le proprietor of the smartest
and the largest bull on this side of the ocean, which said bull answered
to the name of Emily."

"Did you say a bull?" I asked.

"Sure I said a bull. Why not? Ain't you wise to what a bull is?"

"Certainly I am, but a bull named Emily----"

"Listen, little one: To them that follow after the red wagon and the
white top, all elephants is bulls, disregardless of genders, just the
same as all regular bulls is he-cows to refined maiden ladies residin'
in New England and points adjacent. Only, show-people ain't got any
false modesty that way. In the show-business a bull is a bull, whether
it's a lady-bull or a gentleman-bull. So very properly this here bull,
being one of the most refined and cultured members of her sex, answers
to the Christian name of Emily.

"Well, this Emily is not only the joy and the pride of Windy Jordan's
life, but she's his entire available assets. Bull and bulline, she'd
been with him from early childhood. In fact, Windy was the only parent
Emily ever knew, she having been left a helpless orphan on account of a
railroad wreck to the old Van Orten shows back yonder in
eighteen-eighty-something. So Windy, he took her as a prattling infant
in arms when she didn't weigh an ounce over a ton and a half, and he
adopted her and educated her and pampered her and treated her as a
member of his own family, only better, until she repaid him by becoming
not only the largest bull in the business but the most highly
cultivated.

"Emily knew nearly everything there was to know, and what she didn't
know she suspected very strongly. Likewise, as I came to find out later,
she was extremely grateful for small favours and most affectionate by
nature. To be sure, being affectionate with a bull about the size and
general specifications of a furniture-car had its drawbacks. She was
liable to lean up against you in a playful, kittenish kind of a way, and
cave in most of your ribs. It was like having a violent flirtation with
a landslide to venture up clost to Emily when she was in one of her
tomboy moods. I've know' her to nudge a friend with one of her front
elbows and put both his shoulder-blades out of socket. But she never
meant no harm by it, never. It was just a little way she had.

"It seems like Windy and Emily were aiming to join out that season with
a tent-show, but the deal fell through some way, and for the past few
weeks Windy had been infesting a lodging-house for members o