Day after day went past in the circus, and still Mappo did not come back. Sometimes Tum Tum was lonesome for his little monkey friend, but there was so much to do, that no one in a circus could be lonesome for very long at a time.
Tum Tum was learning some new tricks, and this took up much of his time. Each day he was growing bigger and stronger, for he was not a very old elephant, when he had been caught in the jungle. Now he was very strong, and he could easily have pushed two heavy animal cages at once. He was the strongest elephant in the whole circus.
One day, when the circus was going along the road from one town to another, one of the wagons became stuck fast in the mud, for it had rained in the night. It was the wagon in which rode the hippopotamus, with his big red mouth that he could open so wide.
The whole circus procession had to stop, or at least all the wagons behind the hippopotamus cage, had to stop, as they could not get past.
"Bring up some of the elephants, and have them pull the hippo's cage out of the mud!" cried the head circus man. He called him "hippo" for short, you see.
Up came two big elephants, and chains were put about their necks, and made fast to the hippopotamus wagon.
"Now, pull!" cried the circus men, and the elephants strained and pulled as hard as they could.
But the wagon did not move out of the mud.
"Pull harder!" cried the circus man, and he cracked his long whip, but he did not hit the elephants with it.
But, no matter how hard the elephants pulled, they could not pull the hippopotamus wagon out of the mud.