ound and climbed upon an old barrel which Danny and Chris had turned
upside down for a seat. He kicked his heels against its sides and
whistled as best he could as a sign of the audience's impatience for the
circus to begin.
"We'll begin all over again," announced Danny and marshaled his three
fellow performers back to the woodshed and led them forth in parade to
the strains of "I Went to the Animal Fair." Jerry duly applauded the
parade and waited for the real performance.
Then the green elephant rose up on his hind legs and with one front leg
pushed his trunk to one side while the voice of Danny Mullarkey
announced, "Ladies and gents, I'm pleased to make you acquainted with
Flora, the lady tight-rope walker, who will now walk the tight rope for
you an' I hope you'll like her."
This time, by dragging one end of her balancing pole on the ground as
she walked forward on the rope, Nora, or, as the circus-master called
her, Flora, managed to walk the ten feet to the opposite post without
falling off.
Jerry, rejoicing over the possession of the white rabbit, applauded her
generously.
"The el'funt will now jump the fence," came the voice of Danny, issuing
from the mouth of the green elephant. "Hey, you kids! Get the boards for
the fence," he called to Chris and Celia Jane, who had sat down on the
ground while Nora walked the rope.
With a front foot, the elephant put his trunk in place and took a
curious little huddled run on all fours up to the very low fence made of
two boards, together not more than ten inches high, which Chris and
Celia Jane held for him, and then half rose on his hind legs and leaped
over the fence, palm-leaf-fan-ears flopping and brown trunk and blue
tail wobbling. No elephant jumping up into the sky and balancing the
moon on the end of his trunk was this, truly, but, Jerry thrilled at the
first jump, imagining what it might have been.
"Whee!" trumpeted the elephant as he turned back and jumped the fence
again. He seemed to develop a very passion for wheeing and jumping the
fence, returning to the charge again and again.
Jerry clapped his hands and kicked the sides of the barrel in approval
and laughed at the ungainly antics of the jumping elephant, but by dint
of the frequent repetition of the jumping he began to become
disappointed that Danny didn't jump higher. He grew tired of the
performance before Danny wearied of jumping the fence.
"It's my turn now!" Chris called, after Danny
|