Then about twenty ants, all dressed up in green, rolled two great big balls into the middle of the ring. Each Tumblebug took one of these balls, which was as big as he was himself, and whirled it around and up and down, and then he lay on his back and with his feet threw the ball clear up into the air and caught it again. Then the Tumblebugs threw the balls back and forth to each other.
Nimble Grasshopper came out, and he jumped clear over the back of the make-believe elephant and the make-believe lion and came right down again on his feet. Then Leap Frog came stumbling out into the middle of the ring all covered over with flour and with red paint on his face and a little bit of a white pointed hat on his head.
“When is a mouse when it is spinning?” he asked.
All the animals and all the beasts looked at each other and said: “Why, we don’t understand. When is a mouse when it is spinning?”
Leap Frog looked all around, and then said: “What! Give it up? Don’t know? Can’t guess? Too hard? Why, it’s very easy indeed. The answer is, a paper of tacks.”
Church Mouse’s circus burns.
Then all the birds and all the animals laughed like anything.