All at once it flashed into Tinkle’s head.
“That must be Tum Tum the jolly elephant Dido was telling me about. I’ll ask him.” So he called, in animal talk: “How do you do, Tum Tum?”
“Ha! What’s that? Some one must know me,” answered Tum Tum, for it was he. “Oh,” he went on, “it’s a little pony. But, though I know most of the ponies in this circus, I don’t know you,” and Tum Tum walked a little closer to Tinkle’s tent.
“I heard about you from Dido, the dancing bear,” said Tinkle, as he told his own name. “I never thought I should meet you in this circus, though.”
“Why, how strange!” cried Tum Tum. “Fancy meeting Dido! You must tell me all about him. He and I are very good friends. I was sorry when he went away from the circus. Tell me about him when I come back. I have to go in the parade now,” and Tum Tum, with a jolly laugh and a wink of his eye at Tinkle, marched slowly off with a man seated on his big head.
CHAPTER XI
TINKLE IS SAD
“Now, Tinkle, we can have a nice talk,” said Tum Tum, a little later, when he came back from the parade. “Tell me about yourself, how you came to join the circus and, most of all, I want to hear about my old friend Dido.”
So Tinkle told all he could remember; telling first of the beautiful green meadow in which he had once lived, and of George who had taught him a few tricks, and of having been taken away by two men in the big moving van.