“Yes, it did! You know it did!” growled Tamba. “It made me sneeze, too!”
“Oh, did it?” asked Nero. “Well, that was just a little joke of mine, my tiger friend. I wanted to see if I could tickle your nose the way you tickled mine with your tail. It was only a joke, splashing water on your nose. Only a joke! Ha! Ha! Ha!”
“Yes, it was only a joke!” said Tum Tum and all the other animals. “Only a joke, Tamba! Ha! Ha! Ha!”
Of course the striped tiger had to laugh, too, for really he had not been hurt, and he must expect to have a joke played on him after he had played one on Nero.
“Well, I’ll gnaw this bone after I take a drink,” said Tamba, as he dried his nose on his paw. “Much obliged to you for tossing it into my cage, Nero.”
“Oh, you’re very welcome, I’m sure!” laughed the lion. “Oh, you did jump and sneeze in such a funny way, Tamba, when the water went up your nose!” and Nero laughed again, as he thought of it.
And so life went on for the circus animals, something a little different happening every day. Now and then Tamba played other tricks, and so did Nero, and the first crossness of Tamba seemed to wear off. He was still as anxious as ever to go to the jungle, but he did not see how he could get out of his cage. He watched carefully, every day, hoping that some time the man who came in to make him do his tricks would forget to fasten the door when he went out.
“If he only left it open once,” thought Tamba, “I could slip out and run away. Then I’d go back to the jungle.”
But the trainer never left the door open. Besides, it closed with a spring as soon as the man slipped out, and, quick as he was, Tamba could not have slipped out. However, he kept on the watch, always hoping that some day his chance would come.
And it did. I’ll tell you all about it pretty soon.
Sometimes, as I have told you, the circus went from town to town by the way of country roads, the horses pulling the big wagons with the tents on them and also the wagons in which the wild beasts were kept. It took eight or ten horses to pull some of the heavy wagons uphill.
At other times the wagons would all be put on big railroad cars, and an engine would haul them over the shiny rails. This was when it was too far, from one town to the next, for the horses to pull the wagons, or for the elephants and camels to walk. For when the circus traveled by country road these big animals――the camels and elephants――always walked.