“It’s too bad the Captain had to be Ringmaster and can’t take part in the show,” sighed Hinpoha. “Then there’d be enough without Slim.”
“We wouldn’t dare leave him out, anyway,” said Gladys. “It would hurt his feelings. So we’ll just have to draw lots for him, and whoever gets him will have to make the best of it, that’s all.” So they drew slips of paper from a hat and Hinpoha drew Slim, just as she had feared right along. Sahwah drew the Monkey, which suited her down to the ground, for he was a famous sprinter, and she lost no time getting the girls to ask the boys whose names they had drawn in that secret ballot upstairs to be their steeds in the race. Slim’s face lighted up with such a delighted smile when Hinpoha apparently chose him for her own that her heart smote her when she thought how this choice had been thrust upon her. Slim was already beginning to learn the bitter truth that nobody loves a fat man. Nyoda and the Captain plotted the circus parade and it was a triumph of ingenuity. The advance bills which they scattered broadcast among their friends announced that the parade would embrace “Five ferocious animals from the Other Side of Nowhere, these animals being respectively The Camelk, The Crabbit, The Alligatortoise, The Kangarooster, and The Salmonkey.
Other numbers on the program were as follows:
Ivan Awfulitch, world’s greatest magician; royal entertainer to the King of Spain. Was banished to Siberia; escaped and swam to America; has now opened up a complete line of magic. One day only.
Mr. Skygack, from Mars, in a special song feature entitled the Mars-y-lays.
La Zingara, the bareback rider.
Sandhelo, the famous trick mule. As intelligent as two men and a school teacher.
Mr. Avoirdupois Slim, fattest man on earth. Will sit on a toothpick.
Mr. E. Lastic, Inja rubber man.
Archibald Dimples the better baby.