Then I would turn round and sit the right way and grin at him, and he would seem very much surprised when he looked round and saw me sitting that way.
Later, when we acted in a theatre with people looking on, I found this trick always made the people laugh.
(Mr. Bonelli didn’t call it a trick, though; he called it an “act.”)
Another “act” we did was the Jumping Act.
A long board would be put on the stage with one end resting on something high so that it stuck up in the air. A mattress was always laid on the stage down below the high end. The dogs would run up the board and jump off on the mattress. The mattress was put there so they wouldn’t hurt their legs when they came down.
All the dogs would jump except me, but I would just sit and look on.
Then the mattress would be moved further off, and a chair would be put between it and the board. The dogs would run up the board and jump off the end and out over the chair and light on the mattress as before. Then the mattress would be moved further and two chairs put there. The little dogs would stop jumping then. But most of the larger dogs kept on.
Then two chairs and a table would be put there for them to jump over, and then two chairs and two tables, and so on. After a while the jumps would be so long that only Graceful and Punch could do them. They were both fine jumpers, but Graceful was the best.
Now I would get down from my chair and trot over to Mr. Bonelli and stand up on my hind legs in front of him and bark: “Bow-wow-wow-wow!”
“What, Grineo!” he would say. “You want to try it, too?”