All of a sudden some boys, who were trying to get closer to Tum Tum, ran into the peanut wagon, and tipped it over. All at once the red-hot charcoal that kept the peanuts warm, spilled out, and the wagon, and some straw near it, caught fire. My, how it blazed!
"Fire! Fire!" cried the peanut man. "Oh, somebody put out the fire, or all my peanuts will be burned up!"
Tum Tum looked at the fire, and wondered if he could help put it out.
CHAPTER IX
TUM TUM AND THE BALLOONS
"Come away, Tum Tum!" cried the elephant's keeper. "I don't want you getting all excited about a fire, and maybe burned. A few peanuts are not worth it. We'll let some of the tent men put out the fire. Come away!"
But Tum Tum did not want to go away from the fire. He was not much afraid of it. Most wild animals are afraid of fire, but Tum Tum was tame now, and he knew that though fire burns, it also does good, in cooking food, even for animals. Besides, Tum Tum had seen so much of fire, since he had come to the circus, and had seen so many flaring lamps at the night performances, that he was not afraid of just a blazing peanut wagon.