sorry to say that i can not," answered the rhinoceros, scratching his leg with his horn. "but why did you go away from the herd?"
"i wanted to go out in the jungle and knock over a big tree," said umboo. "keedah, one of the boys in the herd, said it was easy to do when the ground was soft from the rain."
"and did you do it?" asked the rhinoceros.
"yes," answered umboo, "i did. this branch of palm nuts is from the tree i knocked over with my head. i'd give you some, only i am saving them for my mother."
"oh, that's all right; thank you," said the other jungle beast. "i don't care much for palm nuts anyhow, and i'd rather you would save them for your mother."
"do you know where my mother is?" asked umboo eagerly.
"i am sorry to say i do not," was the reply. "i have been wandering about the jungle myself, looking for a rhinoceros friend of mine, but i haven't found him."
"did you see a herd of elephants?" asked umboo eagerly.
"no, i didn't exactly see them," answered mr. rhino, "but about two showers ago i heard a big noise in the jungle back of me, and perhaps that was the elephant herd."
mr. rhino said "two showers ago," instead of "two hours," you see, because the jungle animals have no clocks or watches, and they tell time by the sun, or by the number of rain-showers in a day. and umboo knew that very well, so he knew about how long ago it was that the rhinoceros had heard the loud sounds of which he spoke.
"oh, so you heard the elephants, did you?" exclaimed umboo. "i am glad of that. now i'll hurry off and find them. thank you for telling me."
"oh, that's all right," politely answered the rhinoceros. "i hope you find your mother and other friends. good-bye!"
he wiggled his horn at umboo, who waved his trunk with the palm tree branch in it, and once more, off through the jungle started the elephant boy.
on and on he went. but either he did not go the right way, or two showers ago was longer than either he or the rhinoceros thought, for umboo did not even smell the other elephants, much less see them or hear them.
"oh, dear!" thought umboo again. "i'm surely lost as bad as before!
what shall i do?"
he stood and looked about him in the dripping wet jungle. he felt hungry, but he did not like to eat the palm nuts he was saving for his mother, so he chewed some leaves from a tree, and nibbled a bit of bark. but neither was as good as the palm nuts would have been.
then, as umboo stood there, he suddenly heard a loud, hissing noise. it seemed to come from right under his feet, and, looking down, he saw a large snake.
now all jungle animals are afraid of snakes for the serpents can bite and poison at the same time. so though a snake may not be very strong, he can kill by poison some of the strongest beasts. thus it was that umboo, who would have fought even a tiger, was afraid of the snake.
"ah, ha! you would nip me, would you?" cried the elephant, as he raised his big foot to crush the snake before it had a chance to bite and poison him.
