Richard Barnum

“ When he was still some distance away from the nest, he took a long jump, and landed on the limb near the hole in the tree.
“Did you see him?” asked Mrs. Squirrel.
“Yes. He is in the woods,” chattered Mr. Squirrel. “But he may not be here for some minutes. We have time to run and hide. And we had better not keep together. We must all go different ways, and then he will not find us so easily.”
“Oh, what is it?” cried Slicko. “What has happened?”
“The hunter-man, and his dog, have found out where our nest is,” said Mrs. Squirrel. “At any minute he may come here to shoot us, or catch us.” ”

“ For all his great strength, Tum Tum was yet only a boy elephant. He was not very wise. He did not know what to do.
"Listen," said Tum Tum's father. "You are now the leader of the herd, Tum Tum. Mr. Boom is gone, and I am too old to be the leader. So you must be. We elephants will do as you do. If you can break down the fence, and get away from the hunters, we will follow you."
"I will try, once more, to break down the fence," said Tum Tum. "Let some of the strong, young elephants come to help me. Come, Whoo-ee—come, Gumble-umble! We will smash down the fence!" ”

“ For animals are often more kind to one another than we think. If you watch them sometimes, as I have done, you will see that this is so.
So Mappo made up his mind he would ask the tiger, as a favor, not to bite or eat him.
"And, if he won't be kind to me," thought Mappo, "well, then maybe something else will happen. Maybe papa will come, with a whole lot more monkeys, and drive the tiger away. Or, if he does not, well, maybe something else will happen," and Mappo looked at the empty cocoanut shell in his paw.
"Please let me go, Mr. Tiger!" begged Mappo. "I never did anything to you. ”

“ Switchie and the smaller lions, like Nero, could not roar very loudly, but Nero's father, and the other full-grown beasts made the very ground tremble with their rumblings.
At the same time there were other jungle cries from other animals. The monkeys, who had been sleeping in the tree-tops, began to chatter and scold, as they swung to and fro.
"What's the matter? What's the matter?" asked one gray-haired monkey, who must have been very old. "What's all the noise about? It reminds me of the time a monkey named Mappo, who once visited here, had the toothache one night and howled until morning. ”

“ I was glad to see you, Slicko.”
“And I was glad to see you,” chattered the squirrel. “Good-by!”
“Good-by!” called Flop Ear.
“My, he certainly is a funny rabbit,” thought Slicko to herself as she watched him going along through the woods, with one ear up and the other ear down. “He makes me laugh and feel jolly just to look at him. I hope he finds his home.”
On and on through the woods went Flop Ear. Now and then he would stop and thump on the ground with his feet, hoping some of his folks might be near, and hear him.
But no answering thumps came, and Flop Ear felt sad and lonely. ”

“ Ha! You wouldn't need to be," said Mappo, with a merry laugh. "That is Tum-Tum, the jolliest elephant in the whole circus. Why, he is so kind he wouldn't hurt a fly, and he is so happy that every one loves him. He is always playing jokes."
"Well, I'm glad he is so jolly," spoke Squinty, as he watched Tum-Tum and the other elephants march slowly along the road on their big feet, like wash tubs, swinging their long trunks.
Then Mappo the monkey, and Squinty, the comical pig, started off through the woods. ”

“ And speaking of bones makes me hungry. I think I’ll trot to my kennel and get a bone.”
“What’s a kennel?” asked Winkie.
“My! I never knew any one to ask as many questions as you, unless it might be Mappo, the merry monkey,” barked Don. “A kennel is a house in which I live.”
“We call our house a burrow,” said Winkie. “Only we haven’t any now.”
“It wouldn’t do for all of us to live in the same kind of houses,” Don said. “I’d feel rather silly in a nest, and yet a nest is a home for a bird. Well, I’m going to trot along, Winkie. ”

“ Don and Tabby were good friends. The dog had always been kind to cats, since his mother had told him to be, and Tabby was not afraid of Don, though she would fluff up her tail, and round up her back, when she saw some dogs that were not friends of hers.
“Don’t you ever get tired of staying here all the while, Don?” asked Tabby, as she sat in the sunshine, washing her face with her velvety paw. Dogs and cats can talk to each other you know, though we cannot understand them. ”

“ It was a warm day, and the lion stretched, opened his mouth as wide as he could, and then lay down in his cage where the sun could warm his back.
"It feels just as good as the jungle," thought Nero. "But of course there aren't as many trees, and there are no pools of water, and I haven't Switchie or Chet or Boo to play with. A circus may be nice, but I'll run away the first chance I get."
Tum Tum pushed Nero's cage about until some horses could be hitched to it to draw it to the railroad station. For the circus was to travel on a train of cars to the city where it was first to give a show. ”

“ I think the little pig would have been very glad, just then, to speak even to Don, the dog. But Don was not there.
Squinty, wondering what happened to little pigs when they were lost, and if they ever got home again, stretched out on the dirt between two rows of corn. It was shady there, but over-head the hot sun was shining. Squinty's breath came very fast, just as when a dog runs far on a warm day.
But the earth was rather cool, and Squinty liked it. He would much rather have been down by the cool brook, but he knew he could not have a swim in it until he found it. ”

“ That is the way animals have of telling if danger is near. They do it by smelling as well as by listening and seeing. Only one cannot see very far in the jungle, as the trees are so thick.
Mr. Tusky also lifted up his big ears, about as large as ten palm-leaf fans, and listened for any sounds of danger. All he heard was the crashing of tree branches and bushes, as some of the other elephants, farther off in the jungle, pushed their way about eating their dinners.
Then, suddenly, some elephant called, trumpeting through his trunk:
"Tum Tum! Hello, Tum Tum! Can't you come out and play?" ”

“ But you can help me to escape."
"How?" asked Mappo.
"Listen!" whispered the tiger, putting his big mouth, filled with sharp teeth, close to the side of his cage, and nearest to Mappo's crate. "Listen! Your paws are like hands and fingers. To-night, when the natives set our crates down, to take their sleep, you can open your cage, slip out and come over and open mine. I have tried to open my own, but I cannot. However, you can easily do it. Then we will both be free, and we can run away to the jungle together: Come, will you do it? I am very hungry! ”

“ The short thing is their tail, and the long thing, in front of them, hanging down, is their nose.”
“Their nose!” cried Slicko. “What a funny nose!”
“It is called a trunk,” explained Mappo. “But it is really the elephant’s nose. He breathes through it, but he can also use it like a hand. He picks up what he wants to eat in it, and it is hollow, like the hose with which they fill the circus tubs, so we animals can drink. Through his hollow trunk, the elephant sucks up water, squirting it down his throat when he is thirsty.”
“What a funny animal an elephant is!” exclaimed Slicko. ”

“ Mappo chattered, in monkey fashion, and off through the bushes he slipped, to have some fun.
“I am sorry about that,” said Tum Tum, the jolly elephant, as he crashed through the underbrush. “I shall have to go back to the circus without Mappo.”
“But I am not going back to the farm without you, Squinty,” said Don, the dog, and with that he took hold of the comical little pig, and led him through the woods to his pen.
“The monkey and the elephant can do as they like,” said Don, “but my master told me to fetch back any runaway pigs I saw, and I am going to do it.” ”

“ Who are you, if you please?”
“I am Slicko, the jumping squirrel,” was the answer. “Can you see me up in my nest?”
Flop Ear looked up, and saw a little gray animal with a big, bushy tail. In her paws Slicko held a nut which she was eating.
“Oh, have you a nest up there?” asked Flop Ear.
“Yes, this is my home.”
“Then you must be a bird if you live in a nest,” remarked the rabbit.
“Well, yes, in that way, maybe I am,” laughed Slicko. “But we squirrels only live in nests in trees in Summer. In the Winter we burrow under the ground as you rabbits do, Flop Ear.” ”

“ He could not turn around, for he was pushing the wagon up hill.
"Bow wow! Bow wow! Bow wow!" was the barking answer, and Tum Tum felt his legs nipped again.
"Stop that, Mappo, if you please," said the big elephant. "Please don't do that, when I am pushing this wagon."
[Pg 58] But Tum Tum's leg was bitten again, and he cried:
"Mappo, I shall squeeze you in my trunk, if you do not let me alone. I like a joke as well as you do, but it is no fun to have your legs nipped when you are pushing a heavy wagon. Stop it!" ”

“ But Blunk was wide awake. He was sitting up on his haunches, as a dog sits up to beg, and he was slowly nipping off the sweet clover tops and the tender leaves, chewing them very contentedly.
“Hello, Winkie! So you came over, after all, to get something to eat, did you?” asked Blunk.
“No, I came to see you,” replied Winkie. “Tag! You’re it!” she suddenly cried, tapping her brother with an extended paw, and then springing away before he could touch her. “Come on! Chase me!” ”

“ Squinty was a little pig. You could tell he was a pig just as soon as you looked at him, because he had the cutest little curly tail, as though it wanted to tie itself into a bow, but was not quite sure whether that was the right thing to do. And Squinty had a skin that was as pink, under his white, hairy bristles, as a baby's toes. ”

“ I suppose he roared as he had done in the jungle, when he wanted to let the other animals know he was coming. A lion must be very proud of his roar.
"Well, you can't get me, anyhow," thought Mappo. "You are safe in your cage, and I am glad of it."
"Well, how are you to-day, Tum Tum?" asked Mappo, of the jolly elephant.
"Tired. Very tired!" exclaimed Tum Tum.
"What makes you tired?" asked the monkey.
"Doing so many tricks," the elephant answered. "And you know I am a big, heavy chap, and it tires me to run fast around the ring. But never mind, we will soon be out of here, and on a journey." ”

“ Nero, the circus lion, who was much larger now than when he had been caught in a jungle trap, was very much surprised at what Don, the runaway dog told him. At first the lion boy could hardly believe that Don was not one of the circus animals.
But as the lion, looking out through the bars of his cage, saw Don running about and none of the red-coated circus men trying to catch him, he said:
"Well, well! it must be true. He isn't a circus animal at all." ”

“ As first it might seem funny for a squirrel to say she would not hurt an elephant, because an elephant is so large. But I have told you that elephants are sometimes afraid of even such a little thing as a mouse.
“So you are not a rat, eh?” asked the elephant of Slicko.
“No, Tum Tum, and I’m not a mouse, either,” answered the little girl squirrel.
“Ha! How do you happen to know my name?” asked Tum Tum.
“Mappo, the merry monkey, told me,” said the little squirrel girl. “And Mappo told me I was to tell you I was not a mouse or a rat. I won’t run up your trunk, and scare you.” ”

“ FLOP EAR IS LOST Under the fence crawled Flop Ear, and, running up to where a head of cabbage was growing, the little white rabbit began nibbling the tender green leaves.
“Oh, how good that tastes!” he said to himself. “I’ll eat my share here, and carry some to the folks at home. I can tell them where the field is, and they can come and get more for themselves.” ”

“ Squinty was a pig very fond of playing tricks. Sometimes he would take a choice, tender piece of pig weed, which the farmer had tossed into the pen, and hide it in the soft dirt in one corner.
"Now see who can find it!" Squinty would call to his brothers and sisters, and they would hunt all over for it, rooting up the earth with their strong, rubbery noses.
Digging in the dirt was good practice for them, and their mother and father would watch them, saying:
"Ah, when they grow up they will be very good rooting pigs indeed. Yes, very good!" ”

“ Leo. "The circus is going to start out on the road—we are going to travel from town to town. We are going to travel on the railroad and live in a tent instead of this barn. We shall see lots of people—boys and girls—who come to watch us eat, and do tricks, and we shall hear the band music and—Oh, it's real jolly!"
"I'm glad of that," said Nero. "I like to be jolly. But will Tum Tum come back?" he asked, for he liked the big, jolly elephant, as, indeed, all the circus animals did.
"Oh, yes, Tum Tum will come back," answered Dido, the dancing bear. "The circus couldn't get along without him. ”

“ Don knew nothing about bad black bulls, and Bob was not a very big boy. Still he was brave, and so was Don.
“Come on, old fellow!” called Bob to the dog.
“Bow wow!” barked Don. “I’m coming!”
“Oh dear!” cried Sallie. She couldn’t help being just a little bit afraid. Girls are made that way on purpose, so boys and dogs can protect them.
“Boo! Boo!” bellowed the bull again, and Bob, running on ahead, with Don coming after him, soon came to the field where the big animal, with his sharp horns, was pawing up the dirt.
“Get back where you belong!” called Bob to the bull. “Get back, I say!” ”

“ So there, Uncle Elias!”
“Huh!” grunted the farmer, who was a hard and sometimes a cruel man.
“What do you want of a woodchuck, Uncle Elias?” asked Larry. “Do you want one to teach tricks to? If you do I’ll try to catch one for you in my trap.”
“Nonsense! As if I’d try to teach a woodchuck tricks!” snorted the old man, while his dog sniffed and snuffed at the wild smell and Winkie cowered down in her dark box. “If I had that ground-hog of yours—which I’m willing to pay a dollar for”—went on Mr. Tottle, “I’d turn her loose and set Buster on her! Woodchucks are no good!” ”

“ But before he could reach it, two tame elephants rushed at him, and Gumble-umble was soon bound with strong chains and ropes, so that he could hardly move.
"It is all your fault!" he cried to Tum Tum.
"No, it is your own," said Gumble-umble's papa. "Now you must quiet down and be a good elephant. We are caught, we can go no more to the jungle, but perhaps it is best for us."
So Tum Tum and the wild elephants were thus caught.
For a time the herd of wild elephants was kept inside the fence. ”

“ And indeed Mappo and Tum Tum were the best of friends at once. Elephants and monkeys very seldom quarrel, and they live together in peace, even in the jungle, and do not fight, and bite and scratch, as some wild beasts do.
"Hello!" said Mappo to Tum Tum, as the little monkey sat on the elephant's back. ”

“ At least an elephant looks as though it had two [56] tails, no matter what Mappo says,” went on Slicko. “I wonder if I shall ever meet Tum Tum, and tell him I am not a rat or a mouse? What a funny thing it would be if I did.”
Slicko sat on the edge of the nest for some time, and then she began to feel hungry.
“I wish I had some of those peanuts I heard them talking about in the circus,” said Slicko in a whisper. “I know they must be good, from what that city-park squirrel said. And I wonder what pink lemonade and ice cream cones are? I don’t believe they are good to eat.” ”

“ Lion at the front door of the jungle cave, the roaring sound echoed among the trees.
"What is that?" asked the boy lion once more.
"That is the roaring of other lions, who are also going out to hunt to-night," said Nero's father. "There will be many of us lions in the jungle; perhaps others, like you, who are going out for the first time. You must be brave and strong. Remember the lessons your mother and I have taught you. Crouch down and jump hard. Strike hard with your paws and dig deep with your sharp claws. That is what they are for—to help you hunt so that you may get things to eat. ”

“ Don trotted off, past the farmhouse, down the country road. Tabby, the big yellow cat, was sunning herself on the porch as Don went past.
“Where are you going?” asked Tabby, stretching out her paws.
“Oh, just to take a walk,” answered Don. For he did not want Tabby to follow him, and, after all, he was walking away, rather than running away—at least, at first.
“I don’t want any cats chasing after me,” thought Don. “No one takes any one with him when he runs away—at least Squinty didn’t, and he ought to know all about running away, for he’s done it twice. No, I’ll go alone.” ”

“ Pig saw was her little boy pig down on the ground in the middle of a row of melon vines, with Don holding Squinty's ear.
"Bow wow!" barked Don.
"Squee! Squee!" cried Squinty.
"Oh, you poor little pig!" grunted Mrs. Pig. "What has happened to you?"
"Oh, mamma!" squealed Squinty. "I--I ran out of the pen to see what it was like outside, and I was just eating some pig weed, when this big dog chased after me."
"Yes, I did," said Don, growling in his deep voice. "The place for pigs, little or big, is in their pen. The farmer does not want you to come out and spoil his garden. ”

“ How did you get on this ship with the other animals? You don't mean to say that the hunter men caught you—you, a great big strong elephant, do you?"
"That's just what they did, Mappo," said Tum Tum, and the sailor, looking at the two animals, did not know they were telling secrets to each other.
"I'll just leave 'em together a while," said the sailor. "I don't believe the monkey will run away, and, as he's getting homesick, it may make him feel better to be with the elephant a while." ”