e wasn't smiling. He grabbed me before I had a chance to say a
word, and when I jerked loose, which I did right away, for I didn't want
to stir up any fuss there, I left quite a piece of my ear with the tame
hyena, and tripped backward over the rope and rolled right in front of a
creature called an elephant, about as big as a house and not as useful.
"I suppose they thought _he_ was tame, too, but he must have been tamed
by the same man, for he grabbed me with a kind of a tail that grew on
the end of his nose--a thing a good deal like Mr. 'Possum's tail, only
about a million times as big--and I could hear my ribs crack as he waved
me up and down.
"Of course, as I say, I didn't want to stir up any fuss, but I couldn't
keep still under such treatment as that, and I called right out to Mr.
Man, where he sat looking at the fancy people riding, and told him that
I had had enough of the show, and if he wanted to take any of me home,
he ought not to wait very long, but come over that way and see if he
couldn't get the tame elephant to practise that performance on the hyena
or the next dog, because I had had plenty, and was willing to go home
just as I was, all in one piece, even if not very lively.
"Mr. Man _came_, too, and so did a lot of the others. They seemed to
think that I was more to look at than those riding people; and some of
them laughed, though what there was happening that was funny I have
never been able to guess to this day. I kept right on telling Mr. Man
what I wanted him to do, and mebbe I made a good deal of noise about it,
for it seemed to stir up those other animals. There was a cage full of
lions that started the most awful roaring you can think of, and a cage
of crazy-looking things they called monkeys that screeched and howled
and swung back and forth in rings and held on to the bars, and all the
other things joined in, until I couldn't tell whether I was still saying
anything or not. I suppose they were all jealous of the elephant because
of the fun he was having, and howling to be let out so they could get
hold of me too.
"Well, you never heard of such a time. It nearly broke up the show.
Everybody ran over to look, and even the riding people stopped their
horses to enjoy it, too. If it only hadn't been so dangerous and
unpleasant I should have been proud of the way they came to see me
perform.
"But Mr. Man didn't seem to like it much. I heard him tell somebody, as
loud as he could, that I w
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