THE PARADE
Pee-wee was a true circus fan, but he was first of all a traffic
officer. He knew that the parade could not easily pass this litter.
Zigzagging his way through the chaos of crates and bales and bundles, he
headed off the imposing procession before it reached the corner. He
seemed a very small rudder to such a large ship, but he pointed up the
side street, displaying his badge ostentatiously, and shouting at the
top of his voice.
“You can’t pass here, you’ll have to turn up that street! Go on, turn
into that street and you can come back into Terrace Avenue, the next
block below. Hey, go up that side street!”
Without appearing to pay the slightest attention to him the drum-major,
swinging his stick and looking straight before him, inscribed a wide,
graceful turn into Allerton Street, and was mechanically followed by his
red-coated band. They were blowing so prodigiously on their instruments
that they seemed neither to know nor care which way they went and were
steered as easily as a racing shell.
It is true that one of the elephants seemed sufficiently interested to
pick up a bale of rags, which had rolled somewhat beyond the center of
disorder, and hurl it onto the sidewalk, but he swung around with his
companions.
Following the elephants came the camels and they too swung around; it
was all the same to them. Followed an uproarious steam calliope which
made the turn with a clamor to wake the dead. Then came the rolling
cages with their ferocious tenants. And all these turned into Allerton
Street following the calliope which followed the camels which followed
the elephants which followed the band which followed the drum-major who
followed the direction authoritatively indicated by Pee-wee Harris.
“Come on, anyway, I’m not going into school yet, because I’m going to
see it,” Pee-wee said to Irene.
“I’ll get the blame on me ’cause I got late,” little Irene protested, as
she followed him to a point of vantage on Allerton Street.
“You got a right to see the parade, _gee whiz_,” Pee-wee said. “You know
Emerson Skybrow? He never does anything wrong and he got ninety-seven in
arithmetic, and even he’s going to see it, I heard him say so. So if
he’s late on purpose, I guess you can be. Anyway, I’m an official.”
This last reminder was what proved conclusive to little Irene; in the
protection of the law, she could not do wrong. She had seen her valiant
escort deflect a whole circus parade; surely he could handle Principal
Sharpe. She clung to him with divine faith and they turned the corner
into Allerton Street which was now thronging with people. They were
mostly either too old or too young to go to school; there was a
noticeable absence of children.
Pee-wee led the way to the hospitable porch of the Ashleys, where Mrs.
Ashley and her married daughter had hurriedly emerged, lured by the
thrilling music. The married daughter held her baby in uplifted arms
saying, “See the pretty animals.” Neighbors presently availed themselves
of the spacious Ashley porch which became a sort of grandstand for the
neighborhood.
People who had not thought enough about the parade to wait on Terrace
Avenue were ready enough to step out or to throw open their windows, now
that the motley procession was passing their very doors. In less than
half a minute the quiet side street was seething with excitement. Women
hurried, babies cried, lions roared, the steam calliope drowned the
stirring music of the band, a gorgeous float bearing a fat woman and a
skeleton lumbered around the corner.
Little Irene Flynn was somewhat timid about the proximity of wild
beasts, but this feeling was nothing to her excitement at finding
herself upon the porch of the sumptuous Ashley residence. But apparently
her hero was not in the least abashed at finding himself in such a
distinguished company. He and Irene sat side by side on a lower step,
watching the parade with spellbound gaze.
“I’m the one that fixed it so you could all sit here and see it,”
Pee-wee announced for the benefit of the company. “I made it turn the
corner.”
“Really?” asked Mrs. Ashley.
“Absolutely, positively,” said Pee-wee; “you can ask her,” alluding to
Irene.
“Yes, ma’am, he did,” Irene ventured tremulously.
“I’m on the school traffic patrol,” Pee-wee explained, “and I have
charge of the traffic up on the corner. I stopped a truck so she could
get across the street and it served the man right because he wasn’t
going to stop, but anyway he had to stop because I got authority, so
then his whole load fell over and it served him right.”
“It just did,” said a lady.
“So then I told the—did you see that man with the big, high hat leading
the band? I motioned to him to come down this way and turn through the
street in back of the school and do you know how it reminds me of the
Mississippi River?”
“I can’t imagine.”
“Because all of a sudden it changes its course, did you know that? And
you wake up some fine morning and it’s not near your house any more.
Maybe it’s a mile off.”
“Isn’t that extraordinary!”
“That’s nothing,” said Pee-wee. “Islands change too; once North America
wasn’t here, but anyway I’m glad it’s here now because, gee whiz, I have
a lot of fun on it, but anyway if it hadn’t been for me you wouldn’t all
be sitting here watching the parade go by, that’s one sure thing.”
“We ought to give you a vote of thanks,” some one observed.
“It’s what you kind of call a good turn that happens by accident,”
Pee-wee said. “You know scouts have to do good turns, don’t you? They
have to do one every day. Anyway, gee whiz, I’m glad that truck broke
down. If a circus parade turns, that’s a good turn, isn’t it—for the
people that live on the street where it turns?”
“Oh, absolutely, positively,” laughed an amused lady.
“There goes a leopard,” Pee-wee said. “I know a way you can catch a
leopard with fly-paper, only you got to have a lot of it. Leopards have
five toes, do you know that? I can make a call like a leopard, want to
hear me? Scouts have to know how to imitate animals so as to fool ’em.”
“Can you imitate a cataclysm—a vocal cataclysm?” asked a young woman.
“Is it an animal?”
“No, it’s something like a volcanic eruption combined with an
earthquake.”
“_Suuure_, I can imitate it.”
“Well, don’t, you’ll only drown the music.”
“Shall I keep still so you can hear the tigers roar?” he asked.
“No,” she said, “we don’t care if the tigers don’t.”
“Gee whiz, they should worry,” said Pee-wee.
They seemed not to worry as they paced their narrow cages. Following
them came gorgeous chariots drawn by spirited horses, resplendent in
gold harness and driven by men resembling Julius Caesar. Came a clown
driving a donkey, then more floats, then two giants, then some midgets
in a miniature automobile.
Little Irene watched, spellbound. Pee-wee divided his attention between
the pageant and the company, which seemed to enjoy him quite as much as
it did the spectacular procession. He seemed to have appropriated the
parade as his own private exhibition.
“I suppose you’d have arrested the whole parade, elephants and all, if
they hadn’t turned into this street,” a lady said.
“They got a right to do what he says,” said the admiring Irene.
“Do you see my badge?” Pee-wee asked, displaying it. “I got a whistle,
too.”
The parade moved but one block along Allerton Street then turned into
Carlton Place which paralleled Terrace Avenue, then to the next cross
street, and so into the thoroughfare of Terrace Avenue again, where
restless and increasing throngs awaited its coming.