"Tell us about that!" begged Chako.

"All in good time! All in good time," said the big elephant, in a sort
of drowsy voice, for he had hardly slept through all his nap that day,
before the circus crowds came in. "I have yet to tell you how I was
lost, and how I got back to the rest of the herd. But seeing the
children remind me of the days in India," added Umboo.

"And it reminded me also," spoke Snarlie. "Well do I recall how little
Princess Toto rode on the back of a great elephant like yourself,
Umboo, and how it was then I first saw her. Afterward I went to live
with her, and there was a palace, with a fountain in it where the
water sparkled in the sun."

"What's a palace?" asked Chako, the monkey. "Is it something good to
eat, like a cocoanut?"

"Indeed it is not," said Snarlie. "A palace is a big house, like this
circus tent, only it is made of stone. Princess Toto and I lived
there, but now I live in a circus, and I shall never see Toto again! I
liked her very much."

"I like children, too," said Woo-Uff, the lion, in his deep, rumbly
voice. "Once a little African boy named Gur was kind to me, and gave
me a drink of water when I was caught in the net. He was a good boy."

"Did he ride on an elephant's back?" asked Snarlie.

"I never saw him do that," answered the lion, "though he may have. But