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Oh, my gorry!" and again he rocked back and forth, holding his sides. Then he was attacked by a fit of coughing and finally, when he got his breath, he said: "Don't you kids know nothing of national history? Hain't you ever seen a picture of an el'funt? Its tail is nothing like that a-tall." "How's it different?" Danny asked in a very meek voice.
"You just just play it," he answered. "'Maginary you're an el'funt jumpin' a fence and all." "I'll be the el'funt!" cried Danny. "I want to be the el'funt," objected Chris. "The el'funt's mine," Jerry asserted and he closed his lips tightly. Danny didn't have any right to that elephant. "I saw it first," he added. "I said 'I'll be the el'funt' first, didn't I?" asked Danny.
"Jerry orter have first choice," said Nora, the conciliator, "seein' it was him thought of playin' circus." "I guess I can jump the highest, can't I?" Danny asked in a tone that said as plain as day that that settled the matter. "It's my el'funt!" insisted Jerry. "You always take first choice," Chris complained. "You could take turns about being el'funt," Nora suggested.
Women put their fingers in their ears as the drums passed. And when at the end of each verse the Ancients swelled their red-shirted bosoms and screamed, Uncle Trufant hissed in the ear of his nearest neighbor on the post-office steps: "The only thing we need is the old Vienny company here to give 'em the stump! Old Vienny, as it used to be, could lick 'em, el'funt and all."
"The el'funt will now jump the fence," came the voice of Danny, issuing from the mouth of the green elephant. "Hey, you kids! Get the boards for the fence," he called to Chris and Celia Jane, who had sat down on the ground while Nora walked the rope.
"He knew that el'funts' tails are small and round like a rope, but he didn't know how he knew." "I see," said the clown. "That is an important fact. I'm glad you told me." "An' he said 'O Queen' when he saw the picture of the el'funt jumping the fence!" cried Danny excitedly. "Just the same as he did at the circus when the band stopped playin' an' before the el'funt picked him up."
"There's Danny on the el'funt and Chris too!" "For land sakes!" cried Mrs. Mullarkey. "Nothing has happened to any of the children, has there?" "We're all right, Mother 'Larkey!" Jerry assured her. "Nothing at all, madam," said Whiteface approaching her, "except that Jerry Elbow has found his parents." Mrs. Mullarkey stared at Whiteface, too astounded to speak.
"Then if you ain't ever been to a circus or seen a el'funt, I guess you don't know what you are talking about." "El'funts' tails are little, like a rope," Jerry insisted. "Like a cow's tail?" asked Celia Jane. Jerry nodded assent. "Only they haven't so much hair on the end," he added.
"You'll do what I tell you to! You're an officer, and under orders." "You told me once to take up Hiram Look's el'funt and put her in the pound," remonstrated the constable. "But I didn't do it, and I wasn't holden to do it. And I ain't holden to run up and git blowed to everlastin' hackmetack with a bag of dynamite."
"Hello, Celia Jane! I'm ridin' on a el'funt!" Jerry cried shrilly to make her hear. Celia Jane both heard and saw and she seemed glued to the gate-post with surprise. Her mouth opened as though she were going to speak and remained open, without a word coming out. Nora turned and fled into the house crying: "Mother! Mother! Jerry's ridin' by on a el'funt from the circus!"
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