Umboo, the Elephant | Page 3

show. I've been in New York lots of times."
"Well, don't let it make you proud," said Chako, the other monkey. "I
have been there myself, and I'd much rather be in the jungle."
"Say, are we going to listen to you animals talk or hear the story
Umboo is going to tell us?" asked Humpo, the camel. "I thought he was
going to make us forget the heat."
"So I am," said Umboo, in a kind voice, "Only I wanted to speak about
old Jumbo, There used to be a song about him, many years ago. 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.

"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 I have heard my father and mother say that we
elephants live to be very old."
"And can you remember so far back, when you were a baby in the
jungle?" asked Humpo.
"Oh, yes, very easily," answered Umboo. "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."
"I will!" promised the elephant. And then, as the afternoon show was
over, and it was not yet time for the night one to begin, the animals had
a little quiet time to themselves. And, as they had done once before,
they got ready to listen to a story.
In the book before this I have written for you the story of Woo-Uff, the
lion. And before that I gave you the story of Snarlie, the tiger. And now
we come to Umboo.
"The first thing I remember," began the elephant, "was when I was a
little baby in the jungle."
"Were you very little?" asked Snarlie the tiger.
"Well, I have heard my mother say I weighed about two hundred
pounds the first day I came into the world," answered Umboo. "So,

though I was little for an elephant, I would have made a very big
monkey, I suppose. 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!"
"Well," said Umboo, "I'll tell you of a terrible fright we had, and
how--"
But just then something else happened. Into the tent came running one
of the circus men, and he cried to another, who was asleep on some hay
near the elephants.
"Come! Loosen Umboo! We need him to help us get one of the wagons
out of the mud! Bring Umboo, the strongest of all elephants!"

CHAPTER II
ON THE MARCH
Umboo, the big circus elephant, was unchained from the stake in the
circus tent to which he was made fast, and led out by one of the men.
"Oh, where are you going?" asked Horni, the rhinoceros, who had been
taking a little doze, and who woke up, just as the men came in. "I
thought I heard some one say you were going to tell a story, Umboo,"
spoke the rhinoceros.
"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."
"Come, Umboo!" called