“But at last I am free, I am not in the circus, and I am out in the hot country that I love,” thought Tamba, as he slunk along under the trees and bushes. “Now all that I have to do is to find the right jungle. I can eat and drink now when I please. I shall not have to take chunks of meat away from sailors, nor catch rats.”
In this Tamba was right. All about him, in the woods, were plenty of small animals on which he could feed. And there were pools of water here and there where he could drink. It was not like being cooped up in the hold of a ship, nor even like being in a circus cage. Tamba liked very much to be free so he could wander where he wished.
He traveled on and on for many nights, hiding in the day-time when he came to a city or village, but slinking along through the tall grass, or among the trees, when he came to the open country. He grew sleek and fat, for he had plenty to eat. Then, too, he met other tigers and some lions as well as a few elephants.
All these animals he asked where his former jungle cave was, but none of them could tell him. They did not know Tamba’s father or mother, nor had they ever seen his sister or brother.
For many miles Tamba roamed over India, looking for his old home. He began to think he would never find it, and he was getting lonesome and homesick when, one evening, he came to the edge of a deep wood. He crossed a field of tall dried grass to reach the trees. He was on the edge of a deep, dense jungle, and, somehow, as he sniffed the air, to make sure there were no hunters about, and no wild beasts that might do him harm—somehow, Tamba felt that he had been near this same jungle forest once before.
“But it was many years ago,” he thought. “I wonder if there is any one here who would know where my father and mother are.”
Slowly he crossed through the dried grass and reached the woods. In front of him he saw a cave, and, at the sight of it, Tamba’s heart began to beat faster. He had a strange feeling.
Out in front of the cave walked a big tiger—a man tiger. He paced slowly up and down, and, after a while, a tigress came out to keep him company. Tamba looked past the cave and saw, tumbling about in the dried leaves of the jungle, a boy and a girl tiger. Then he heard the tigress say:
“Well, our children are growing up. Soon they will go away from our jungle cave.”
“Yes, I suppose so,” said the larger man tiger, and Tamba thought the old tiger’s voice was sad.