This "brought the house down," as Uncle Daniel said, and there was so muchnoise the kittens looked frightened.
Next Harry stretched out both arms straight and the kittens carefully walked over into his hands.
"Well, I declare!" exclaimed Dinah. "Jest see dat Snoopy kitty-cat! If he can't do real reg'lar circus tricks! And jest to think how he cut up on de cars! 'Pears like as if he was doin' it fer jokes den too!""And look at Fluffy!" exclaimed Martha; "as white as Snoop is black!" Harry stooped down and let the kittens jump through his hands, which is an old but none the less a very pretty trick.
With the air of a real master, Bert snapped his whip and placed on the table a little piece of board. He rubbed something on each end (it was a bit of dried herring, but the people didn't know that), then Harry put Snoop on one end and Fluffy on the other.
"Oh, a teeter-tauter!" called Freddie, unable to restrain his joy any longer. "I bet on Snoop. He's the heaviest."At the sound of Freddie's voice Snoop turned around and the move sent Fluffy up the air.
"Oh! oh! oh!" came a chorus from the children, but before anybody in the circus had time to interfere off went Fluffy, as hard as she could run, over the lots, home.
The next minute Snoop was after her, and Harry stood alone in the ring bowing to the "tremendous applause."When the laughing had ceased Bert made the next announcement. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "we will now introduce our famousmenagerie.First we have the singing mice.""They're mine!" called Freddie, but Nan insisted on him keeping quiet. "Now you will hear the mice sing," said Bert, and as he held up thecage oflittle mice somebody whistled a funny tune back of the scenes. "Good!good!" called Mr. Bobbsey."We've got real talent here," headded,for indeed the boys had put together a fine show.
"Now you see our aquarium," went on Bert as Harry helped him bring forward the table that held the glass tank.
"Here we have a real sea serpent," he said, pointing to a good fat chub that flopped around in the water.
"Let the little ones walk right up and see them," Bert said. "Form in line and pass in this way."Not only the children went up, but grown folks too, for they wanted a look into the tank.
"Now here are our alligators and crocodiles," announced Bert, pointing his whip at the turtles.
"And these are sea-lions," he said, pointing out Freddie's hop-toads.
At each announcement everybody laughed, but Bert went on as seriously as if he were deaf.
"In this separate tank," he declared, "we have our boa-constrictors, the largest and fiercest in the world. This is the first time one of this specimen has ever been captured alive. Note the dangerous stripe on his back!"It was Jack's snakes that came in for this deion, and the girls were quite afraid of them, although they were in a glass jar.
"Well, I declare!" said Mrs. Burns. "If this isn't a sure-enough circus. Ioften paid a half-dollar when I went to see things no better than these!"Everybody thought everything was splendid, and the boys were well paid for their efforts.
"Now," said Bert, "here are our crystal fish from the deep sea!" (These were Tom's goldfish.) "You will notice how bespangled they are. They say this comes from the fish eating the diamonds lost in shipwrecks.""What a whopper!" called someone back of the scenes whose voice sounded like Torn Mason's.
Snap!went Bert's whip, and the boys did not interrupt him again. "The last part of our menagerie is the cage of prize butterflies," saidBert."These butterflies are rare and scarce and - ""Hard to catch!" remarked someone not on the programme.
"Now there will be ten minutes' intermission," the announcer said, "so all may have time to see everything in the menagerie.
"After that we will give you the best number of the programme, our chariot race.""Oh, that's going to be Tom!" exclaimed Roy. "No, it's Bert," said Flossie.
"Well, Jack has our goat-wagon," said Mildred.
"I guess there'll be a whole lot in the race," said Freddie, "and maybe they'll have firemen."During the intermission August sold a whole big basket of peanuts, and the people wanted more.They knew all the money was to go tothe fresh-aircamp, which was probably the reason they bought so generously.
"I don't know when I have enjoyed myself so much," declared Mrs. Manners, fanning herself. "I had no idea boys could be so clever.""That's because you only have girls," laughed Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Don't you think we ought to give them a treat for working so hard?" whispered Mrs. Herold to Aunt Sarah. "I would be delighted to have them all to dinner," she added, in her society way, for the Herolds were quite rich.
"That would be very nice, I'm sure," Aunt Sarah replied; "boys always have good appetites after having a lot of fun."All this time there was plenty of noise back of the scenes, and it was evident something big was being prepared.
Presently Bert and Harry came out and lowered tile tent flap, first making sure all the little sightseers were outside.
"They're comin'!" exclaimed Freddie, clapping his fat hands.
"Oh, I'm just so nervous!" whispered Flossie! "I hope none of the animalswill get loose.""Now, ladies and gentlemen," called Tom Mason, appearing at the tent, "if you will just turn round the other way in your seats and face that ring we will give you an exhibition of cowboy life on the plains!"
