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.
STORY XXXI—BILLY BUNNY AND THE CHEERFUL LITTLE BIRD
You remember in the last story that the Circus Elephant gave Uncle Lucky and Billy Bunny tickets to go to the show. Well, I’m awfully sorry to tell you they didn’t go, and the reason was because the tent caught fire, and before the firemen in Bunnytown could put out the flames the spangles were all burnt off the circus queen’s dress and the ice cream cones were all melted and the peanuts roasted blacker than a coal, and the lemonade boiled over and burnt the alligator’s tail so that he wouldn’t stand on his head.