Читать книгу Hurrah for the Circus! - Enid blyton - Страница 7

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The six new tigers soon settled down in Mr. Galliano’s circus. They roared when they were hungry, but not very often at other times.

“How do you manage to tame tigers, Fric?” asked Jimmy, as he saw the small boy going to feed his six great cats one morning.

“We had all these when they were cubs,” said Fric. “They were just like playful kittens then. It is not very difficult to train them when they are young—and the tricks they learn then they always remember when they are grown tigers. And they are afraid of me and of Roma, just as they were afraid when they were cubs. If I shout at them they cower down.”

“Afraid of you!” cried Jimmy. “I think that’s wrong, Fric. I don’t think we should ever make animals afraid of us when we take them to live with us. Mr. Galliano says that the finest trainers work by kindness.”

“Pooh!” said Fric scornfully. “He doesn’t know anything about tigers then. No one could be kind to tigers for long!”

Jimmy said nothing. He felt sure that Fric was wrong. The little boy looked at the slanting green eyes of the six beautiful animals. One of them began to purr as she looked at Jimmy.

“Hear that!” said Fric, astonished. “That’s Queenie, purring. She hardly ever does. She must like you, Jimmy. It’s a funny thing, too, but whenever you’re near their cage, they always seem to lie peaceful and quiet.”

Fric went into the tigers’ cage to feed them. There was a double gate, and one was always shut if the other was open, so that no tiger could ever get out. Fric was not afraid of the tigers. He had lived all his life with Roma, his uncle, and knew all about the great animals.

With loud roars the tigers fell upon their enormous hunks of meat. They took no notice of Fric.

“Watch what happens when I shout at Queenie, and thump my fist into my hand!” shouted Fric. And before Jimmy could stop him, Fric had yelled angrily at Queenie and banged his fist into the palm of his left hand.

Queenie crouched down, her ears drooping, and her tail swinging slowly. She looked scared.

“Don’t do that, Fric,” said Jimmy. “Why should you yell at Queenie like that when she’s done nothing wrong at all? That’s the wrong way to treat animals!”

Fric looked cross. He threw the last piece of meat to the tigers.

“You may know all about dogs and elephants and chimpanzees,” he said sulkily, “but you don’t know a thing about tigers!”

Jimmy did not want to quarrel with Fric, for he badly wanted something—he wanted to go into the tigers’ cage with Fric! Jimmy was not afraid of any animal; no, not even of a fierce tiger. But Lucky was afraid. Little dog Lucky wouldn’t go near the cage, and Jimmy was glad. He did not want Lucky to slip between the bars. She would make a nice little dinner for six hungry tigers!

Roma, Fric’s uncle, cleaned out the tigers’ cage each day. Fric fed them. At night the great cage was moved near to the big tent or ‘top’ as all the circus-folk called it. A passage-way was then made from the travelling cage to the strong cage that Brownie, Jimmy’s father, built, with Roma in the ring each night, whilst Sticky Stanley the clown and Oona the acrobat were doing clever and funny tricks to amuse the watching people.

Then the tigers walked down the passage-way and entered the cage in the ring. In this cage were set six stools—two small, two tall, and two taller still. Each tiger knew his stool, and leapt nimbly on to it, so that they sat in a row, like steps going up and down.

Both Roma and Fric went into the cage with the tigers. They were dressed alike, in red velvet suits, very tight, with short, sparkling cloaks, and both carried a long whip that they could crack just as loudly as Mr. Galliano could crack his.

“Aren’t Roma and Fric clever with those tigers?” whispered Lotta to Jimmy. “I don’t know how they make those great beasts obey them like that! Look at Queenie jumping gracefully through the paper hoop, and breaking the paper as she goes through it!”

“And look at Basuka, on one of the high stools!” said Jimmy. “He’s going to jump through two hoops!”

He did—and every one clapped the graceful jump. Basuka did not go back to his stool. He stood and glared at the people.

Roma cracked his whip.

“Up, Basuka, up!” he shouted. But still Basuka stood and stared. Roma picked up a sharp-pointed iron bar and pricked Basuka with it. The big tiger growled, but jumped up to his stool at once.

“I wish Roma wouldn’t do that,” said Jimmy. “I bet I could have made Basuka go back, without hurting him. It’s not fair.”

Fric took up his own smaller whip then, and cracked it three times. At once one tiger after another jumped down from the stools, and ranged themselves in a circle about small Fric.

“Around you go!” shouted the boy, and cracked his whip again.

At once the tigers began to pad round in a circle till the whip cracked again. Then they turned themselves the other way and went round in a ring in the opposite direction. Everyone clapped.

“Up!” roared Roma—and up went every tiger again on to the stools.

The whip cracked once more. The two tigers in the middle, sitting on the tallest stools, at once stood up on their hind legs and put their front paws against each other’s. Down jumped the other four tigers and went in and out of the archway made by the two middle tigers. It was extraordinary to watch.

“Fric’s clever, you know, Lotta,” said Jimmy. “And he’s not a bit afraid.”

“I don’t like Fric,” said Lotta obstinately. “If he can be unkind to tigers, his own special animals, he can be unkind in other ways. I don’t like him.”

“Oh, please, Lotta, don’t be silly,” said Jimmy. “We can all three have fun together. Come for a walk with us tomorrow morning, after we’ve done our jobs.”

“All right,” said Lotta. “But I don’t want to.”

So the next morning Jimmy called across to Fric: “Hi, Fric! Come for a walk when you’ve finished this morning?”

“Right!” said Fric. So Jimmy and Lotta went to Fric’s caravan when they were ready, and the boy jumped down the steps. But when he saw Lotta, he pulled a face.

“She’s not going with us, is she?” he said.

“Of course,” said Jimmy, surprised. “Why not?”

“Then I shan’t come,” said Fric. “Girls are silly. Always giggling and saying stupid things.”

“Lotta doesn’t say stupid things!” cried Jimmy angrily. “She’s a fine girl. She can ride any horse you like, and she knows far more about dogs than you know about tigers!”

This was not a wise thing to say to Fric. He scowled angrily, pulled his cap over his forehead, and stalked off without a word. Jimmy called after him:

“Fric! Don’t be a donkey! Come along with us. I’ve got some money to buy ice-creams.”

Fric stopped and turned round. He loved ice-creams—but did he love them enough to put up with Lotta’s company?

“Oh, come on, Fric,” said Jimmy impatiently. “Come, Lotta, we’ll go after him.”

But now Lotta turned sulky! She swung round and stood with her back to Jimmy, and she stamped her foot in temper.

“I’m not coming!” she said. “If you think I’m going anywhere with that horrid boy, you’re wrong. I don’t like him. I won’t go with him.”

“But, Lotta,” said Jimmy, “please, please don’t be silly. You know that I want to make friends with Fric so that I can go into the tigers’ cage and get to know the six tigers. He won’t let me if I’m not friends with him.”

“You and your old tigers!” said Lotta, with tears of rage running down her cheeks. “I hate you all!” And the cross little girl ran like the wind to Oona’s caravan and sat watching the acrobat, who was practising steadily for that night’s show.

Jimmy was upset. How silly of Lotta to behave like that! Never mind, perhaps she would forget it all by the time he came back from his walk. He would go with Fric and talk to him about tigers, and buy him ice-creams.

But Fric, too, had gone off in a temper! Poor Jimmy stood looking round dolefully, all alone.

“Hallo, hallo, hallo!” said Sticky Stanley the clown, turning cart-wheels all around Jimmy on hands and feet. “You look like a hen left out in the rain! Come and help old Tonky rub Jumbo down with oil. He’s got some cracks in his hide, and it’s a big job, I can tell you, to oil him all over!”

“All right,” said Jimmy, cheering up, for he loved doing anything with the big kindly elephant. “I’ll come.”

So off he went with Lucky at his heels, puzzled and not very happy.