Now he merely turned the paper over, took out a stubby lead pencil, licked it and began to write on the blank side, flattening the paper on his bank book.
FOR SALE—1 Band Wagon, 1 Swan Chariot, 3 Lion Cages.
He paused here in his laborious scrawl and, despite his resolution of silence, muttered:
“It’s going to be a clean sale. I don’t never in all my life want to hear of a circus, see a circus, talk circus, see a circus man——”
“Crack ’em down, gents!” squalled the parrot. It was the first time for many hours that he had heard his master’s voice, and the sound cheered him. He hooked his beak around a wire and rattled away jovially. He seemed to be relieved by the absence of the other plug hat that had been absorbing so much of the familiar, beloved and original plug hat’s attention.
Ivory looked up at Elkanah vindictively and then resumed his soliloquy.
“No, sir, never! Half of circusing is a skin game all through—and I’ve done my share of the skinning. But to be skinned twice—me, I. Buck, proprietor—and the last time the worst, but——”
“Twenty can play it as well as one!” the parrot yelled, cocking his eye over the edge of the cage.
It was an evil scowl that flashed up from under the plug hat, but Elkanah in his new joy was oblivious.
“Me a man that’s been all through it from A to Z—my affections trod on, all confidence in females destroyed and nothing ahead of me all the rest of my life! No, sir, I never want to hear of a circus again. Bit by the mouths I fed—and they thumbing their noses at me. That trick——”