Frolic would go out again, and after he had gone I would come out from under the chair and sit down in front of Mr. Bonelli, and beg again and wave my paws up and down.
Mr. Bonelli would say, “So you want to play again. Sure you won’t run away with the ball this time?”
I would wave my paws harder.
“Very well, we’ll try once more, but remember! If you play any more of your tricks I’ll call the policeman again, and then he’ll take you away and shut you in the lock-up.”
And now would come the most difficult trick I ever had to learn. It was one that none of the other dogs could do. I don’t know whether any other dog ever did it or not. When Mr. Bonelli threw the ball to me this time, I would catch it and throw it back to him. This I would do by jerking my head forward and letting go of the ball at the same time. We would throw it backward and forward three or four times, and then we would stop, for it was hard for me to do this, and after doing it three or four times I was tired.
After that I would rest awhile, and some of the other dogs would do their tricks. A long red carpet would be unrolled across the stage, and Frisco, and Snaps, and Diamond and Sancho would turn somersaults across it from one side of the stage to the other.
After they had done this for a while they would stop and go back to their chairs, and three little round barrels painted with stripes of red, white and blue would be brought in.
This was an act for Sambo and Frolic and me. We would get on top of the barrels and roll them along with our feet from one end of the carpet to the other, always keeping on top of them and never falling off. That was a hard thing to do.
Then Graceful and Ruby would come in dressed like people. Graceful was the lady, with a skirt, and a hat with a feather in it, and Ruby was the gentleman, in a coat and trousers. Graceful’s dress was so long at the back that it trailed on the floor. The music played and they stood up on their hind legs and danced together, and after I had watched them for a while I would jump down and hop after them on my hind legs, and every now and then I would hop on Graceful’s train so he couldn’t dance and at last he would have to stop and run off the stage on all fours.
These are some of the acts we did, but there were a great many more of them.