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Updated: May 5, 2025
"It's small and round, like a rope," Jerry interposed quickly. "Of course it is," was Darn's comment. "I told him so!" exclaimed Jerry. "But how'd I know that you knew," asked Danny, aggrieved, "when you didn't know how you knew?" "I don't know," was all the explanation that Jerry could give.
"I guess you ain't got nothin' to say about whether Jerry goes or not," Danny interposed quickly. "He can go if he wants to." "No, he can't," contradicted Darn. "Why can't he?" Nora asked. "They don't let anybody in the poor farm go to the circus," was Darn's unexpected reply. "That's not got nothin' to do with Jerry!" cried Danny hotly. "I guess he ain't in no poor farm."
He some way knew that Darn Darner was telling the truth and that soon he would be torn away from the only home he could remember. His lips twisted and he felt the hot tears filling his eyes. Yet he denied Darn's statement with all his soul. "They won't! They shan't take me! I'll run away first!" "Much good that would do you," commented Darn unsympathetically. "It'd be easy enough to find you."
Phillips' only comment as he placed Jerry on the front seat and helped Celia Jane in beside him. Danny and Chris and Nora, in the meantime, had climbed into the back seat. Mr. Phillips clucked to the horses and they trotted off into town. Jerry felt greatly comforted to be riding home with this big, pleasant man, and the cruel edge of Darn's words began to wear off.
"He's goin' to be, though," pursued Darn calmly, in that restrained, superior, informative manner which sometimes can be so maddening. "I ain't either, am I, Danny?" Jerry appealed dolefully. "No, you ain't," Danny assured him. "Darn's jest tryin' to make you cry. Don't you let him scare you." "Jerry Elbow's goin' to the poor farm before the circus gets here," stated Darn.
"I'm a el'funt," said Danny proudly, "an' I jump the fence like the circus el'funt." "An el'funt!" cried Darn, turning his eyes up to the sky. "And he calls that an' el'funt!" "It is a el'funt," protested Jerry. Darn Darner laughed derisively. "You can 'maginary it's a el'funt," Chris explained. "It would take some imagination," was Darn's only comment on that.
Upon hearing Darn's words Jerry stretched out at full length in the road and his voice rose in a quavering wail of anguish. Celia Jane emitted a thinner, shriller wail. Nora came back to comfort them and was caught by the contagion so that she too plumped down in the road and wept.
"Hello, Jerry!" cried Darn in a loud voice, so that everybody would know he knew Jerry, and swaggered up close to the elephant. "How does it seem to be ridin' on an el'funt?" "Fine!" Jerry exclaimed ecstatically. "Don't you wish you was up here?" Danny asked in a voice that was not nearly so friendly as Jerry's had been. "Anybody would, I guess," was Darn's reply. "Well, you ain't," said Danny.
He had been somewhat comforted by their stout assertions that Darn's words were false, but now ! He was stunned. Then his lips twisted and twitched and the tears that had been forming in his eyes spilled silently over. "Don't get scared, Jerry," Danny tried to comfort him. Then he turned to the tormentor. "Darn you, Darn, why can't you let him be!" There it was!
They had not set eyes on him since the day he broke up their circus and they were doubtful as to how he would behave towards them. "Just pretend as though nothing had never happened," Nora suggested. "Yes, that's best," Danny agreed. "Let him speak first." They watched Darn's nearer approach without seeming to do so.
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