had jumped for the twelfth
time. "Come on, Celia Jane."

They dropped the fence and, as there was nothing for the green elephant
to jump unless he could clear the tight rope, two feet from the ground,
Danny perforce gave way to the dancing pony and the clown.

Chris was trying to crack an old whip which he and Danny had made by
braiding three strands of leather, with a "cracker" at the end, and
Celia Jane was dancing gracefully about the ring, her tail switching and
her mane blowing, when the unexpected voice of Darn Darner from the
alley brought the circus to a sudden halt.

"Hullo! What do you kids think you're doin'?" he asked, in the gruff
voice which he adopted when he wanted to be particularly disagreeable.

Jerry squirmed around on the barrel until he could see Darn. "We're
playin' circus," he answered with a feeble, placating smile, before the
others had recovered from their surprise.

"Yah! You call _that_ a circus? Chris can't even crack the whip."

"I can, too, sometimes," Chris disputed.

"I'll show you how to do it," Darn offered, clambering over the fence.
"Here, give me the whip!"

He took it out of Chris's surprised and reluctant fingers and began
circling it over his head and giving it a sudden jerk. It didn't crack
at first, but soon he got the knack of it and cracked it loudly as close
to Celia Jane's ears and ankles as he could come without touching her.

"Giddap!" he commanded the dancing pony. "Show your paces." That time he
tried to crack the whip too near Celia Jane and the end of the lash
wound around her leg.

"Oh! Oh!" cried the dancing pony, hopping about on one leg. "That hurt!
It ain't no fair makin' it crack so close an' I won't play no more."
Half crying from the pain, Celia Jane ran to the house, followed by
Nora.

"I didn't mean to hurt you," Darn called to Celia Jane. "The whip must
be a little too long, or I wouldn't have sized up the distance wrong."
He turned to Danny. "What do you think you are?"

"I'm a el'funt," said Danny proudly, "an' I jump the fence like the
circus el'funt."

"An el'funt!" cried Darn, turning his eyes up to the sky. "And he calls
that an' el'funt!"

"It is a el'funt," protested Jerry.

Darn Darner laughed derisively.

"You can 'maginary it's a el'funt," Chris explained.

"It would take some imagination," was Darn's only comment on that.

"What's wrong with it?" asked Danny. "I bet you couldn't do any better."

"What's wrong with it!"