brightly in the sun gleamed the white tents. in the wind the gay flags fluttered. here and there were men selling pink lemonade and peanuts. around the green grass were the big wagons—wagons that needed eight or ten horses to pull, wagons shining with gold and silver mirrors—heavy, rumbling wagons, which umboo and the other elephants had to push out of the mud when the horses could not pull them.
"and so this is the circus, is it?" asked umboo, as his friend, wang, and he were led up to the tents.
"this is the circus," spoke wang. "but i forgot. this is your first one; isn't it?"
"the very first," answered umboo. "my! it's lots different from the barn where i learned my tricks, isn't it?"
"oh, yes, heaps different. it's more jolly," said wang.
"and it's different from the jungle," went on umboo.
"oh, yes indeed! it isn't at all like the jungle," said wang. "i remember the jungle very well. i always had to be sniffing here and there for danger, and often i had to drink muddy water, or else i went hungry. here that never happens. all we have to do here is to perform our tricks, push a wagon out of the mud now and then, and eat and sleep. you'll like it here, umboo."
"i'm sure i shall," he answered. "but what is that funny noise?"
"that is the music playing," answered wang. "in the circus we do our tricks to band music. it's more fun that way."
umboo liked the music, and there was one man who played a big horn—larger than himself, and the horn went: "umph-umph!" just as tusker used to trumpet through his trunk.
umboo and the other elephants were taken into the animal tent, and placed around the outer ring, their legs chained to stakes driven in the ground. in cages were monkeys, lions, tigers and other beasts of the wood or jungle.
"was it this circus of ours which you were first taken to, umboo?" asked humpo. "i came here about a year ago."
"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.
then he told how he stood in the ring, and watched the boys and girls, and the men and women, come in to look at the animals before they went in the main tent, to sit down and watch the performers and animals do their tricks and "stunts."
boys and girls, and some grown-folk, too, gave the elephants peanuts and bits of popcorn balls which the big fellows liked very much, indeed.
while umboo was standing in line, with the other elephants, waiting until it was time for them to go in the big tent, and perform their tricks, such as standing on their hind legs and getting up on small barrels, our jungle friend saw a man coming toward him with a bag in his hand.
and, all at once umboo remembered something. he looked sharply at the man and thought:
"ha! there is the fellow who gave me the sour lemon inside the lump of sugar. now is my chance to play a trick on him."
the man, with the bag in his hand, walked toward umboo. to that man all elephants looked alike. he did not know he had ever seen this one before, and had played a mean trick on him. and the man said to another man who was with him:
"watch me fool this elephant. i have an empty bag. i have blown it up full of wind, so that it looks like a bag of peanuts. i'll give it to this elephant and fool him."
"maybe he'll bite you," said the other man, and the first one answered:
"pooh! i'm not afraid. watch me! i fooled an elephant once before. i gave him a lemon in some candy, and you should see the funny face he made. ha! ha!"
"ah, ha!" thought umboo to himself. "he laughs, does he? wait until i see what a funny face he is going to make."
the man held out the bag of wind to umboo. but, instead of taking it, and getting fooled, the wise elephant suddenly dipped his trunk into a tub of water that stood near. umboo sucked his trunk full of water and then, all at once, before the man knew what was going to happen, umboo blew the water all over him.
"whewiff!" went the water in the man's face, and all over his new suit, that he had put on to wear to the circus.
"oh, my!" cried the man. "what happened?" and he spluttered and stuttered and gurgled. "what happened?" he asked, as he backed away and wiped the water from his face.
"i guess what happened," said the man who was with him, but who did not get wet, "was that the elephant played a trick on you, instead of you playing one on him. that's what happened!"
"i guess it did," said the man, whose windblown bag was all wet and flabby now. "but i don't see why he did it. i never fooled him before!"
"maybe this is the same elephant you fooled with the lemon," said the second man.
"it couldn't be," spoke the wet one. "that was a long while ago, on a ship, and an elephant can't remember."
"but i did remember," said umboo, as he told his story to his circus friends. "i could remember that man even now, if i saw him. and so i got even with him for giving me a lemon," and the big elephant laughed, until he shook all over like a bath-tub full of jelly.
"what happened after that?" asked umboo.
"oh, after that the man went out of the circus tent," said the elephant. "everybody was laughing at him and the funny faces he made. but the water didn't hurt him much, and he soon dried for it was a hot day."
"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. "some other elephants and myself played soldiers at war, and toward the end i had to pull a string with my trunk. in some way, i don't just know how, the string fired the cannon. none of the other elephants would do it. they were afraid, but i wasn't. i saw that the cannon wouldn't hurt me if i didn't get in front where its black mouth was, so i pulled the string. and when i did the cannon went 'bang!' and the band played, and the big drum went 'boom!' and the big horn went 'umph-umph!' and the boys and girls yelled like anything. it was lots of fun!
"i liked that circus very much. i hope, someday, they'll let me shoot a cannon here."
"maybe they will," said woo-uff, the lion. "i should like to hear it.
but is that all your story, umboo?"
"that is all, yes. i stayed with that circus for some time, and then was sold again, and as you all know, brought here. and i like it here very much, because you are all so kind to me. and i enjoyed listening to the story you told, woo-uff, and to snarlie's story also."
"well, we liked yours," said chako, the monkey, as he hung by his tail and ate a peanut.
"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?"
"how would you like to hear one about the hot, sandy desert?" asked
humpo, the camel.
"that would be fine!" cried umboo. "tell us your story, humpo!"
"i will," promised the camel. and, if all goes well, that story will be in the next circus animal book; if you think you would like to read it. it will be called "humpo, the camel."
the elephants swayed to and fro, their leg-chains clanking in the tent. the monkeys chattered among themselves. snarlie, the big, striped tiger yawned and stretched. woo-uff, the lion, laughed.
"ha! i wonder what makes that lion so jolly?" said one of the circus keepers.
"perhaps the elephant tickled him," suggested a second man.
"maybe he had a funny dream," spoke another.
"both wrong!" said woo-uff, in animal language that the other circus beasts could understand. "i was laughing at the way umboo squirted water on the lemon-man."
"yes, that was funny," said umboo. "very funny!" and he, too, laughed as he chewed his hay.
and, now that his story is finished, we will say good-bye to him and his friends for a while.
该作者的其它作品
《uncle wiggily's story book》
《lulu, alice and jimmie wibblewobble》
