ny asked in a voice that was not
nearly so friendly as Jerry's had been.

"Anybody would, I guess," was Darn's reply.

"Well, you ain't," said Danny. "You're down there breathing the dust we
make."

"There's the house!" cried Jerry.

"Which one?" asked Whiteface from his seat on the elephant's head.

"The one with the paint all wore off," Danny explained.

"There's Nora and Celia Jane!" cried Chris.

"I see them!" Jerry exclaimed and called his mother's attention to them.
They were standing by the gate, watching the strange procession
approach.

"Hello, Celia Jane! I'm ridin' on a el'funt!" Jerry cried shrilly to
make her hear.

Celia Jane both heard and saw and she seemed glued to the gate-post with
surprise. Her mouth opened as though she were going to speak and
remained open, without a word coming out. Nora turned and fled into the
house crying:

"Mother! Mother! Jerry's ridin' by on a el'funt from the circus!"

A moment later the keeper halted Sultana in front of the gate, and that
fact unglued Celia Jane from the gate-post and caused words at last to
flow from her opened mouth.

"Mother! They're stoppin' here!" she cried, in turn running to the
house. She kept her eyes turned back on the elephant and ran into Nora,
who was pulling Mrs. Mullarkey, with Kathleen in her arms, out through
the door.

Whiteface now commanded Sultana to help him down, and she raised her
trunk, wrapped it around his body and lowered him to the ground. The
crowd of boys and girls who had pushed up as close as they could made
way for him, while Jerry and his mother climbed down the ladder the
elephant trainer placed for them, followed by Danny and Chris.

"Mother!" called Celia Jane. "There's Danny on the el'funt and Chris
too!"

"For land sakes!" cried Mrs. Mullarkey. "Nothing has happened to any of
the children, has there?"

"We're all right, Mother 'Larkey!" Jerry assured her.

"Nothing at all, madam," said Whiteface approaching her, "except that
Jerry Elbow has found his parents."

Mrs. Mullarkey stared at Whiteface, too astounded to speak.

"An' his name ain't Jerry Elbow," cried Danny. "It's Gary L. Bowe."

"An' the el'funt knew him in a whole crowd of people," Chris added, "an'
picked him up with its trunk."

"The people thought the elephant was mad at first," said Darn Darner,
who had approached as close as he could get to the clown.

"The el'funt picked him up in its trunk?" gasped Celia Jane, her eyes