o beat four of a kind,
but Jake just tightened up a bit and grinned and Adipose let out
another holler.

"'You need a traction engine on that rope,' says I when they gave it up
as a bad job, and Merritt, who was looking a little discouraged, gave a
whoop.

"'Bring an elephant,' he yelled, and when one of the boys started off on
a run for the menagerie, he called after him to 'make that order two
elephants.' The Hathis came lumbering over, and Merritt tied the rope
around the shoulders of one and put another rope around Jake's neck and
the shoulders of the other elephant.

"'Now pull, blame you!' says he, heading 'em in different directions and
giving one of 'em a kick, and they put their shoulders against the
ropes. It was a mighty interesting performance to every one but Adipose,
who didn't seem to enjoy it at all, judging from the yells he let out.
Jake was having the time of his life, and the harder the elephants
pulled the tighter he squeezed the Signor, and when he felt that they
were getting the better of him he made a supreme effort which kinked up
every muscle in his body. But there was no holding on against those
brutes, and pretty soon the fat man commenced to slip out from the
coils, feet first. It was a queer thing to watch and his legs stretched
so that I thought his knees would never come into sight. His legs had
been about the size of barrels when the snake grabbed him, but between
the stretching and the squeezing they were now three times as long and
about as large as broomsticks. He weighed as much as ever when the
elephants finally got him out, but the flesh was distributed differently
and instead of being six feet tall and twelve feet around, he was twelve
feet long and built in proportion. The snake was up against it, too, for
he had cramped himself so with that last squeeze that he couldn't
straighten out the kinks, and he kept in the same shape as when he was
wrapped around the Signor. We tried to straighten him out, but it was no
use; he just stayed coiled up like a spring and the boys rolled him
around as if he were a barrel.

"Merritt had kept cheerful as long as there was anything to be done, but
tears came to his eyes when he looked at Adipose. The Signor was
standing up, gazing at his feet, which he hadn't seen before in twenty
years, and Merritt looked up at him and freed his mind.

"'You're a blame fine figure of a fat man, aren't you, now?' says he.
'Just on account of your confounde