lot-especially dessert.
You can bet I wouldn't want to be a human skeleton. Judge Dot said he
should worry, because he couldn't grow any taller no matter what happened.
He said he was fifty-two years old and after you get to be fifty-five you
begin to shrink. He said everybody does, mostly. He said if he shrunk, he
was going to make Mr. Costello give him more money. Gee whiz, I couldn't
blame him, especially on account of the high cost of living. He said Madame
Whopper had gained fifty pounds and she made Mr. Costello give her a raise.

While we were talking with Judge Dot, Jib Jab came in and said, "Hello,
S'couty, how did you like the show?"

I said, "You looked good and wild, that's one thing, especially with that
chain on." He said that chain was his own idea.

I guess he had just been washing his face, anyway, there wasn't any hair on
it and the brown was all cleaned off. I could see now that he was a mighty
nice looking fellow. His hair was kind of curly and his eyes were awful
bright. He took off his fur covering and put on a kind of a bath robe and
then sat down on a chair and stuck his feet up on Madame Whopper's
platform. Oh boy, you should have seen Dorry stare. First he looked at the
fur covering. It had paws and claws on it just like an animal. Then he
looked at Jib Jab. I guess he didn't know what to make of him.

Jib Jab said, "Now for a smoke," and he lighted a cigarette; "nothing like
a quiet smoke after the day's work is over. Back in the jungle I never had
all this bother of dressing and undressing. Civilization is just killing
me. Fact is I can't be tamed. Anybody got a newspaper? I suppose I ought
to be thankful I haven't got my face all plastered up with fly paper.
Where's old Sky Scraper?" That's what he called the, giant.

"Gone to bed," Judge Dot said.
"How about you, Shorty; got a match?" he asked Judge Dot.

Judge Dot just said very stiff like, "I'll bid you good night, sir ."

"Happy dreams, Shorty," Jib Jab called after him. Then he said, "That's the
trouble with all these freaks-uppish, especially the giant. Why he looks
down on everybody. Ma's about the best of the lot. Shorty thinks he's the
whole circus just because he has three rings on his hands. Same with
Skinny. I'd rather be back in the jungle than living with this bunch. Half
the time they don't speak to me. You see I'm not a regular freak; they
look on me as a kind of a butt-in."

I said, "Gee, I'm sorry; I should think the