He did so, and Umboo liked it very much, letting the sweet juice trickle down his throat.
"I wish they would give me sugar every time I take out the white rag," thought Umboo. "It's fun!"
After this Umboo did not pile lumber any more. He was taken out of the yard, and kept by himself in a small stable, and given nice things to eat until one day the circus man opened the door and called:
"Well, Umboo, I guess we are ready to start now. You are going to say good-bye to India and to the jungle. You are going where Jumbo went—off to America to be in a circus show!"
Of course Umboo did not understand all that the circus man said to him, but the elephant boy thought to himself:
"Well, he is kind to me. He gives me sugar. I'll go with him, and pull that white rag out of his pocket as often as he lets me. I wonder what he was saying about Jumbo?"
For Umboo remembered hearing the other elephants talking about Jumbo, who, however, came from Africa and not from India.
"Come, Umboo!" called the circus man. "You are going on a big ship, and take a long ride. I hope you will not be seasick."
Umboo did not know exactly what a ship was. He had seen big boats come up the river, near where he worked, to get lumber, and some of the elephants, who had been down near the ocean shore, said those boats were ships. And of course Umboo did not know what it meant to be seasick.
However he liked the circus man, and when the elephant boy came out of the stable he felt around with his trunk in the man's pocket.