“And so I pressed on. Indeed, I could not stop. The leaves underfoot seemed in league with those overhead. They pushed against the soles of my feet, sending me forward by leaps and by bounds. But, fast as I ran, those who came after proved even swifter than I. Looking back once again, I could see the ringmaster had redoubled his speed. On he came, the split tails of his coat sticking straight out behind, while, clinging tight to the ends of them were the tow-headed boy and the little girl with the forget-me-not bonnet!
“I was glad they were gaining on me; and yet I was sorry. I wanted them to catch me, and yet I did not. Meanwhile, I ran like the wind. But they came nearer and nearer. Now the ringmaster was so close that I could make out the tiger-eye buttons on his very red vest.
“Something came from out the air, and swept me square off my toes.” Page [95].
“A hundred paces ahead showed the shadowy outline of a densely leafed thicket. For this cover I sped and, rounding its shoulder, shut my pursuers from view. And then, just as I did so, something came from out the air, swept me square off my toes, swung me outward and aloft and then dropped me into the depths of the thicket!
“As I scrambled to my feet I could hear the clamoring cries and glimpse the hurrying forms of the throng as they swept around the corner of the coppice that covered me. There were children of all ages and sizes, with many curls and many hair-ribbons held out on the lap of the wind. And there were no end of mothers with very bright eyes and very pink cheeks, hand in hand with no end of fathers. And some carried umbrellas which they brandished overhead as they ran.
“But suddenly there came a halt. For a puzzled half-minute the ringmaster stood looking first to the left and next to the right. Then, as if making up his mind that I had gone toward the north, he cut the air with his whip, thrust it forward like a captain leading his troops on to victory, and cried:
“‘Into the deeper woods!’
“Instantly all the fathers pointed aloft in exactly the same manner, and away went the throng, raising more of a cry than before.
“At this I would have recalled them. But no sooner had I opened my mouth to do so than there came a warning ‘S-s-s-sh’ so tremendous that it fairly blew the hat off my head. And, looking to the left and to the right, I saw that I was standing between two great mud-colored posts, roofed in with a chin and the undermost side of a monstrous mouth overhung with a nose that came halfway to the ground!