"No, let Tum Tum try once more. I am sure he can do it," spoke the elephant's kind keeper.
When Tum Tum heard this, he felt himself swell up inside. It was as though he had new strength.
"I will push that wagon!" he said to himself. "I will push it out of the mud!"
Then he took another long breath, and pushed with all his might on the wagon.
"Now it's going!" cried Tum Tum.
Slowly at first, and then faster, the big hippopotamus wagon rolled out of the mud, and on to the firm, hard road.
"There it goes!" cried a circus man.
"Hurray! Tum Tum has done it!" shouted another.
"I told you he was strong," said Tum Tum's keeper.
"He surely is," spoke the head circus man. "But I never thought he could push that wagon."