"I say, look here; let's do something."[A]

[Footnote A: See page 137 for short story.]

Daisy looked thoughtful. She was chewing the soft yellow parts of grass,
but I could see she was still thinking about that animal race. So I
explained to her that it would be very poor fun without a tortoise and a
peacock, and she saw this, though not willingly.

It was H. O. who said:

"Doing anything with animals is prime! if they only will. Let's have a
circus!"

At the word the last thought of the pudding faded from Oswald's memory
and he stretched himself, sat up, and said:

"Bully for H. O. Let's!"

The others also threw off the heavy weight of memory, and sat up and
said "Let's!" too.

Never, never in all our lives had we had such a gay galaxy of animals at
our command. The rabbits and the guinea-pigs, and even all the bright,
glass-eyed, stuffed denizens of our late-lamented Jungle, paled into
insignificance before the number of live things on the farm.

(I hope you do not think that the words I use are getting too long. I
know they are the right words. And Albert's uncle says your style is
always altered a bit by what you read. And I have been reading the
Vicomte de Bragelonne. Nearly all my new words come out of those.)

"The worst of a circus is" Dora said, "that you've got to teach the
animals things. A circus where the performing creatures hadn't learned
performing would be a bit silly. Let's give up a week to teaching them
and then have the circus."

Some people have no idea of the value of time. And Dora is one of those
who do not understand that when you want to do a thing you _do_ want to,
and not to do something else, and perhaps your own thing, a week later.

Oswald said the first thing was to collect the performing animals.

"Then perhaps," he said, "we may find that they have hidden talents
hitherto unsuspected by their harsh masters."

So Denny took a pencil and wrote a list of the animals required.

This is it:

LIST OF ANIMALS REQUISITE FOR THE CIRCUS WE ARE GOING TO HAVE

1 Bull for bull-fight.

1 Horse for ditto (if possible).

1 Goat to do Alpine feats of daring.

1 Donkey to play see-saw.

2 White pigs--one to be Learned, and the other to play with
the clown.

Turkeys--as many as possible, because they can make a noise
that sounds like an audience applauding.

The dogs--for any odd parts.

1 large black pig--to be the E