Pretty soon the ship began to pitch and toss and roll. It was out on
the big ocean. The elephants did not so much mind the rolling motion,
as they never stopped swaying themselves, and they were used to it,
but some of the other animals had a bad time.
I wish I could tell you all that happened on board the ship, that was
taking Umboo to the circus, but I have not room in this book. I'll
tell you one thing that happened, though, and Umboo often used to
laugh about it later.
One day, when the ship had been sailing about a week, a man came down
in the hold, or stable where the elephants were. This man was a sort
of joker. He liked to play tricks on animals and sometimes on his
friends, and this time he thought he would play a trick on Umboo.
The man took a sour lemon, and plastered it all on the outside with
some sticky brown sugar. This he held out to Umboo, saying:
"Here; have a nice, sweet lump!"
Of course Umboo thought it was all sugar, but when he chewed it, and
found inside a sour lemon, it made tears come into his eyes, and he
curled his trunk, and made such a funny, wrinkled face, that the man
laughed and exclaimed:
"Oh, see how the elephant likes a lemon! Isn't that a funny trick!"
But I don't think it was a funny trick at all, and neither did Umboo.
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