zar of all the animals
enjoy his after dinner nap?"

Just then the hyenas kicked what was left of the hornets' nest under the
bars into his side of the cage, and he put his foot on it and growled,
and about a hundred hornets gave him his. He gave an Abyssinian cough
that woke all the animals, and then the hornets scattered and before I
knew it the zebras were dancing a snake dance and all of them were
howling as though they were in the ark, hungry, and the ark had landed
on Mount Ararat.

Just then one of the assistant managers beckoned to me to lead in my
procession and we lighted the candles in our Chinese lanterns. I didn't
stop to see how the animals got along with the hornets, but I couldn't
help thinking that if one hornets' nest could raise such a row, what
would a hundred or so do when we got to going in the other tent?

Oh, if I had only died when I was young, I never would have witnessed
that sight. The band played, "There'll be a Hot Time in the Old Town
To-night," and pa's crowd of white trash marched around the big outside
ring shouting, "Bryan! Bryan! What's the matter with Bryan!" and the
audience got up on its hind legs and yelled--that is the white folks
did--and then we marched around the other way, and yelled, "Teddy is the
stuff! Teddy is the stuff!" and the negroes in the audience yelled. Then
my crowd met pa's crowd right by the middle ring, where the elephants
had formed the pyramid that closes their act, and the Japanese jugglers
were in the right-hand ring, and a party of female tumblers, with
low-necked stockings, were standing at attention in the left-hand ring.

There was no intention of having a riot, but when pa yelled, "What's the
matter with Bryan?" a negro in my crowd yelled, "That's what's the
matter with Bryan," and he hit pa over the head with his Chinese
lantern, loaded with a warm hornets' nest as big as a football, which
had taken fire from the candle. Pa dropped his lantern and began to
fight hornets, and then all the white trash in pa's bunch rushed up and
began to whack my poor downtrodden negroes with their Chinese lanterns.
Of course, my fellows couldn't stand still and be mauled, and the
candles had warmed our hornets' nests so the hornets were crawling out
to see what was the trouble. Then every negro whacked a white man with a
hornets' nest and the audience fairly went wild with excitement.

[Illustration: He Hit Pa Over the Head with His Chinese Lanterns.]

The horne