Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
Circus Animal Stories
UMBOO, THE ELEPHANT
By
HOWARD R. GARIS
Author of
"The Bedtime Stories"
"The Uncle Wiggily Series"
"The Daddy Series"
Etc.
CONTENTS
Chapter
I Baby Umboo
II On The March
III Sliding Down Hill
IV Umboo Learns Something
V Picking Nuts
VI Umboo Is Lost
VII Umboo And The Snake
VIII Umboo Finds His Mother
IX To The Salt Spring
X In A Trap
XI Umboo Goes To School
XII Umboo Is Sold
XIII Umboo On The Ship
XIV Umboo In The Circus
XV Umboo Remembers
CHAPTER I
BABY UMBOO
"Oh, my! But it's hot! It is just too hot for anything!" cried Chako,one of the monkeys in the circus cage. "It is hotter under this tentthan ever it was in the jungle! Whew!" and he hung by his tail andswung to and fro from a wooden bar.
"In the jungle we could find a pool of water where we could keepcool," said another monkey, who was poking around the floor of thecage, hoping he could find a peanut. But there were only shells. "Iwish I could go back to the jungle," he chattered.
"What did you come away from the jungle for, if you don't like it inthis circus?" asked Woo-Uff, the big yellow lion, who lay on his backin his cage, his legs stuck up in the air, for he was cooler that way."Why did you come from the jungle, Chako?"
"I didn't want to come," answered the swinging monkey. "But some whiteand black hunters caught me, and a lot more of us chattering chaps,and took us away from the jungle."
"That's right, my boy!" exclaimed the deep, rumbly voice of Umboo, thebiggest elephant in the circus. "None of us animals would have comeaway from the jungle if we could have had our way. But, now that weare here, we must make the best of it."
"How can one make the best of it when it is so hot?" asked Chako. "Thesun shines down on this circus tent hotter than ever it did in thejungle. And there is no pool of water where we can splash and becool."
"Oh, if water is all you want, I can give you some of that," spoke
Umboo. "Wait a minute!"
Near the elephants, of whom Umboo was one on a long line, chained tostakes driven in the ground, was a big tub of water, put there forthem to drink when they wanted to. Umboo put his long, rubbery hose ofa trunk down into this tub of water, and sucked up a lot, just as youfill your rubber ball at the bathroom basin.
"Look out now, monkeys!" cried the elephant. "It's going to rain!" andhe sort of laughed away down in his throat. He couldn't laugh throughhis nose, as his nose was his trunk, and that was full of water. "Lookout for a shower!" he cried.
With that the elephant went:
"Woof-umph!"
Out from his trunk, as if from a hose, sprinkled a shower of water.Over the cage of monkeys it sprayed, wetting them as might a fall ofrain.
"Here comes some more!" cried Umboo, and again he dipped his trunk inthe tub of water, sucked