“Is that where your shoulder is swelled?” asked Tum Tum. “I’m sorry. I heard some of the circus men talking about it. At first I thought you had two humps, like some of the camels.”
“No, there is something queer growing on my shoulder,” went on Shaggo. “It hurts and I don’t like it. But perhaps I got that for running away.”
“Did you run away?” asked Tum Tum, and he took a little more of the buffalo’s fresh hay. “I did once, but I was glad to run back. Tell me about it, please.”
So in animal talk Shaggo told Tum Tum how the big jump had been made over the fence and how the buffalo had hurt himself.
He turned to get a drink of water from the tub full in his cage when, all of a sudden, he heard a loud, roaring sound.
“What’s that?” asked Shaggo of Tum Tum.
“Oh, that’s Nero, the circus lion,” was the answer. “He smells the meat the men are bringing for his dinner, and he’s telling them how glad he will be to get it.”
“Well, I don’t know who Nero is,” remarked Shaggo, “but he certainly makes a lot of noise.”
“Who is talking about me?” roared the lion, whose cage was not far from that of the buffalo.
“It’s a new circus animal,” answered Tum Tum. “Nero, allow me to introduce you to Shaggo, the mighty buffalo.”