Sonny Boy asked for J. Simpkins at the tent door, showing his bit of paper, and he was told to follow a porter straight to the cage of the most ferocious-looking Wild Man that ever was seen!
He had horns, and he had tusks, and a mane like a horse, and yet when he laughed, Sonny Boy could see, as plainly as could be, that he was only the sailor who had bought the parrot!
If one could only be a Wild Man like that, in their barn at Poppleton, thought Sonny Boy, what fun it would be!
But there was no time to take a lesson in being a Wild Man this morning, as the procession was to start soon. And it happened that the boy who rode the buffalo was ill with the mumps, so they really needed another boy.
And the buffalo boy’s scarlet and gold-laced tunic and trousers were an exact fit for Sonny Boy, who looked quite straight and handsome in them!
That buffalo was such a huge beast that Sonny Boy had to mount him by means of a step-ladder. He was bigger than any geography buffalo you ever saw. And he tossed his horned head and pawed the ground with his great hoofs in a way that made Sonny Boy’s heart go pit-a-pat.
But there was no outward sign that Sonny Boy’s heart was going pit-a-pat. He was not going to miss the proudest moment of his life because he was afraid! When he rode out into the crowded street, the huge buffalo following after the troops of tiny Shetland ponies, the better to show his size, and the crowd shouted and cheered, if Sonny Boy did for a little while forget even Otto it was not strange!
But Otto did not allow himself to be forgotten. He wanted to see that procession with his own eyes. He had lain awake all night thinking about it. When the hospital supply-wagon was at the gate in the morning he watched his chance to slip out unobserved, and climbed into the back of the wagon!
It hurt him so that his white face grew whiter and there were drops on his forehead. He broke one of his crutches, too, and the other fell out of the wagon. But he was not found out! The driver was in a hurry, perhaps because he wished to see the procession himself. He jumped into the front of the wagon, without a glance at the back, and off down the hill rattled the wagon, with Otto in the back, in his dressing-gown, with a hospital blanket pinned over his shoulders.