Let me see. I left off in the last story when the Circus Elephant
stepped into the Luckymobile, didn't I? You remember he had been injured
in a Fourth of July celebration, and good, kind Uncle Lucky offered to
take him home.
Well as soon as he sat down the tires burst and then, of course, the
automobile wouldn't go, for the cabaret wouldn't work and the engine
wouldn't whistle. So Billy Bunny got out the sticking plaster and fixed
the tires and then he made the elephant blow them up with his trunk, but
he wouldn't let him get in again.
No, sir. He said, "Now look here, Elly. You're too heavy for the
Luckymobile, so you'll have to walk, but you can put your trunk in the
back seat if that will help any." So the Circus Elephant lifted his
trunk into the automobile and ran along behind until they came to Uncle
Lucky's house.
And wasn't he tired when they reached the front gate! He was so tired
that he lay down in the hammock and went sound to sleep and snored so
loud that everybody thought the janitor had put on the steam, although
it was July.
"Goodness me!" exclaimed the kind old gentleman rabbit, "that elephant
makes so much noise that nobody will be able to sleep to-night!" And
Uncle Lucky scratched his left ear with his right hind leg and tried to
think what was best to do, for he just hated to wake up that poor tired
elephant.
Well, just then, who should come along but a man with a piano organ, and
as soon as Uncle Lucky saw him he asked him to play the loudest tune and
play it just as fast as he could.
Of course the poor, tired Circus Elephant woke up, and when he saw that
organ man, he jumped out of the hammock and ran down the front walk and
grabbed the piano and threw it clear across the road into a pond.
And when the organ man saw that he started off as fast as he could and
never came back, for he had always been dreadfully afraid of elephants,
because when he was a boy he had given one a piece of chewing gum
instead of a peanut, and he never forgot what the elephant did to him
when he found it out.
"Look here, Elly," said Uncle Lucky, "if you'll promise not to snore
I'll let you sleep in my bed to-night; but if you don't, you'll have to
sleep out in the field, for nobody can stand the noise you make."
"Well, I can't stay all night, anyway," said the elephant, "for the
circus comes to town to-day and I'll be in the performance this evening.
Thank you, just the same." And then he said good-by to Billy Bunny and
Uncle Lucky and walked down the road, but before he left he gave them
each two tickets with his compliments.
And if the trolley car doesn't swim across the river and splash the
conductor so that he can't ring up the fares, I'll tell you next time
whether Uncle Lucky and Billy Bunny went to the circus.