“’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.”