nterposed. "Why don't you go see the picture of the elephant
jumpin' the fence and find out?" she asked.

"Of course," said Chris. "The picture'll show whether they're small like
a rope or great big ones."

"I'll beat you there," challenged Danny, as he dropped the flat,
beaver-like elephant's tail and darted at a run out of the woodshed,
followed by the others. As they lined up in front of the gaudy,
delectable poster, there came a simultaneous gasp of amazement from all
of them.

"Why, it ain't got no tail at all!" exclaimed Celia Jane.

True enough, there was no tail in evidence, as the elephant seemed to be
headed straight towards them. Jerry flushed as they all turned and
looked accusingly at him.

"Yah!" exclaimed Danny. "Mr. Smarty Know-it-all didn't know so much,
after all!"

"Mebbe you just can't see it, but it's there," suggested Nora.

"That's so," Danny reluctantly admitted. "A el'funt's so big that when
you stand right in front of it, its tail might not show at all, no
matter how big it was."

"A little tail wouldn't," Jerry said quickly.

"A big one wouldn't either," Celia Jane asserted, taking sides against
Jerry. "A el'funt's enough bigger to hide its tail."

"If it was very big it would show," said Jerry.

"The el'funt I play is goin' to have a tail all right," Danny informed
the children collectively. "I ain't goin' to all the work of makin' a
tail and then not wear it. I guess a el'funt's got some kind of a tail,
anyway."

CHAPTER IV

JERRY LEARNS THAT O-U-T SPELLS OUT

The first and, as it turned out, the last performance of their circus
took place that afternoon. Jerry felt a thrill of expectancy as they
began to don their costumes. Once he thought he almost heard again that
low, cheerful strumming that had seemed to beat upon his ears when he
first saw the poster of the elephant jumping the fence. He said nothing
about it and soon lost all recollection of the rollicking strains in the
anticipation of the circus joys that he was about to behold.

Chris and Danny got into their costumes in the woodshed while Celia Jane
went into the house and put on her white dress, the one she wore on
Sundays. Mrs. Mullarkey had decided that Nora didn't need any special
costume to be a rope-walker and that all Jerry needed to be a trained
seal was a sort of apron made out of a gunny sack to protect his clothes
while he crawled about on his stomach. He did not put this on at once
but watch