"Anyway, a Zulu has a lot of fun out of it. If singing, playing and
dancing could only crowd out sitting around and moping, folks would
find that a Zulu can hand us a tip or two on happy living."
But all music is not of string form; so, in a big auditorium, our party
found a full brass band of about fifty boys, with a man from Branton
Hills' Municipal Band as instructor. Now as Gadsby was, as you boys
say, "not at all bad" on a big bass horn in his youthful days, this
band instructor, thinking of it, was asking him to "sit it" and play.
So, as Lady Gadsby, two girls, and two sons-in-law sat smiling and
giggling in a front row, and as fifty boys could hardly play, from
laughing, that big horn got such a blasting that it was practically a
horn solo! And Nancy, doubling up from giggling, said:--
"D-d-daddy! If-f-f-f B-b-b-barnum's circus hits town, you must join its
cl-cl-clown band!"
But I had to rush this happy party out of that building, as an awful
thing was occurring but a block from it; which told its own story by
a lurid light, flashing through windows; clanging gongs, shrilling
horns and running, shouting crowds; for an old, long-vacant factory
building just across from City Hall, was blazing furiously. Rushing
along Broadway was that "motor thing," with Clancy and Dowd clinging
wildly on a running board. Pulling up at a hydrant, Clancy said to His
Honor:--
"As I was a-hangin' onto this dom thing, a-thinkin' it was going to
bang into a big jam at two crossroads, I says, By Gorra! that big pair
of blacks wouldn't bang into _nuthin'!_ But this currazy contraption!
It ain't got no brain--no nuthin', no soul--nuthin' but halitosis!!"
As Gadsby took a long look at Clancy's "dom thing," a vision was
wafting through his mind of a calm, sunny patch of land, way out
in Branton Hills' suburbs, on which day by day, two big blacks and
two big roans could--anyway, taking all things into account, a big
conflagration, with its din, rush and panic, is no spot for such
animals as "Big Four." As for Old Bill's squawk about animals "ruining
our paving," Gadsby thought that was but small talk, for paving,
anyway, can't last for long. But, that _is_ a glorious spot, way out
amongst our hills!
Gadsby took his party to a room in City Hall from which that burning
factory was in plain sight; and as Nancy and Kathlyn stood watching
that awful sight a big wall, crashing down, had a crowd rushing to that
spot.
A man's form was brought out to a patrol wagon; and a boy, rushing
past City Hall, sang out to Gadsby:--
"It's Old Man Donaldson!!"