“It’s nice,” was Trouble’s way of thanking Mr. Harrison. “But how am I goin’ to feed a nellifunt peanuts away up here?” and he seemed quite worried about it.
“Save your peanuts until this afternoon, dear, and feed them to the elephant in the circus animal tent,” advised his mother.
“But I want to feed peanuts to a nellifunt right now!” wailed Trouble, and it is hard to tell to what lengths he might have gone had not some voices cried:
“Here it comes! Here comes the parade! I see the camels! I see the elephants!”
That was enough for William. He ceased to cry out about his peanuts, and almost trembled with excitement as he stood on the stool Mr. Harrison had provided for him.
At last the circus procession was in sight—happy time!
There were troops of horsemen on their prancing steeds, gay in trappings of gold, silver, crimson and green. There were cowboys and cowgirls, riding their western ponies. Swinging their lassos and waving their broad-brimmed hats, these riders of the plains kept up a constant yelling of:
“Hi! Yi! Yippi! Yi! Wow! Whoopee!”
“There’s the nellifunts! There’s the nellifunts!” cried Trouble, as the big beasts slowly shuffled past. “Oh, there’s the nellifunts!”
There was a goodly number of elephants with this circus—more than usual, it seemed. For after the first herd had passed, Ted, looking down the street, announced: