The Elephant’s Story
“Dear friends, I am about to tell you not only the story of my life which will seem a long one to you, as I am in my two hundred and fiftieth year, but many things about elephants. As this is to be a Club not only for amusement, but for education as well, I hope you will bear with me if I seem tedious. It is astonishing how little any of us know of the lives and habits of our friends in their free and native state in the countries where they live so far away from us. All we know of them is just what we see of them day by day in the circus, so in my talk to-night I will try to tell you as much as I can about elephants, leaving out all unnecessary details.
“The first thing of importance in my life I remember distinctly was walking between my father and mother (two magnificent looking animals) behind a herd of nine elephants in a wonderful, huge, beautiful forest in Siam, a country in Southern Asia bordering on the Indian Ocean. While walking along I was wondering how the big trees five and six feet in diameter get there with their long limbs and good tasting leaves. For while I was only a baby elephant three or four months of age, I distinctly remember admiring the many different colored and shaped flowers that bloomed on the trailing vines and seemed to festoon themselves everywhere. But beautiful and sweet smelling as the flowers on these vines were, my father and mother did not appreciate them for they tore them rudely aside as the ropelike festoons hindered their progress through the jungle. I have often heard my father complain to my mother that these vines and the sharp thorns on the thorn bushes, with the rotting logs under one’s feet, quite spoiled all the pleasure of walking in the jungle, and he would greatly prefer walking on the plains if it were not for the broiling hot sun and no trees to shade one.
“Just then a loud trumpeting was heard from the leader of the herd away ahead to warn the herd that there were hunters in sight looking for them. Quick as a flash my father pointed with his trunk to a thick, dark clump of trees and told my mother to take me and hide there while he went to reconnoiter. All elephants are very brave when their young are attacked and will defend them with their lives. The male elephants always try to protect the females and young by keeping them in the rear of the herd when on the move, while they march ahead.
“My mother and I were scarcely concealed behind the big trees, drooping vines and low bushes when I saw a tall, slender native with only a breech cloth round his loins push his head through the bushes close beside the place where we had been standing when the leader trumpeted his warning. This man held in one hand a long spear with a sharp arrowhead top, and a coiled rope in the other. And I heard my mother give a frightened sigh and say to herself: ‘The king’s head elephant hunter! He has been on our track for days. We surely are lost for he always gets his prey. He has captured four of our most splendid elephants recently.’
“At that moment the man happened to cast his eyes down and I saw a slow, cruel smile of triumph spread over his face as his big red lips opened and disclosed his sharp, white teeth. He had discovered our footprints in the soft mud at his feet. Looking around quickly in all directions and peering into the bushes and dark places in the forest, I felt he must see us, he looked so straight in our direction. Then he drew himself to his full height and sniffed the air, and again that cruel, triumphant smile lit his jaw. My mother, who was watching him as closely as I, drew in a frightened breath and whispered to me: ‘He has scented us! We are lost! But he may pass us by. Don’t move a muscle or take a deep breath.’
“Closely following the tracks, nearer and nearer he drew to us without stopping until he came to the place where my father’s tracks left ours and went north. Here the man hesitated and looked closely as if to decide which of the tracks to follow. Then he lay flat on the ground with his ear close to it and listened, and when he got up he had another of his hateful smiles on his face, straightened himself and again sniffing the air, he started and came straight as an arrow to the place where we were hiding. But as he separated the bushes behind which we were standing, my mother stretched out her trunk, caught him around the neck and threw him over her head. I heard him go crashing between the big limbs of the trees and fall to the ground.
“‘There, he is done for,’ said my mother, ‘but it was a close call. His friends, if they ever do find him, will discover him dead from a broken neck.’
“Just then she gave a groan of pain and sank to the ground, but as she fell she sent out an agonizing trumpet of pain and warning to my father and the herd. By a miracle the man’s neck had not been broken and on regaining his feet he had thrown his sharp, murderous spear at her and it had penetrated her back in a tender part and killed her.
“I was wondering what to do when my father, in answer to her death cry, came charging back, followed by the leader of the herd and two other strong elephants. Discovering my mother was dead, they became furious and began looking for the person who had killed her, for they knew on seeing the spear how she had met her death as they had been hunted so much and knew from experience what those cruel spears would do. They began tearing up young trees by the roots and stamping the ground in the hopes of finding the person who had killed her hiding under a log or up in a tree. But no one could they discover until with a bellow of rage my father’s hind foot was caught in a slip knot of a rope thrown from the limb of a big tree by the native who had killed my mother. The tree was too big for my father to uproot but he began to tear off all the limbs he could reach, but to no purpose—as he tore off the lower ones the native only climbed up the higher.
“‘Ha! Ha! My fine fellow,’ laughed the native, ‘I have you at last! I have gone without sleep, rest and much food to catch you for the king’s stables. He wants just such a good-looking elephant as you to train to carry him in his houdah on your back in the next state procession. So the quicker you get over your fury and become docile, the better you will be treated. Yours will be a life of ease, and no pulling of heavy logs in the river out in the broiling hot sun. You will have a cool, shady pagoda to stay in when the sun is up and a cool deep marble bath to bathe in, and plenty of good food to eat. What more could you wish? And when you take my master for a ride on your back in his houdah you will head the procession of elephants with the nobility and flower of Siam on elephants behind you. Your houdah or seat for the king and all its trappings will be of crimson velvet embroidered in gold, set with precious stones, while theirs will be of silver. Come now, stop that struggling or I shall have to tie up another leg and fasten you to a tree. You won’t? Then here goes!’ and he put his fingers to his lips and gave the sharpest, most penetrating whistle I ever heard or hope to hear. From the bushes on all sides of us appeared other half naked huntsmen, bringing a trained elephant with them to help them subdue my father. And with the elephant’s help they soon had my poor tired father hobbled so he could scarcely move. And here the head huntsman left my father with the natives and returned to the king’s palace to acquaint him with his find.
“Elephants are also caught by drawing a herd into a strongly constructed enclosure by frightening them with noise and fire until the poor things are so confused they don’t know where they are going. Once in the enclosure, with the help of tame decoy elephants, they are quickly fastened to trees by tying one leg at a time. Here they are kept until they become docile and tame enough to be taught what the natives wish them to do.
“There is one interesting thing about elephants and it is this: If for any reason one elephant leaves a herd or is driven from it, he is not allowed to join another or come back to his own. He is forced to lead a solitary, lonesome life and he soon becomes morose and ill-tempered and takes delight in destroying everything. These elephants are called rogues.
“And while I am about it, I will tell you a few more facts about elephants before I go back to what happened to myself.
“The tusks of elephants are nothing more than enormously elongated front teeth. They grow to be seven or eight feet long and often weigh from one hundred to two hundred and fifty pounds. This with the weight of the animal is considerable, as they frequently weigh from four thousand to nine thousand pounds. Their usual height is from nine to ten feet but they have been known to reach the height of fifteen feet. Though so large and strong, they are rather delicate in captivity and require being fed with care. When working they are fed two hundredweight of green food, half a bushel of grain and forty gallons of water each day. When once tamed and trained, they are of immense value in the East where they do the heavy work like pulling and hauling logs, road building and so on as well as being used by royalty on state occasions to carry them on their backs in gaudy houdahs, a kind of seat with a canopy or top over it. At such times the elephants are bedecked in great splendor with head pieces of gold and silver set with precious stones.
ON THAT LONG TABLE SET FOR A HUNDRED FIFTY PERSONS,
EACH ANIMAL FOUND SOMETHING TO HIS TASTE.
(Page [160])
“You have heard of the Sacred White Elephants? Well, there is a dispute about them. Some authorities say they are simply albinos, which means a person or animal all white with red eyes. Others say the white hair is due to a skin disease. Whichever way it is, the people of India consider them sacred and great care and attention is lavished on them. They have pagodas of their own, cooling baths and servants to look after them.
“Elephants are found in Africa, Asia, and Ceylon. The African elephant differs from the species in Asia in being taller, having larger ears and a different shaped forehead. The African elephant is hunted for its tusks which are of great value when made up into ivory trinkets, toilet articles and other things. The natives of Africa in the jungle count their wealth by the number and size of the elephant tusks they have. They are more fierce than the Asia elephants and are not used as beasts of burden so much on that account.
“Now I have given you a few statistics about elephants in general and will go back to where my father was caught and I was still undiscovered beside my dead mother.
“As night came on I began to grow terribly frightened, for in the darkness I could see the blazing eyes of wild beasts around and snakes peering at me through the bushes. They had been attracted by the smell of blood and were only waiting to pounce upon my mother and eat her when they found out whether she was alive and sleeping or dead.
“The natives had built a fire and were preparing their supper not twenty feet from my father who stood stock still now, having completely worn himself out fighting and straining to loosen the ropes that bound him. The natives’ fire made a patch of light in the inky black forest and I was truly thankful for it, as it made me less afraid. But the blazing eyes kept creeping nearer and nearer where I stood until I was trying to make up my mind to brave the natives and run to my father when my mind was made up in a hurry. Hearing the leaves above rustle, I looked up and what should I see but a big tiger about to spring on me. With one bound I was out of the bushes and running toward my father. On seeing me he caressed me with his trunk and told me not to be afraid but to be brave. My sudden appearance surprised the natives very much and with one accord they jumped up and came toward us and before I knew it, I was tied up.
“The natives were very good to us and when my father saw that they did not intend to hurt either of us, he soon had confidence in them. At the end of two weeks the natives thought my father was docile and tame enough for them to start out of the forest with him to the king’s stables.
“I have had many, many masters and trainers in my long life, but none that I loved as I did the first one that brought me out of the jungle.
“I should like to tell you about my trip to America in the big ships across the oceans, but I see I have already talked over my time. So thanking you for your kind attention, I will bid you good-night,” and with much applause Jumbo returned to the side of the ring to listen to what the next speaker had to say, which all had voted must be Billy Whiskers.
CHAPTER XIII
BILLY WHISKERS’ STORY
WHEN the animals were all quiet again, Billy said:
“Kind friends, I think I will tell you of an experience Nannie and I had when we were on a ranch out in New Mexico and I was leader of a large flock of sheep. You know that most flocks of sheep have several big goats to help guard the sheep against the attack of wolves.
“We had been doing this for a long time and had grown weary of the dangerous, monotonous life. We decided to run away, cross the mountain and make our way East. This ranch was directly at the foot of the Rocky Mountains and as this was a good time of the year to travel, there being plenty of grass and water, and little snow on top of the mountains, we determined to start immediately. We only waited for the herders to drive the sheep into the corral for the night and then we started.
“We had been out about ten days climbing straight up and up, higher and higher, and the nights were getting colder and colder, and the food scarcer and scarcer. We determined we must make a rush trip the next day and get over the top of the mountain or we would be snowbound and starve to death. That night we went to bed very early so as to be up at sunrise. As luck would have it, we had found a small cave hid away up the side of the mountain among the rocks which would protect us against the high winds, and we were congratulating ourselves on finding it for now we could have a good sleep undisturbed by wind or rain.
“We must have been asleep for three or four hours when Nannie awakened me by huddling up close and whispering in my ear: ‘Oh, Billy, I am so afraid! I thought I heard wolves howling in the valley!’
“As she finished speaking I heard them myself and from the howls I judged there must be six or eight. But as you know the howl of one wolf sounds like two or three, so I could not be sure. Of one thing I was sure and that was that they were on our track and coming fast, and two goats against six or eight wolves hadn’t much show. The only advantage we had was that we were in a cave and so protected on three sides. If we could hold the entrance and keep them out, we might be able to pick them off one by one.
“I had some hope of saving our lives this way but should they decide to attack in a bunch we could not hope to fight them off. Nannie would be practically no help unless she got over her fright to some extent, for now she was panic-stricken and could not think. And one wants his brain in good working order when fighting wolves.
“On, on came the cruel beasts, nearer and nearer, and Nannie shook so by this time she could not even stand up. I knew this would never do so I said: ‘Nannie, my dear, unless you stand up and fight, and fight as you never did before, we will be torn to pieces in less than ten minutes, for the wolves are almost here. I can’t fight them off alone, but with your assistance we may be able to save our lives.’
“Just then a big black wolf with mouth open and red tongue hanging out between sharp white teeth, appeared at the entrance of the cave. As if gloating over us, he raised his head and gave the pack cry for the others to come on; that he had found their prey.
“Now was my chance. While he had his head raised to give the cry, his eyes were turned upward and his chest expanded. So with a mighty spring forward I buried my sharp horns in his chest, piercing clear through to his heart. He dropped dead. I had just finished with him when two more came in sight.
“‘Come on, Nannie! You take the smaller one to the right and I will take the big one to the left. Be sure to spring upon them the minute they reach the spot in the path where that big stone is. It will take them so by surprise that it will give us the advantage, for they expect us to run away instead of fight.’
“And now that there was real danger at hand, Nannie bounded up as she always did and she and I sprang at the wolves at the same instant and knocked them over the steep cliff down into the canyon below. And we could hear them rolling with the stones they loosened, down, down, down into the rocky stream below.
“Now two more wolves came from one direction and three from another, and none of them knew what had happened to their comrades for the killings had taken place out of sight and in such quick time that none of the wolves had let out so much as a peep.
“‘Keep close to me, Nannie, so I can help you a little,’ I said.
“Just then the wolves spied us, and they all gave a howl of pleasure and quickened their pace. ‘Now is where we fight as we never did before, or die,’ I thought.
“With mouth open and tail swinging high in air, the foremost and largest one of the five jumped straight for me. He was so much larger than I that for a second he bore me to the ground with his teeth in my neck, but as luck would have it the collar I always wore kept the wolf from closing his mouth so his sharp teeth only grazed my skin instead of sinking into my throat as the wolf intended they should.
“Nannie, on seeing me down and the wolf on top of me with blood flowing from my wounds, thought of course I was killed. And forgetting herself, she charged on the wolf, and while he was preparing for another bite at my neck, something ran in his side and he knew no more. Nannie’s sharp horns had pierced his heart. She had just time to pull her horns out of his side when the other wolves were upon her.
“Seeing them coming, I squirmed from under the heavy dead wolf that was pinning me down and was on my feet beside Nannie before the wolves reached her. But what was our surprise to see the wolves stop short when within six feet of us, lift their noses in the air, sniff and start past us on a gallop. The wolves had smelled the blood of the first wolf that had been killed and Nannie and I had no charms for them compared to fresh blood, even though it was the blood of one of their own pack. They fell upon the wolves Nannie and I had killed and fought and tore at the carcasses until not a shred of meat was left on any of the bones.
“‘Now is our time to escape, Nannie, while the wolves are gorging themselves with fresh meat,’ I said, and so we started up the side of the mountain in double quick time. By morning we had reached the summit and crossed over and were down the other side beyond the snow line before we stopped traveling. But we had to halt and get our breath and rest very often as one has to in high altitudes.
“Needless to say, we reached the valley in safety or we would not be here now. I thank you for your kind attention.”
At the close of Billy’s story he stepped into the center of the ring and announced that he had been loose all day and allowed to roam at will, and while hanging around the kitchen tent, he had heard the night watchman, cooks and other caretakers of the circus talking about a big ball that was to be given in the skating rink in town that evening for the circus people. They had all declared their intentions of going, for they were quite sure everything would be all right at the circus for the two or three hours they would be away, and the owner of the circus would be none the wiser.
“The cooks are to make cakes and ice-cream, broil and glaze ham and other meats for them to have when they come back from the ball. And it is all to be set on the table before they go, so all they will have to do when they return will be to make hot coffee and then sit down and eat. Now I propose we go over and eat up that supper while they are away. They will think some hoodlums from the town came out and did it. It will be great fun and give you animals a chance for once in your lives to taste the food humans eat. You may not like it; still you may as I have yet to meet the animal that does not like sugar or salt,” said Billy.
“Your proposition sounds fine for a lark, but will you kindly tell us, Mr. Billy, how we are to get there when we are all tied and shut in a circus tent?”
“Easily enough! Half of you animals don’t know your own strength or power or you would not be here. Now listen to my plan. The elephant, camel and moose will have to pull with all their strength on their ropes until the pegs in the ground to which they are tied fly out. I know they will. You all just think you can not uproot them, so you never have tried. So much for what thought will do for an animal as well as for a person. What we truly think turns out to be true if we only think hard enough in the right way.”
“Those of you who are not noted for your strength but for your sharp teeth will gnaw your ropes in two, and when you are all free we will hie us to the banquet tent.”
“But how are we to get out of this circus tent?” asked the giraffe.
“The elephant will stick his sharp tusk through it and tear a hole in it large enough for you big animals to squeeze through.”
“It sounds very plausible but I don’t believe it can be done,” said the elephant.
“’Fraidy cat! ’Fraidy cat!” squeaked the parrot.
“Shut up, Polly! Someone might hear you and then you would spoil the whole party!”
“Come now, you animals with sharp teeth, begin to gnaw on your ropes!” called Billy.
The poor giraffe was in despair. So was the zebra, for they both had large but flat teeth and could not chew a rope in two in a month.
“Don’t worry, you two; I’ll fix it so you can get loose. I’ll chew your ropes for you,” offered Stubby, “and I’ll get Button to help me.”
And then for many minutes all you could hear in the circus tent was a sound like thousands of rats gnawing. Their jaws were getting pretty tired from this unusual work when Billy thought of an excellent plan to lighten the task. He ran out of the tent and over to where the grain for the horses was kept. And here he found over a hundred rats eating the grain that had been spilled when the horses had been fed.
He ran in their midst and said: “Stop eating a minute and listen to me, good friends! You can eat this stuff every day for it is always here, but I have a plan whereby you can get dainties to eat that you love with no fear of poison or of being caught. But before I tell you where you can get it, you must do me a favor. It is an easy one that will take but ten minutes. Then you will be free until morning to eat the dainties I have told you of if you so wish. Will you do it or not?”
The spokesman rat asked: “Where are these dainties you speak of to be had?”
“I cannot tell you until you have done what I ask you to do. Should I tell you first, you might give me the laugh by running off and eating them up before you did the favor I am asking.”
“Well, what is the favor?” asked another old rat.
“It is to gnaw a few ropes in two. Come, hurry and decide for time flies, which makes the time all the shorter for your feast. Think of it, cakes, pies, pudding, meats, cheese of many kinds, all for the eating, and no danger! Will you or will you not come?”
“Yes, we will come. Now lead the way to where the ropes are you want chewed.”
And I know even the men and the girl in the moon would have laughed had they chanced to look down and had seen a big white goat leading an army of rats into a circus tent.
When the animals saw Billy coming with the rats they were too astonished to speak, and before they had time to ask any questions the rats were gnawing the ropes like mad.
“Billy, for plans and strategy you certainly take the cake!” said the elephant. “You should have been human. With your brain you would have made a wonderful major general for some army.”
In a jiffy the ropes fell apart and then the rats attacked the hole the elephant had made in the tent and helped him to tear it. When the hole was big enough for them to squeeze through, Billy said:
“Now follow me, rats and animals, and I will lead you to the festive board where all the goodies are spread out for you to feast on them.”
Once inside the tent every animal and rat tasted the things that looked most tempting to him. The leaf eaters ate the salad; the meat eaters, the ham and cold tongue; the rats ate the different cheeses and cakes; but the giraffe, being thirsty, was looking for a drink of water when he spied the ice-cream freezer. While nosing around he accidentally knocked the lid off, so he stuck his tongue in to taste it. Being hot and thirsty, it tasted good and felt cool to his throat. He was thus amusing himself when Billy found him. He would lick up a mouthful and then stretch his neck up as high as it would go and shut his eyes to enjoy the cool, sweet stream running down his long neck. He called to the elephant to come and try it, which he did but the elephant did not like it. He much preferred the salted nuts and went from place to place eating the nuts in the individual dishes.
The camel liked the sweet cakes and so it was that on that long table set for a hundred fifty persons, each animal found something to his taste. And those greedy animals and rats did not leave until there was not a morsel of food left and the plates were licked as clean as if they had been washed.
On going to the flap of the tent to look out to see about what time it was, Billy spied a long, straggling line of people coming down the street straight for the tent. He recognized them as the circus people coming home from the ball.
“FOLLOW ME, NANNIE!” CALLED BILLY AND
RAN UNDER THE HOOK-AND-LADDER AUTO.
(Page [179])
It took but a minute for him to notify his friends and in less time than it takes to tell it, every animal and rat was out of the tent and hurrying as fast as fast could be to get back to their places in the tent before the night watchman got there or any of the returning crowd saw them. After they had seen that all the animals were back in their places standing beside their gnawed ropes, Billy and Stubby and Button ran back to the dining tent and secreted themselves so they could hear what the circus people said when they entered their tent and found the food all eaten.
The first to come was the head chef and one of the bareback lady riders. On throwing back the flap of the tent to show the lady what mountains of goodies he had prepared for the feast, the chef was struck dumb by the sight of the empty table. At first he thought there must be some practical joke about it and that someone had hidden the food and put down empty plates. So he rushed in and looked under the table to see if they had hidden the food there. But no! Then to the kitchen to look in the oven and cupboards for food, but no food appeared. He was wringing his hands and pulling his hair when the rest of the crowd arrived wanting to know what kind of a practical joke he called it to have no food and only an empty table to show an impatient crowd when they arrived from the ball hungry as wolves. Cries were heard of “Throw him in the river! Throw him in the river!”
“No! No! Stop that howling! Can’t you see the poor man is beside himself at the loss of the supper? Don’t you see he has played no joke on you, but someone else has played a joke on him?” said the lady with him. “But I am with you to find out who did play this mean trick.
“Anyway, we can have some ice-cream, for I see the ice-cream freezer at the end of yonder table. Each get your saucer and spoon and I will serve you.”
But alas! when she got there she found the top of the can on the floor and the ice-cream all gone.
“Who has done this? Who has done this?” they all asked one another but no one knew or could even guess. And they have not found out to this day and that was over a year ago.
The next day the circus was to be divided, half going to Duluth and half to Bismarck. All the animals were in a flutter to know how the division was to be made and who was going with whom.
CHAPTER XIV
POLLY AND THE MONKEY CAUSE TROUBLE
ABOUT the middle of the next morning the animals were discussing their next move and telling one another what they had heard their trainers and caretakers say of the places they were going and which animals were going to Duluth and which to Bismarck, when a scream rent the air and Polly began scolding and squeaking in her loudest and most angry voice.
The lion roared out: “Can’t you be still and stop your squeaks for a few minutes at least? You chatter, chatter an endless chain of nonsense all day long and just when one is about to catch a little nap without being bothered by people sticking their canes and umbrellas into one’s sides, you have to squeak as if you were being killed.”
“Oh, don’t talk to me, you old grouch! You need not think you are the only one that can make a noise in this circus! I guess you let out an ear splitting roar whenever you wish without asking permission or thinking if you will disturb any afternoon naps!” and Polly gave another of her discordant squeaks and flew up onto a trapeze that was hanging from the top of the tent.
“I guess you would squeak too if you had had a handful of feathers pulled out of your tail by a monkey,” said the old maid camel.
“Oh! that is it, is it? The monkey is at his old tricks plaguing his enemy, the parrot,” replied the lion.
Here the conversation was interrupted by squeaks and more squeaks, followed by the loud chattering of a monkey. Every animal in its cage and those tied in the ring looked up to where Polly and the monkey were having a terrible fight high on the trapeze. First Polly would be seen swinging from the under side by her bill, then the monkey. Then they would both sit on the bar and fight each other. Polly would peck with her bill and strike out with her claws while the monkey would slap her and grab out a handful of feathers.
At last Polly had a chance to spread her wings and fly from the trapeze into the passageway that led from this tent into another where the performers’ dressing-rooms were. The monkey could not fly but he could do something almost as well. He could swing and jump, so he set the trapeze to swinging out farther and farther, then jumped and caught hold of a long rope that swung to the ground. This he caught and nimbly climbed down it. Once down, he ran into the passageway after Polly. Polly, turning, saw him coming as she was walking slowly along thinking she was rid of the monkey for a while at least. But when she saw him, her fright returned and with a squeak she spread her wings and flew until she saw an opening into one of the private dressing-rooms. Through this she flew and lit on the first thing she saw which, sad to relate, happened to be the golden head of the peroxide blonde bareback rider, who was in the act of bleaching her hair. She had the bottle raised over her head to pour some on her hair when Polly lit just where she was going to pour the liquid. Being so startled, she did not know what she was doing and poured the liquid just the same. It went all over Polly and slowly turned her green feathers to a bright golden color.
Then seeing the monkey and being deathly afraid of them, the circus girl threw the bottle at him and the rest of its contents spilled over the monkey, making him also a bright gold color.
On seeing this, Polly ha-ha’d with laughter but it was cut short when, happening to look down, she saw her own body slowly turning the same yellow the monkey’s was. On perceiving this she began to squeak and cry, “Murder, murder!” while the frightened circus girl called “Help, help!” and the monkey squealed as loudly as he could to add to the confusion. Of course all the racket brought the circus people running to the tent to see who was being mistreated. Nor did their cries attract only the circus people, but the outside spectators and policemen as well. The people stopped to listen and stare while the policemen made a run for the tent.
When the monkey saw the first policeman coming down the passageway with club upraised, he ran toward the screaming circus girl and tried to hide under her dress. This of course made her cry “Help! Murder!” louder than ever and she kicked so hard she upset the chair she was sitting on. When the policeman appeared in the door she was lying on the floor under the overturned chair, still screaming. The police thought someone must have knocked her down with the chair and, perceiving no one in the room, took it for granted they must have made their escape by crawling under the tent, so he too crawled under. At that moment he saw a man running away from the tent as fast as he could, so he called to the crowd, “Stop him! Stop him!” But too late—the man had cleared the crowd and was by this time running with long strides and arm raised like a professional runner.
Seeing this, the policeman took a long breath and started after the man, determined to overtake him if it took all day. He had run several blocks and was about winded and ready to drop when the man dodged into a yard, and went up the front steps, and into a house, slamming the door behind him without even turning around to see how near the policeman was on his trail.
When the policeman arrived at the house he tried the door but of course it was locked. He pounded on it with his club, calling out at the same time: “Open the door if you don’t want me to break it down!” He had raised his club to give it another fearful whack when it opened in a hurry and in the doorway stood a tall, dignified man dressed in the long black coat of a clergyman, who said in a low, impressive voice: “My good man, why all this racket? Why did you not ring the bell instead of pounding on my door?”
“Stand aside and let me pass or I will have you arrested for harboring thieves!”
As he said this a voice from the head of the stair said: “What is the trouble, father?”
“There he is now, the murderer!”
“Murderer! What do you mean by calling my son a murderer?”
The policeman did not reply but attempted to push by the clergyman with a rough hand.
“Here, you minion of the law, use a little respect to my old father or I’ll chuck you out on the sidewalk,” and coming down the stairs, a young man added: “Here I am! Now tell us what this murder business is you are talking about.”
“Well, as I was on me beat just about to pass the circus, I heard cries of ‘Help! Help! Murder! Murder!’ and I ran in to see who was being murdered when I came to a room with a woman lying on the floor screaming murder. She had been knocked over with a chair and seeing the sides of her tent moving, I thought the murderer had just escaped by crawling under the tent. So I ducked under too and, sure enough, what should I see but this man here running for dear life. I called to the crowd to stop him but he ran so fast and pushed them off so when they tried to catch him that I know he was the man that had done the deed. So come on back wid me to the tent and see if your victim is dead or only scared. For it is you in the coop if she is dead.”
At the end of this harangue the young man laughed so he had to hold his hands to his sides, while his father and the policeman stood by and looked at him.
“Come in and sit down, officer, while I spoil all your circumstantial evidence.”
“Not so fast now, young man! You can tell me right here what ye have to tell. I’m not at all tired and can stand a little longer.”
“Well, you see it is this way. I am a professional runner and I usually run stripped to the waist with the regular running togs on, but to-day I thought I would run in my ordinary clothes to see if it made much difference whether one was dressed for it or just in ordinary clothes. I left a crowd of fellows on the college steps so if you want proof that I am not the man you are looking for, I’ll go back with you to the college and you can talk to them or, better yet, step inside and call up the college and they will tell you I was there when this supposed murder took place.”
“Not on your life will I telephone, for while I am doing it you will slip away.”
“Not at all! You may handcuff me while you telephone.” This he did and on telephoning to the college received an answer that cleared the young man entirely.
“Now, officer, just to show you there is no ill feeling, join me in a glass of sarsaparilla, for I am terribly thirsty after my run and I know you must be.”
“Thank you very much. I will,” and the two shook hands to show there was no ill feeling.
On his way back to the police station, the policeman stopped at the circus to see if the murderer had been caught or if there had been no murder after all, but just a cry of murder. He found the lady giving a last pat to her elaborately dressed peroxide-colored hair and laughing at a little monkey in a cage and a gold colored parrot with a green tail sitting on a perch on one side of her tent, while the parrot was saying in a singsong voice: “Never again! Never again!” But the monkey sat all crouched up in one corner.
“Oh, officer, is that you? Did you find the man that murdered me?”
“I sure did and he is the gamest young man I ever tried to arrest on the false accusation of a crazy-headed girl!”
“Get right out of here! How dare you call me crazy-headed?”
“Because that is what ye are! You scream ‘Help! Help! Murder! Murder!’ and disturb the peace.”
On hearing this Polly began to cry: “Help! Help! Murder! Murder!”
“Shut up, will ye, ye evil-eyed bird, or I will drown you!”
“Shut up! Shut up! Hear him! Hear him!” squeaked Polly, at which the policeman beat a hasty retreat to the music of the circus lady’s laughter and Polly’s screeches.
CHAPTER XV
THE CIRCUS BREAKS CAMP
THAT night after the performance the circus broke camp and the friends were separated, the elephant, camel, monkey and parrot going to Bismarck while the moose, zebra, giraffe and sacred bull went to Duluth. But this was not the worst division that was made. Billy was to be sent to Duluth and Stubby and Button to Bismarck. Now here was an unforeseen catastrophe and the circus people, having observed the close companionship of the four, took precaution to lock Billy and Nannie in a cage by themselves and Stubby and Button in another.
“Never mind,” counseled Billy. “You and Button go on with the circus for it is headed in the right direction for us and Nannie and I will run away from the circus and join you, never fear, just as soon as they let us out of this pesky cage.”
“I knew something like this would happen if we stayed with their poky old circus!” grumbled Stubby.
“I know you did, old fellow, but cheer up, we won’t be separated long.”
It was astonishing how quickly the circus people folded their tents, gathered up the long lines of seats, and started their wagon cages toward the circus train that lay in the yards with steam up, all ready to start at a moment’s notice. Everything about a circus is systematized so that the minute the evening performance is over, everybody jumps to his or her appointed task and works with a will, so that where there were tents with flags and banners flying at night, the next morning there is only a deserted sawdust ring. Circuses spring up over night like mushrooms and disappear as quickly as the dew on the grass when the sun comes up.
By midnight the circus train was well under way and Billy and Nannie found themselves in a cage between the zebra and giraffe. About two o’clock the train stopped at a siding to let a passenger train pass. It being very late they had to wait as all regular trains had the right of way over a special like a circus train.
As this siding was beside a stream on the outskirts of a sleeping little town, it was as still as death with the exception of the frogs in the pond and the katydids quarreling with each other in a tree beside the cage Billy and Nannie were in. Now if there was anything that made Billy nervous and depressed, it was hearing frogs and the hum of insects and katydids. It gave him the blues. At last he could stand it no longer and he baaed to the zebra and giraffe to see if they were awake. Both were and each declared himself wildly nervous and unable to sleep with the incessant repetition of “Katy did! She did! She didn’t! She did! She didn’t!” until Billy bawled out:
“Who cares a tinker’s dam whether she did or did not? Can’t you shut up and let some poor tired animals sleep?”
“Yes,” whinnied the zebra, “for mercy sakes give us a rest! I should think you would need one yourselves the way you have been calling out ‘She did! She didn’t!’ faster and faster until I thought your heads would fly off, and to tell you the truth I wish they had!”
“I feel as if my ears were growing as big as my neck,” said the giraffe. “Just listening to any noise I don’t like makes me feel that way. But I don’t mind the katydids as I do those confounded frogs with their ‘Mudger-ka-rum, mudger-ka-rum. Knee-deep, knee-deep!’”
“Is that what you think they say?” asked Billy.
“Yes; what do you think they are calling?”
“I don’t know, but it doesn’t sound to me as if they were saying what it does to you.”
“Well, perhaps it would not sound that way to me but I once heard one of the keepers say the reason people think frogs say mudger-ka-rum was because there was once an Irishman going home late at night, half drunk, a jug of rum under his arm, and he thought the frogs were calling to him to give them his jug of rum as mudger-ka-rum sounded like my jug of rum.”
“Ha! Ha!” laughed the giraffe. “That is a good one! And hereafter whenever I hear frogs I shall think of that saying. Listen now; it really does sound as if that was what they were calling.”
“I can’t go to sleep until the train starts, so let us tell stories until it does,” proposed Billy.
“Very well, I’m willing,” agreed the zebra and giraffe.
“You tell the first one. Tell us something about your experiences in the war,” added the giraffe.
“Oh, for mercy sakes don’t say war to me! I am sick of the very name of it and I can’t bear to even think of its horror, much less tell about the black deeds I saw. You two tell me about your homes in Africa.”
“Very well,” replied the zebra. “I’ll tell you what a merry chase I gave my pursuers when they were trying to catch me. You see white with many, many black stripes in it is hard to see at a distance. It seems to fade into the background. That is why during the war they painted the sides of the ships black and white so as to camouflage them.”
“What does camouflage mean?” asked the giraffe.
“You ought to know,” replied the zebra, “as your coat is camouflaged, though not just like mine as it has round black and white dots. They make it just as hard to see as stripes like mine.”
“Is that so? I never knew that before. But I do know that it is almost impossible to shoot us when on the run, as our coats make it very difficult to judge the distance we are from the hunter. But I never knew it was due to our spots and color.”
“Well, as I was saying,” continued the zebra, “where I lived there is a kind of tall growth of vegetation with long leaves just the width of our stripes and the branches grow straight and tall above our heads. When there is any of that kind of vegetation around and hunters get after us, we make for it and we are seldom seen after we enter, for the waving leaves throw black shadows across us and unless a hunter runs directly into us he will pass within a few feet of us and never discover us.”
Just then the train gave a jerk that threw the zebra off its feet, bumped the giraffe’s head against the top of its cage and sent Billy’s head bang up against the end of his cage and Nannie’s short horns into his side.
“Plague take this old train anyway! Why can’t the engineer toot the whistle and give a fellow warning that he is going to start? Now we can’t hear the rest of your story until we stop again as the train makes too much noise.
“Good-by, you old frogs and katydids, I hope I never, never, never hear you peep again as long as I live!” said Billy.
CHAPTER XVI
THE ESCAPE FROM THE CIRCUS
THE next morning the circus arrived in Duluth. The tents were pitched and then hurry and confusion began as everyone was getting ready for the usual morning parade through the down-town streets of the city. This was just what Billy had been waiting for, as he intended to watch his chance and run away from the circus while it was on parade. But imagine his disgust when one of the circus men brought a little flat saddle and strapped it on his back and then put a fancy headpiece on his head and brought the monkey that had had the fight with Polly and tied it to one of his horns with a rope just long enough for it to reach the saddle, where the monkey was supposed to dance as the procession moved through the streets.
“I’ll run away even if I have to drag the monkey with me, for I shan’t stay with the circus another day!” thought Billy. “I am so sick and tired of it. Besides, all the time we are here Stubby and Button are going farther and farther West away from us.”
At exactly half past ten the circus procession filed out of the main tent headed by a band of twenty pieces following which came the bareback riders on snow white horses or jet black ones, with horses and riders all fixed exactly as they would be seen in the circus ring that afternoon, the women riders in their short tulle skirts with bare necks and arms and the men in their tights. Behind them came the performing animals and gilded chariots drawn by tiny Shetland ponies driven by little girls dressed as fairies or little boys dressed as princes. After them came the elephants, camels, sacred bull, zebras and so on, led by their keepers dressed in uniforms of black pants and red coats trimmed with gold lace and cords. Following all this were the cages with the animals in them, and one could see the giraffe sticking his head out of the hole in the roof so he could rest his long neck, and the tigers and lions pacing up and down their cages trying to get out.
All the time the procession was making its way slowly through the streets the clown walked beside it talking to the crowds on the sidewalk. Oh, it was most exciting to the small boys and girls who never had seen a circus procession go by.
But oh my, how deadly tiresome it was to the poor performers and animals that had to take part! Billy and Nannie happened to be about the middle of the procession and as bad luck would have it, one of the clowns had selected just that place to walk. Billy was growing more desperate every block they went at not seeing a single good chance to escape. For should he start to run away the clown would give the alarm and one of the guards of the procession in policeman’s uniform and mounted on horseback would give chase and capture him. Besides, he would have to butt his way through the crowds of people who were lining the sidewalks so closely it would be like butting through a stone wall.
“Oh! What shall I do?” and Billy had dropped his head in disappointment and was paying no attention to the monkey on his back who kept on dancing and hitting his head with the little tambourine he had in his hand. All of a sudden he heard a great clattering of wheels and tooting of horns coming down a side street and just as his part of the procession got to the corner it parted so the fire engine and hook-and-ladder could go across the street.
Now was their chance. “Follow me, Nannie!” called Billy and with a bound forward he reached the middle of the street and ran under the hook-and-ladder auto, though it was going at breakneck speed and he ran the chance of being killed instantly. So did Nannie. Still it was Billy’s way to take a chance every time, no matter how dangerous it was. Once under the machine, they ran for all they were worth to keep covered by its long ladders so no one could see them. Their escape had been so sudden and just at a time when all eyes were on the fire engine and hook-and-ladder, that no one belonging to the circus saw them.
The poor little monkey on Billy’s back was nearly scared to death so when he saw the ladders over his head he jumped from the little saddle on Billy’s back up on them. Luck was with him for the sudden jerk on the rope untied the loose knot and he found himself free, much to his delight as well as Billy’s.
Presently the hook-and-ladder stopped and Billy could smell smoke and see fire ahead of them. But what made his heart bound with delight was that it had stopped directly opposite the opening into an alley. With a squeal of delight Billy and Nannie darted from under the machine and ran down the alley, never stopping until they were many blocks away.
Now the question was, how was he to get the saddle from his back? Should anyone see him with it they would know he had run away from the circus. He would have to stay hid in the alley and not show himself on the streets until after dark. Seeing a packing box leaning against a fence, Billy nosed around until he found it was empty. Then they squeezed themselves between the fence and the box and lay down to rest and try to think out some way to free him from the saddle.
While turning his head to look at it he found that by stretching his neck he could just get hold of the edge of the girth that strapped it to his back. Consequently he began squirming and twisting until he got a good hold with his teeth. Then with a mighty tug he pulled it toward his head, and joy of joys! in three long strong pulls he had it up to his neck. So all he had to do was to duck his head and the saddle fell over his head and neck to the floor of the box.
“Ha! Ha!” laughed Billy to himself. “I think I am pretty smart to rid myself of that saddle. Now I can go wherever I wish and no one will suspect that I am not just an ordinary goat out looking for something to eat. Speaking of eats, I believe I’m hungry. Aren’t you, Nannie? Now that we are rested, I think we had better go in search of food.” So they squeezed themselves out of the box and went trotting down the alley as independently as you please.
When they reached the corner where the alley crossed the street, they found a grocery store with baskets of vegetables and fruit displayed outside. Billy took a peek and no one being in sight, he reached for a nice fresh cabbage and retired to the alley to eat it. Nannie did the same. Having finished the cabbage, they ate a bunch of carrots and were beginning on a head of lettuce when the grocery wagon drove into the alley and the driver chased them away with his long whip and then threw stones at them.
Billy was now feeling pretty fine, having had all he wanted to eat, so he thought, “Now is the time for us to find the depot, so I can see if we can’t steal a ride out of here back to Minneapolis. There we must change cars and get on a train going west, or we will never catch up with Stubby and Button.”
Had Billy only known it, he was at that minute within three blocks of the very depot he was looking for. He did not know this, but hearing a train whistle he thought he would follow the sound and see where it led him, in town or out. By jumping a fence or two and crossing a vacant lot, they soon came to a railroad track and looking down it what should he see but the very circus train they had come on!
“Hurrah! This is surely good luck for us for now I know we shall get on the right train to take us back. We’ll go over to the depot and watch for a chance to sneak into a freight car going in the right direction to carry us back to Minneapolis.”
Billy soon found a good place for them to hide from which they could watch all the incoming and outgoing trains, but he saw no freight cars with the doors open. What he did see when it grew dark and the lights were lighted was an express mail train all made up and ready to start. He could see men throwing on mail bags and storing away express packages while the engine blew off steam and waited for the signal. He was watching this intently when the audacious thought struck him, “Why not go on that train instead of waiting for some old slow freight? We will try it. They can but throw us off and I’ll put up such a fight they won’t dare do it after we have once started. But the hard part will be to get aboard without one or the other of us being seen. However, it is pretty dark, which will help some, and I am going to try it.”
So they trotted across the intervening tracks and jumped up on the platform. Now there were two platforms where this train stood and the doors of the car were open on each side so a person could board the train from either side. Billy noticed this, and while the man in charge of the mail car was standing at one door talking to the driver of a mail wagon that had just brought a big lot of mail bags, Billy and Nannie stepped in the opposite door and tiptoed into a dimly-lighted corner and hid behind a pile of mail bags. They had scarcely secreted themselves when the train gave a jerk and they were off.
“Pretty slick work I call that!” said Billy. “This surely has been our lucky day to run away from the circus and get started back to Minneapolis.”
This train was the fast night express and made but one stop between Duluth and Minneapolis, so when the train was out of the suburbs and rolling along through the quiet country, the mailman turned the lights down low and threw himself on a cot at the side of the car and was soon fast asleep. He never awoke until the train whistled for St. Paul. Then he was up and on his feet and ready to open the door the minute the train stopped. As he was removing the inner bar that fastened the door, he thought he heard a noise behind him, but he did not bother to look around to see what it was. Imagine his surprise when the door slipped open to see two big white goats leap past him and run down the platform and disappear in the crowd!
“Well, I’ll be hanged! How in the world did those goats get in my car and me not know it?”
As Billy and Nannie stood outside the station wondering what they would do next, who should they see coming down the street but Stubby and Button.
“Nannie, do my eyes deceive me, or is that really and truly Stubby and Button I see coming toward us?”
“It really is!”
“Well, well, well! Of all that is wonderful, where in the world did you come from? The last we saw of you, you were in the circus train bound for Bismarck, North Dakota, and at this minute we were wondering how we could get to you the quickest way.”
“Yes,” spoke up Nannie, “we were debating which would be the safest and easiest, to try stealing a ride on a train or foot it. But my, I am glad you are here! Come here until we rub noses!”
“This beats any luck we have had for some time,” answered Stubby.
“I should say so,” agreed Button, “as we left the circus on purpose to come back and look for you two! As you did not come on and we were to be carried further West the next morning which would separate us more and more every day they traveled, we determined to escape and come back to St. Paul in the hope of meeting your circus when it broke camp and came back here. But we expected to have the dickens’ own time to find you. Now we are all together again, I say we take a look at this city and try to get a little fun out of it, for so far our trip has had very little pleasure in it. Then after we have had all the hilarious times we care for, we can continue our journey west to the Pacific Coast.”
THE END
The
Billy Whiskers Series
By
Frances
Trego
Montgomery
The antics of frolicsome Billy Whiskers, that adventuresome goat Mrs. Montgomery writes about in these stories make all the boys and girls chuckle—and every story that is issued about him is pronounced by them “better than the last.”
TITLES IN SERIES
1. Billy Whiskers
2. Billy Whiskers’ Kids
3. Billy Whiskers, Junior
4. Billy Whiskers’ Travels
5. Billy Whiskers at the Circus
6. Billy Whiskers at the Fair
7. Billy Whiskers’ Friends
8. Billy Whiskers, Jr., and His Chums
9. Billy Whiskers’ Grandchildren
10. Billy Whiskers’ Vacation
11. Billy Whiskers Kidnaped
12. Billy Whiskers’ Twins
13. Billy Whiskers in an Aeroplane
14. Billy Whiskers in Town
15. Billy Whiskers in Panama
16. Billy Whiskers on the Mississippi
17. Billy Whiskers at the Exposition
18. Billy Whiskers Out West
19. Billy Whiskers in the South
20. Billy Whiskers in Camp
21. Billy Whiskers in France
22. Billy Whiskers’ Adventures
23. Billy Whiskers in the Movies
24. Billy Whiskers Out for Fun
BOUND IN BOARDS
COVER IN COLORS
PROFUSE TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS
FULL-PAGE DRAWINGS IN COLORS
THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY—AKRON, OHIO
BOOKS FOR BOYS
The Boy Scout Series
By
Major Robert Maitland
and
Colonel George Durston
Where is there the boy not interested in adventure?
Where the boy not intensely interested in the Boy Scouts too?
Adventure plus Boy Scouts—there is nothing more to be desired, at least that is the way the boys feel who have read these stirring tales.
TWELVE TITLES
1. The Boy Scouts in Camp
2. The Boy Scouts to the Rescue
3. The Boy Scouts on the Trail
4. The Boy Scout Firefighters
5. The Boy Scouts Afloat
6. The Boy Scout Pathfinders
7. The Boy Scout Automobilists
8. The Boy Scout Aviators
9. The Boy Scouts’ Champion Recruit
10. The Boy Scouts’ Defiance
11. The Boy Scouts’ Challenge
12. The Boy Scouts’ Victory
EACH VOLUME A 12MO, WITH AN ATTRACTIVE JACKET PRINTED IN COLORS
The Aeroplane Boys Series
By Captain Frank Cobb
Valorous deeds on land and sea are all very well—but now come tales of the air to thrill the boy’s heart. And here are three than which there are no better. High in the air the heroes fight out their own salvation—their own and others too, who never would dare the heights.
BATTLING THE CLOUDS
AN AVIATOR’S LUCK
DANGEROUS DEEDS
EACH VOLUME A 12MO, WITH FRONTISPIECE, AND JACKET IN COLORS
THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY—AKRON, OHIO
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.