Again the fat lady smiled, and adjusted her red-silk robe, the skirt of which came nearly to the top of a pair of silvered boots, in order that the visitors might see the fabric more clearly.
“She’s bigger’n that woman down on Chatham Square,” Sadie suggested; but in this Josiah could not agree with her.
“I don’t think so,” he said as he viewed the mountain of flesh critically; and, from some unexplained cause, the great woman began to frown. “I oughter know somethin’ ’bout such things, ’cause last fall I guessed within four pounds on the weight of Deacon Parson’s hog, an’ that was two pounds nearer than anybody else could come. She’s a good bit smaller than that other woman.”
“Little boy, are you talking about Madame Fragile, who is exhibiting on Chatham Square?” the fat lady asked, inclining her gigantic head as near Josiah as the pillow-like shoulders would permit.
The boy from Berry’s Corner was so surprised at hearing her speak, that it was impossible to make any answer; and not until the question had been repeated, did even Sadie venture to reply, when she said:—
“Yes’m, I guess that’s the one we mean; she’s in the Palace of Wonders down there.”
“Then don’t make any mistake about the size, for I am nearly ten pounds heavier than she is, and three-quarters of an inch larger around the waist. She isn’t such a wonderful fat woman, and it has been conceded by the best judges in the country that I am one of the greatest marvels of the age.”
Then the lady balanced her head squarely on her shoulders once more, gave an extra flirt to the short skirt in order to display the embroidery to better advantage, and Josiah was awed.
That he had incurred the anger of such an enormous woman was very sad, or, at least, he thought so; and his sorrow at having ventured an opinion was increased when he saw her talking, as if on terms of the greatest intimacy, with the giant.
Sadie understood that her friend was ill at ease; and she led him to the platform occupied by the Circassian beauty, where he soon forgot the injury to his feelings as he gazed in wonder and surprise at the pink eyes and white hair of the alleged lovely “Zerlina.”