Tum Tum and the older elephant were led to the middle of the circus ring. The chains were taken off Tum Tum's legs, but a rope was put around his front ones, and he wondered what that was for. Then Tum Tum and Hoy were stood in a line with some other big elephants.
"All ready now!" cried a circus man, snapping his long whip. "Stand up!"
Hoy raised himself up on his hind legs, lifting his trunk high in the air.
"Do as I do! Do as I do!" called Hoy to Tum Tum. "Stand up on your hind legs."
"I—I can't!" answered Tum Tum, who tried. But he found he could not.
Then a funny thing happened. All of a sudden Tum Tum found his front legs and head being pulled up in the air by the rope, and, before he knew it, he was standing on his hind legs whether he wanted to or not.
The circus men had pulled on the end of the rope, which ran through a pulley, hoisting Tum Tum in the air. That was the way they had of teaching him to stand up. Several times Tum Tum was let down to the ground, and hauled up again, and each time he was pulled up, the circus man would call out:
"Stand up on your hind legs! Stand up on your hind legs!"
"Is this a trick?" asked Tum Tum of Hoy, who did not have to have a rope around him to pull him up.
"Yes, it is one trick," answered the old elephant. "There are many more, though, to learn."