"There was a bore-constrictor there that can crush eight men at once,—one of the circus men told my mother so, an' she said, 'I should think you'd be afraid he might get out,—he could squeeze through the bars, couldn't he?' And the man said he was scared for his life all the time. The bore-constrictor did get out up in Lynn."
"Did he crush eight men?" two or three of us asked at once.
"No; they lassoed him. But he may get out again any time. An' there was a hipperpottermus that you couldn't see, except one eye, 'cos he kept down in a tank of water, an' he was horrid, an,' oh! I forgot! Alice Remick had on a new dress an' she went to give an ellerphant a cookie, an' the ellerphant switched up his trunk and spattered her with mud so it spoiled her dress, an' she got both eyes stuck up with mud so she couldn't see, an' she cried so her father had to go right home without seem' any more of the circus, an'—"
"Did one of the elephants come in and ride round on a big velocipede?" demanded Ed Mason.
"No," said Susy; "but—"
"Did the seals play on drums, an' cymbals, an' sing?" he persisted.
"No; but they—"
"Oh, well," replied Ed, "they did at the circus last year. An' this circus only had ten elephants. Last year they had fourteen. An' last year they had a Black Tent of Myst'ries, too. I don't b'lieve this was much of a circus!"