The Circus Comes to Town | Page 9

Nora eagerly. "I'm tired of ante-over and run-sheep-run and pump-pump-pull-away--"
"And hidin'-go-seek and tree-tag," interrupted Celia Jane. She turned to Jerry. "How do you play circus?"
"You just--just play it," he answered. "'Maginary you're an el'funt jumpin' a fence and all."
"I'll be the el'funt!" cried Danny.
"I want to be the el'funt," objected Chris.
"The el'funt's mine," Jerry asserted and he closed his lips tightly. Danny didn't have any right to that elephant. "I saw it first," he added.
"I said 'I'll be the el'funt' first, didn't I?" asked Danny.
"Jerry orter have first choice," said Nora, the conciliator, "seein' it was him thought of playin' circus."
"I guess I can jump the highest, can't I?" Danny asked in a tone that said as plain as day that that settled the matter.
"It's my el'funt!" insisted Jerry.
"You always take first choice," Chris complained.
"You could take turns about being el'funt," Nora suggested.
Jerry wanted with all his soul to play that sublime elephant jumping the fence and he summoned up all his courage. "I won't play," cried he, with a suspicious quiver of his lips. "I won't! I won't!"
"I'll let you be el'funt part of the time," Danny promised, "just to keep you from cryin'."
"I ain't goin' to cry," returned Jerry hotly. "I ain't!"
"We can't have a circus with just a el'funt," said Celia Jane.
"Of course, we can't," said Danny decisively and turned to Jerry. "What else'll we have?"
"Couldn't we have more'n one el'funt?" Jerry asked hopefully.
"What'd we want with more'n one el'funt?" Danny queried in scorn. "I guess one el'funt's enough for one circus. Anyway, we want something besides el'funts."
"What?" asked Jerry. "I ain't never seen a circus."
"No more have I," replied Danny.
"Can't you 'maginary something?" asked Celia Jane.
"We could ''maginary things'," interposed Nora, "but they might not be in a circus."
"There's more'n one circus picture up," said Jerry. "Darn Darner said there was one at Jenkins' corner and one on Jeffreys' barn. P'raps they'll tell us what's in a circus."
"Of course," said Danny. "It's funny I didn't think of that. It's usually me who thinks of everything. I'll be the first one at Jenkins' corner," and he was off at a run.
Thereupon they all followed at full speed. Any other rate of progress was too slow for them. Jerry ran as hard as he could, leaving Celia Jane behind and keeping right at Nora's side. It was more than a quarter of a mile to Jenkins' corner and Jerry felt that his legs were ready to give out and send him sprawling in the street before he got there, but he kept running just the same. Celia Jane tagged along, far in the rear, and called to Jerry to wait for her, but a boy couldn't stop and wait for a girl without Danny's making fun of him, so, as much as Jerry would have liked to rest, he kept pantingly on. He was glad to plump down flat on the ground in front of the billboard and rest till Nora and Celia Jane arrived.
"Whoopee! I'll be the clown!" exclaimed Chris, pointing to the poster which showed trapeze performers turning somersaults in the air, a clown playing ringmaster to a dancing white pony and a girl walking a tight rope.
"I'll be the dancin' pony!" cried Celia Jane.
"I'll be the rope-walker," Nora said.
"And what'll I be?" asked Jerry plaintively, feeling left entirely out in the cold.
"Why didn't you speak up and grab onto something before they were all taken?" asked Danny. "You've got a tongue, ain't you?"
"He could swing up in the air hanging by his hands," Celia Jane suggested.
"We ain't got no net like they have in the picture to catch him if he falls," Nora objected.
"That would be too dangerous for us kids to try," Danny stated. "Maybe the picture on Jeffreys' barn will suggest something."
Again they were off at a run. It was not far to the barn, where they all squatted on the ground, nonplussed at the picture of half a dozen funny little animals balancing toy balloons on their noses.
"What are they?" Jerry asked.
"They're some kind of a fish," returned Danny promptly.
"Fish nothing!" exclaimed Chris. "Who ever saw a fish with hair on it? They're some kind of animal."
"They've got fins," retorted Danny. "I'd like to know what kind of animals's got fins. Tell me that."
"I don't know," Chris confessed, "but what kind of fish has hair?"
"This kind," said Danny authoritatively.
"Mebbe it's half fish and half animal," Jerry ventured.
"Who ever heard--" Danny began but was interrupted by Nora.
"It tells under the picture what they are," she said. "Trained s-e-a-l-s, seals. That's what rich women get their coats from."
"Then Jerry can be a trained seal," said Danny. "He can have a ball of carpet rags for a balloon to balance on his nose."
"I don't think I could," Jerry protested. "I know it would fall off."
"Not