“Tum Tum! Tum Tum!”
“Yes, I hear you. What is it?” asked the elephant, stopping.
“Would you please give me a ride on your back,” begged Slicko. “Mappo, the merry monkey, said you gave children at the circus rides, and I am so little you would hardly feel me.”
“Of course I’ll give you a ride!” cried Tum Tum. “I thought I was forgetting something,” he went on, as he crashed back through the bushes. “I meant to invite you for a little ride on my back,” went on Tum Tum. “Why, I shouldn’t feel you any more than I should a feather, Slicko. Besides, I am very strong; I could carry ten children on my back, and hardly know it.”
“Oh, indeed you must be very strong!” cried the little squirrel girl.
Tum Tum, with a jolly noise that sounded as much like a laugh as any elephant can make, stood under the branch of the tree on which Slicko was perched.
“Hop down, little squirrel,” invited the big, jolly elephant. Down hopped Slicko, landing on the back of Tum Tum, and then what a fine ride she had!
Tum Tum could step over bushes that would have taken Slicko some time to climb, and some bushes Tum Tum trampled under his big feet as though they were straw.
Other bushes the elephant pushed his big body through, as easily as the clown in the circus jumps off the horse’s back through the paper hoop.
“Do you like riding on my back?” asked Tum Tum, swinging along.