And looking behind him, Kernel Cob discovered an English clown doll
who turned a somersault and came up on his feet with a merry laugh.

"Good for you," said Kernel Cob, "I wish I could do that."

"Everybody to his trade," said the clown, and stood upon his head.

"Maybe you'd be good enough to stay upon your feet till I find out
what I want to know," said Kernel Cob.

And the Clown sprang into the air, turned over three or four times,
and landed neatly upon his feet again.

"What is it you want to know?" he asked.

"First I want to know why you don't keep still?" asked Kernel Cob, for
the Clown's antics made him nervous.

"I'm a Circus Clown," said he, "and I just turn these hand-springs all
day."

So Kernel Cob looked about the store, but could see nobody else that
looked as if he could talk English.

"What do you do all day without anybody to talk to?" he asked the
Clown at length.

"Oh," said the Clown, "I tell myself funny stories to make me laugh,
and then I have my hand-springs to make; that keeps me pretty busy,"
and he rolled along the shelf, head over heels.

"Well, I always thought a Clown was a silly fellow," said Kernel Cob,
"but now I'm sure of it," and he turned upon his heel and walked out
of the store.

When he got outside he told the others that it was no use trying to
find out anything that way. So they walked along till night came and
they crawled into a boat, which is called a gondola, and wait to
sleep.

During the night, they were wakened by the movement of the boat, and
looking out they saw that they were in motion. A man in a white suit
and a red sash was paddling the gondola with a long oar, and he was
singing a very beautiful song, and the moonlight was on the water. And
they passed many other gondolas, and all the men who paddled were
singing beautiful songs.

"I would like to live here," whispered the Villain, "everybody seems
to be so happy."

"So would I," said Sweetclover. "I love to hear beautiful music, but
we have to find Jackie and Peggs' motheranfather."

And being tired, they fell asleep and early in the morning their
gondola was resting at the side of some marble steps which led up to a
great square called Saint Mark's. So they got out of the gondola and
walked across the square, for there wasn't anybody to be seen at so
early an hour in the morning.

And a great number of pigeons were flying about. Thousands and
thousands of them.

And Jackie Tar had a