And the smell of the kerosene;
The mule, and the monkey, and tall giraffe,
The “juggerlin’-man” with his magic staff,
The girl who went round with her photograph
(And oh, but we thought her a queen!)
We started a show on our own behalf,
“Performed” on the back of a poddy calf,
And sighed for the might-have-been.
Now the circus comes to town,
And it rattles along, and a bare-foot throng