IN WHICH THE ANIMALS PLAY AT CIRCUS AND DAN PROMISES A STORY
It was but a few evenings following that upon which the Pretty Lady had
set out in quest of the spangle needles. Diggeldy Dan had mounted to his
place on Hippo’s broad back, and Lion had taken his in front of the
group, when the clattering crew made a startling discovery:
Monkey was missing!
Look where they would, he was nowhere to be found; call as they would,
he gave no answering sound.
“He unhooked my chain,” said Elephant.
“And opened the gate to my corral,” added Ostrich.
“I saw him talking with Zebra not a minute ago,” puzzled Dan.
“Zebra,” repeated Lion, “Zebra? Where is Zebra? Why, he is gone, too!”
Here was a mystery, indeed!
“Scatter at once,” ordered Lion, “and leave no nook unsearched.” And
“scatter” they did. Some went into the depths of the cages, others
looked underneath, while Giraffe and his family inspected every square
inch of the roofs. But not a glimpse did they catch of the runaway pair.
“Redouble the search,” commanded Lion, from his station in the center of
the menagerie tent. But scarcely had he spoken when from a distance came
the patter and clatter of hurrying hoofs.
“All searchers to the front,” countermanded Lion. “For, if I mistake not
the sound, here comes a visitor who will doubtless be willing to lend us
her aid.”
Even as he concluded there dashed into view—whom do you suppose? The
Pretty Lady and the White-White Horse? Ah! but you are wrong. For it was
none other than Zebra, with that mischievous Monkey perched on his back!
Down the length of the tent the two of them scurried, traveling
lickety-split.
“Here! Here!” commanded Lion. “Get back to your places this very
minute!”
“Just as soon as we’ve let the wind comb our hair,” came the cry in
reply. And the next moment, with Zebra’s ears flopping this way and
that, and Monkey doing his best to look entirely at ease, the truants
returned to the group.
What a picture they made!
Zebra wore a bridle with a brilliant red plume, while Monkey was lost
almost wholly to view in a gorgeous pink hat and a skirt made of blue.
“Well, young sirs, what does this mean?” demanded Lion.
“Why,” whimpered Monkey, “Zebra and I talked it over and thought it
would be fun to play circus. So we stole away to the little tents and
borrowed some costumes. Now, don’t scold, Lion. We didn’t mean to do
anything wrong.”
“Hum,” answered Lion, who was really rather pleased with the thought.
“Play circus, eh? Well—go ahead; let us see what you two can do.”
“Oh,” returned Monkey, brightening up, “but we can’t perform without a
ring, and a ringmaster and everything like that—”
“And, of course, we must have music,” added Zebra. “You see we thought
that since Elephant and Seal and their folks are such splendid
musicians, perhaps they—”
“Delighted, I’m sure,” agreed Elephant, amid his family’s ponderous nods
of approval.
“At your service, always,” chimed Seal, as his household clapped their
funny front fins in consent.
“If no objection—will make ring,” scrawled Giraffe on the side of a
cage.
Of course there was none; so, digging the top from Dan’s pocket, and
using his hind feet as a pivot, Giraffe spread his front legs wide
apart, reached far out with his neck, and gradually swung around in a
great circle While he described an almost perfect ring on the ground by
using the spike in the top for a marker.
[Illustration: And so this strangest of all circuses began. _Page 83._]
Meanwhile, many willing workers rolled a dozen or more gayly painted
“tubs” to the edge of the ring. Then came the band bringing all manner
of drums and queer-looking horns, to say nothing of Elephant carrying
his mammoth bass viol; after which each player took a seat on one of the
tubs and began to “tune up” for the circus.
“Of course, we must have an announcer,” said Lion.
“I’ll be him,” cried Tiger.
Needless to say, Diggeldy Dan was the clown, while Lion—wearing an old
silk hat that Seal sometimes juggled in the real circus, and armed with
a whip that Puma had brought from the great tent beyond—played
ringmaster.
And so this strangest of all circuses began.
“Just watch my two ears for the tempo and time,” said Elephant, who
conducted the band. Thus, with the bow of his great fiddle held firmly
in his forefoot, and playing notes that fairly boomed with their
bigness, he set his ears to beating: “One, two, three; one, two, three,”
while the music tripped forth in a soft, swaying waltz. After a few bars
had been played, Tiger raised his paw for silence and then stepped
gravely to the front of the ring.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” said he, “I take pleasure in announcing
Mademoiselle Monkeyetta, direct from the deepest depths of Jungleland,
who, with her marvelous steed, Zebraello, will now astonish you with her
wonderful feats of riding.”
At this Seal and his family played a ringing, lingering “ta-ta-a-a-ah”
on their horns; the band struck up the liveliest of melodies, while into
the ring trotted Zebra with Monkey posed on his back. Close behind came
Diggeldy Dan, balancing his round, pointed hat on the tip of his nose.
And then, at a whip-crack from Lion, the riding began.
Around and around went the galloping pair—a maze of black and white
stripes surmounted by a higgeldy-piggeldy ball of ruffles of blue, a
flopping pink hat, with here and there a brown leg or an arm. At first
Monkey did little more than hold fast to Zebra’s short mane. But,
gradually becoming used to his steed’s measured stride, the merry-eyed
fellow dared to stand on his feet and to dance as they flew round the
ring. At this all the animals applauded with glee, while Lion cracked
his long whip even more than before.
Faster and faster went Elephant’s ears. Faster and faster went the
music, and faster and faster sped Zebra. And then, all of a sudden, this
wonderful steed stopped short in his tracks, sending Monkey high over
his head!
All leaped to their feet to see the marvelous rider sitting quite in a
heap and striving to free his face from the depths of his hat which had
been completely switched about by the tumble.
“I say, there! That wasn’t one of the things we planned to do,”
sputtered Monkey from inside the bonnet.
“I know it,” admitted Zebra, as he did his best to smother his laughter;
“but, as I was going round and round it occurred to me that I would make
a far better looking trick mule than a handsome circus horse. And, as
trick mules always toss their riders over their ears—why, I just came to
a stop, and—there you are.”
“Yes,” assented Monkey, rather ruefully, “here I am.” But, scrambling to
his feet and disposing of the bonnet, he caught the twinkle in every
eye. And then he, too, burst into a merry laugh.
“Zebra, you were quite right,” he said. “Perhaps we were both taking
ourselves a bit too seriously; for, I’m bound to confess, I hardly look
like one of the beautiful circus ladies who ride round the rings.”
“Anyway, it all added to the fun,” said Diggeldy Dan. “In fact, Zebra
reminded me of a donkey I once rode in a small one-ring circus of the
long, long ago.”
“Oh, then you were not always with the very biggest kind?” questioned
Puma.
“By no means,” answered Dan, “and, indeed, might never have been had I
not met Gray Ears, the Elephant.”
“A story, a story!” cried Leopard. “Tell us the story!”
“To-morrow I will,” agreed Diggeldy Dan, “for the Petal Watch warns me
there is no time to-day. Come, now, Zebra, hurry away with the plume and
costume and put them where they belong, while Monkey and I close each
door and corral.
“At twilight to-morrow,” the clown called again, as Zebra returned and
his chain was hooked fast; “then I’ll tell you the tale of a midsummer’s
day, away back in the dim, distant past.”