Billy, safely stowed away in the big pine box, had time to think matters over and lay a few plans. Presently he began to laugh to himself the way the elephant had fixed him.
“The very idea of calling that long thing, which I now know must be his nose, a hitching strap,” whispered Billy to himself. “It’s enough to make a dog laugh.”
You see that Billy did not even yet know that it was the elephant’s trunk, but called it his nose.
“I wish the Treat boys hadn’t been there,” Billy went on. “They will tell everybody at Cloverleaf Farm how it all happened and Polly Parrot at least will never be through laughing at it.”
Billy needn’t have worried over this for it was many a day before he was to see his friends at Cloverleaf Farm again, and when he finally returned they were all so glad to see him that nobody, not even Polly Parrot, for a long time thought of making fun of him.
But I am getting away ahead of my story. There are many adventures to relate before the memorable home-coming was brought to pass.
CHAPTER VII
BILLY IN DANGER
FROM his hiding-place in the big box, Billy could look into the section of the tent where the performances were now going on, could see the clown in his outlandish dress, hear the shouts of laughter that followed his remarks, observe the bare-back riding, and watch the trapeze performers.
He had just about made up his mind that it was safe for him to start out again when he overheard some talking near at hand that caused him not only to pause, but to shrink into the smallest space he could in the darkest corner of his hiding-place.