Still, Tum Tum was glad enough to get single peanuts at a time, and though it was hard work to chew a single one in his big mouth, just as it would be hard for you to chew just one grain of sugar, still Tum Tum was very polite, and he never refused to take the single peanuts.
"A big ball of popcorn makes something pretty good to chew on," said Tum Tum to one of the elephants chained near him. "I like that, don't you?"
"Indeed I do," the elephant said. "We never got anything as nice as popcorn and peanuts in the jungle, did we?"
"No," answered Tum Tum, thinking of the days in the dense jungle. Tum Tum wondered what had become of Mr. Boom and where his father and mother, and his other elephant friends, might be.
"I suppose they are still back in the lumber yard, piling up teakwood logs," thought Tum Tum. "I am glad I am in the circus, even if I did have to be pulled up with a rope to make me learn how to stand on my head and my hind legs."
Tum Tum could do many other tricks besides these now, and he was such a jolly old elephant, always doing as he was told without any grumbling, that all the circus men liked him.
If there was anything hard to do, or any trick that none of the other elephants could go through, Tum Tum was sure to be called on.
"He is the smartest elephant of all," his keeper would say, and this made Tum Tum feel very proud and happy.
One day there was much excitement in the animal tent, and at first Tum Tum thought maybe the tiger had gotten loose again, or that another big cage had rolled down hill.
When one of the animal men rushed in and called out something, Tum Tum knew it was not that.