He looked as if he understood every
word that his master was saying. After this story was over, the Italian
made another bow, and then told the pony to bow. He nodded his head at
the people, and they all laughed. Then the Italian asked him to favor us
with a waltz, and the pony got up on his hind legs and danced. You
should have seen that gander skirmishing around, so as to be near the
pony and yet keep out of the way of his heels. We fellows just roared,
and we would have kept him dancing all the afternoon if the Italian
hadn't begged 'ze young gentlemen not to make ze noise, but let ze pony
do ze rest of his tricks.' Pony number two came on the stage, and it was
too queer for anything to see the things the two of them did. They
helped the Italian on with his coat, they pulled off his rubbers, they
took his coat away and brought him a chair, and dragged a table up to
it. They brought him letters and papers, and rang bells, and rolled
barrels, and swung the Italian in a big swing, and jumped a rope, and
walked up and down steps--they just went around that stage as handy with
their teeth as two boys would be with their hands, and they seemed to
understand every word their master said to them.
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