"I wish you could have been there, Joe," said
Jack, pulling up my paws to rest on his knees. "Now listen, old fellow,
and I'll tell you all about it. First of all, there was a perfect jam in
the town hall. I sat up in front, with a lot of fellows, and had a
splendid view. The old Italian came out dressed in his best suit of
clothes--black broadcloth, flower in his buttonhole, and so on. He made
a fine bow, and he said he was 'pleased too see ze fine audience, and he
was going to show zem ze fine animals, ze finest animals in ze world.'
Then he shook a little whip that he carried in his hand, and he said
'zat zat whip didn't mean zat he was cruel. He cracked it to show his
animals when to begin, end, or change their tricks.' Some boy yelled,
'Rats! you do whip them sometimes,' and the old man made another bow,
and said, 'Sairteenly, he whipped zem just as ze mammas whip ze naughty
boys, to make zem keep still when zey was noisy or stubborn.'
"Then everybody laughed at the boy, and the Italian said the performance
would begin by a grand procession of all the animals, if some lady would
kindly step up to the piano and play a march.
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