"Then they have more horses, do they?" asked Kenneth.
"It's so hard for you to learn," answered his companion. "Of course not! The Señor rides a bicycle."
By this time they were in their seats and looking down at the big ring, which was much larger than the ordinary circus ring. There were pneumatic cushions to sit on and to lean against. There was a brass band at one side of the tent which seemed louder than any brass band which Kenneth had ever heard before. He noticed that the musicians did not put the horns and other brass instruments to their lips, but that they held big rubber bags in their laps, to which they were attached. He asked his companion about it.
"Pneumatic bags. Full of compressed air. Blows the horns. Saves wear on lips," he answered, shortly. He was becoming much excited about the coming performance.
Soon the band began to play louder than ever, the curtains at one side of the tent parted, and the grand parade slowly filed in. The audience broke into such a hand-clapping that Kenneth was obliged to hold his own hands over his ears. It was like a dozen Fourth of July's. He looked around to find the cause, and saw that everybody was wearing gloves with big fat puffy palms, which they were clapping together as hard as they possibly could.
"What are they?" he asked of the young man, who also had on the funny gloves, and was clapping away harder than anybody else.
"Pneumatic! pneumatic!" he shouted, and kept on clapping.
In the ring the performers were all mounted on bicycles, which were slowly bearing them around, two abreast. The wheels were painted all colors, and the riders wore fancy and bright costumes. The band had also mounted bicycles, and went round with the rest, playing as hard as ever. The young man pointed out Señor Chinchilla and all of the noted performers, and Kenneth could hear him above the uproar quoting more from the bills. At the end of the procession was the clown, almost as round as a ball, riding a wheelbarrow instead of a bicycle, but which seemed to be trained to go nearly as well as the bicycles. Kenneth had seen clowns wearing clothes all padded out before, but never one so round and ball-like as this one; but his companion was laughing so at the clown that it was a long time before he could explain, and then all that Kenneth could catch was "pneumatic suit."
"Can't he walk?" asked Kenneth.
"Oh no," chuckled the young man. "He's too round. He just rolls everywhere he wants to go. Did you ever see anything so funny?"