AT THE CHURCH MOUSE’S CIRCUS
White Rabbit pretends to be a lion.
VIII
AT THE CHURCH MOUSE’S CIRCUS
Church Mouse had so much money after he came back from India that he decided to start a circus.
“There is nothing,” said he, “which will make so much money as a circus, for red lemonade costs only half a cent a barrel and we sell it for five cents a glass; and there is so very much money in selling candy at two sticks for a cent apiece that I really think that I ought to start a very fine circus.”
So he hired all the spiders he could find to make him a tent and had Patrick O’Possum cut some very fine tent poles. He pitched the tent right out in the middle of Deacon Jones’ meadow lot. He got Ugly Dog to sell tickets because nobody would dare to give Ugly Dog any bad money. Ugly Dog was such a good barker that all the animals and all the birds could hear him as he said:
“Here, birds and animals, is your superior circus. Step right up and see the fierce lion, brought from his native lair and the great and only striped tiger which can eat a man without asking by your leave. Come on, birds and animals, for this is the only show on earth owned by a church mouse. Circus, menagerie and hiphopadrome, all under one tent. Walk right up.”