As soon as he could do so, he let the sour lemon drop out of his mouth
into the straw on which he stood.
"Ha!" said the elephant next to Umboo. "If I could reach that man I'd
tickle him with my trunk, and maybe pinch him, too."
"So would I," said Umboo. "But I can't reach him," and he could not,
for the elephant was chained fast to the wall of the ship.
"But I'll know him when I see him again," exclaimed Umboo, "and the
next time he comes near me maybe I can play a trick on him."
"I hope you can," said the other elephant.
And now you wait and see what happened.
The ship sailed on and on over the sea, each day coming nearer and
nearer to America, which is the land of the circus. And Umboo and the
other animals grew tired of being kept below decks, in the darkness.
They wanted to get out into the sunshine.
Each day Umboo kept watch for the man who had given him the lemon in
the lump of sugar, but the trick-player did not again come down where
the elephants were.
And finally, one day, the circus man came down. He quietly rubbed the
trunk of Umboo, patted him, and spoke kind words to him, feeding him
good sugar.
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