"Well, I declare!" cried one of the men. "That elephant is the
smartest one we ever trained. He does the trick after being shown just
once!"
"Oh, yes, I knew he was smart when he did that handkerchief trick,"
said the man from India. "Umboo will be ready to join the circus
before any of the others."
Once more Umboo was hoisted up by the ropes, but there was really no
need for it. He knew what was wanted of him, and he did it.
"That's fine!" said the big elephant. "If you learn the other things
as easily as you learned this trick, you will have no trouble."
"Are there other tricks to learn." asked Umboo.
"Oh, many of them," answered Wang, the best trick elephant in the
circus. "You have only just begun."
And Umboo found that this was so. In the ten days that followed he was
taught many more tricks. Some of them he did not learn so easily as he
had the one of standing on his hind legs, and the ropes had to be used
many times. But the other trick elephants, of whom there was more than
one, showed the untrained ones what to do, and, in time, Umboo and his
friends could go through many "stunts," as the circus men called them.
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