THE day was fine. Billy, not long released from his green shade, wondered if the world was ever so lovely before; the flowers so sweet, the birds so . Could it be only a few short weeks since that gray Sunday? Billy’s had quickened him, introduced him to himself; now he looked on life with wider eyes, with a more understanding heart.
He was out early wheeling from house to house, where various parts of the “show” were receiving last touches. One by one he gathered each “attraction,” and them all to Jimmy’s big barn, where the procession was to form. Some were late, Bess for one; but Billy was not anxious about her.
It had been hard to persuade her, though her heart was aching to join the fun. “Huh! Do you suppose I’d be a common snake-charmer?”
“Common?” Billy retorted, “they can’t be common. They have to have power more’n anybody. And snake charmers ’most always are Egyptian Princesses, or of some kind,” he added hastily, lest exact Bess should call on him for a of his princesses.
The magic name won the day. Bess was ever dreaming of the land of mystery, whose pictured daughters of old she resembled; and the chance to masquerade in its atmosphere her.
Max was the first to be quite ready with his exhibit. It was a queer creature that one gradually discovered to be some sort of a bird; though such a one had never before been seen on land or sea. Max had arrayed his mother’s big white gander for the occasion. A turkey-tail fan made a huge breastplate, if one can imagine a breastplate of feathers. All the long-tailed roosters that had been killed in town for months, one would guess, had contributed to the coat of feathers that was tied over the body of the bird. And no one knew by what magic the boy had some one to lend him the magnificent peacock that rose high above the little wiggling goose tail.
In a cage of wire netting bearing the legend, “The Roc—The Egg,” the uncomfortable gander swayed and craned his neck; and all but his voice was satisfactory. In the bottom of the cage a stone the size of a small did duty as the egg.
A three-legged rooster appeared. And Sir Thomas Katzenstein, according to schedule, roamed his box in great , though in fine form, impressively carrying out the label on his cage, “Baby Royal Bengal Tiger.”
Lying in silent on his familiar cushion, Flash, as the “Polar Bear,” did equally well; while Bouncer between the fills of the home-made, bunting-draped chariot that served as “The Polar Bear’s Snowy of the North.”
There was a half-grown with an artificial hump for the “Water Buffalo”; and and Clarence were cunningly together for the Siamese Twins.
“But they are dead,” Jimmy protested.
“But couldn’t another pair have been born in Siam?” May Nell questioned; and as no one felt informed to deny it, Harry and Clarence continued their strained relations.
The Prettymans’ white cow was ingeniously shaped and caparisoned to represent “India’s Sacred White Elephant”; and Jackson was the Hindoo leader. This exhibit caused much . The attendant should ride on the neck of the elephant, all agreed to that; but the cow objected; so they compromised by having Jackson walk. The matter of costume for Jackson was not so easily settled, as the differing pictures of sacred elephants presented a variation in the attendants’ . May Nell,—who was to be the “Fair Princess of Bombay,”—as soon as she could get a hearing, ended the dispute by suggesting that Jackson be allowed his choice in the matter of dress, an alternative that permitted each disputant to withdraw from the argument with honor.
Jimmy had the trick and the trained dogs. Teaching them was the chief joy of his life. What if there were only two ponies, and their spots were painted on? And what if the children had seen all the tricks over and over again? They were good as new each time. Besides, the ponies’ one brand-new trick, when at the crack of a whip they stood on their feet in , was so effective that it frightened May Nell. She saw it first in the barn; and when their shod came down she thought they would crash right through the floor.
Jean was the Goddess of Liberty; Shifty and another larger boy the steeds that pulled her car. But boys and box were so in bunting that only the Goddess was , , well-balanced, stately, and fair.
One tall, ambitious girl contributed a unique float called, “Lot’s Wife Looking Backward.” She had not been certain of the color for the desert, consequently had made the whole thing, including the wagon, the boys, and herself snowy white. She had copied an old Bible picture, carrying out the idea with sheets, and such liberal doses of flour, that only a heavy dew was needed to turn the float to instead of salt. However, the sun shone, and the addition of diamond dust over all made a very realistic picture that Billy praised .
Guinea pigs, pigeons, and other and larger live stock, normal or otherwise, masqueraded as marvellous creatures from foreign lands.
Bess arrived at last. A gorgeous affair was her chariot, the foundation being Mr. Prettyman’s spring wagon. Bess, with some borrowings, Charley’s help, and her own quick invention, had made a very good imitation of a circus wagon. Charley, the Strong Man, held the over old Dom Pedro, the horse she loved, that had once been a racer. She had discovered some very real looking, snakes that and curved in a manner startlingly ; while tremendous boa constrictors, cut from old circus posters, were disposed about the cage in alarmingly lifelike positions.
Bess’s coming launched the procession. People in the vicinity who had not before known of the presence of a circus, knew it now. Everybody talked at once, and every living thing made its own kind of a noise. Billy as Master of Ceremonies had his hands full, his voice full too, one might say.
But at last they got under way and proceeded as quietly as possible down the back street to the home of Mrs. Lancaster, where Buzz, as the “Prize Baby of Vine County,” awaited them in his car, which was very handsome,—one would never have dreamed it was only a large wash-tub strapped to a coaster; flowers and cloth do make such wonderful changes if handled with art!
That preliminary march was not without adventure. The “howdah” on the White Elephant where May Nell rode as the Fair Princess of Bombay, became loose and threatened to spill its small bit of royalty. And when Harold cinched the thing t............