"I will not go to any circus!" cried Gumble-umble. "I am going to break out of this trap!"
"You must not!" cried Tum Tum. "I have said that we would all be good, and I am the leader."
"You cannot lead me!" trumpeted Gumble-umble, and he rushed at the fence of the stockade, or trap. But before he could reach it, two tame elephants rushed at him, and Gumble-umble was soon bound with strong chains and ropes, so that he could hardly move.
"It is all your fault!" he cried to Tum Tum.
"No, it is your own," said Gumble-umble's papa. "Now you must quiet down and be a good elephant. We are caught, we can go no more to the jungle, but perhaps it is best for us."
So Tum Tum and the wild elephants were thus caught.
For a time the herd of wild elephants was kept inside the fence. They were given good things to eat, and plenty of water to drink, and to blow over themselves with their trunks, to cool off. They did not try to get away, though once, in the night, Mr. Boom came as close to the outside of the trap, or stockade, as he dared, and trumpeted, trying to call his herd back to him. But they would not go. They were beginning to like it, with the tame elephants.
In a little while all the wild elephants, Tum Tum included, were quite tame. Then they were taken out, a few at a time, out to the forest, and shown how to pile up the heavy logs of teakwood, which is used for building ships, and sometimes for making tables and chairs.
The tame elephants showed the wild ones how to carry the logs on their tusks, or in their trunks, and how to pile them up as neatly as you can pile up your building blocks.
Tum Tum learned to do this, and also how to push heavy wagons about with his head. He also learned much of the man-talk, so that his driver, or mahoot, as he is called, could, by a few words, make Tum Tum understand just what was wanted.