a Vermont Yankee. You know Americans are more willing to pay
for a foreign curiosity than for one home born. That's why my _great_
friend here"--emphasizing the word great--"calls herself Madame
Celestina Morella."

The fat lady smiled.

"People think I am French or Italian," she said, "but I never was out of
the United States in my life."

"Where were you born, Madame Morella?"

"In the western part of New York State. I know what you are going to ask
me. Was I always fat? No, when I was sixteen I only weighed one hundred
and twenty. Then I had a fit of sickness and nearly died. After
recovering, I began to gain flesh, till I became a monster, as you see."

As she said this, she laughed, and her fat sides shook with merriment.
Evidently she did not let her size weigh upon her mind.

"I suppose your real name isn't Celestina Morella?" said Kit.

"My real name is Betsey Hatch. That is what they called me in my
girlhood, but I should hardly know who was meant if I was called so
now."

"Have you been long in the show business?"

"About seven years."

"Do you like it?"

"I didn't at first, but now I've got used to moving about. Now when the
spring opens I have the regular circus fever. But I have my troubles."

"What are they?" asked Kit, seeing that the fat woman liked to talk.

"Well, I find it very difficult to secure at the hotels a bed large
enough and strong enough to hold me. I suppose you won't be surprised to
hear that."

"Not much."

"At Akron, Ohio, where the hotel was full, I was put in a cot bed,
though I protested against it. As soon as I got in, the whole thing
collapsed, and I was landed on the floor."

She laughed heartily at the remembrance.

"I remember that very well," said the giant, "for I slept in the room
below. Half an hour after getting into bed, I heard a fearful noise in
the room above, and thought at first the hotel had been struck by
lightning, and a piercing shriek that echoed through the house led me to
fear that my esteemed Italian friend was a victim. But my mind was soon
relieved when I learned the truth."

"I suppose, major, you never broke down a bed," said the giant, turning
to the dwarf.

"No," answered the major, in a shrill piping voice, "I never lie awake
thinking of that."

"I believe you served in the civil war, major?"

"Yes, I was in the infantry."

It was a stale joke, but all four laughed at it.

"How much do you weigh, major?" Kit ventured to ask