the
literary nutriment which it required.

Rounders went to the opening performance of Smith's Circus and Menagerie
Combination Company. The ground leading up to the front of the canvas
was garnished in the usual way. There were two small parasitic tents
near the great one, on which primitive pictures hung of the woman of
enormous girth and the calf with six legs. A man stood at the flap
entrance of each, inviting people to enter and see these wonders of
nature for a moderate sum. Near by was the lemonade wagon, whose
proprietor was handing out glasses of his fluid with a briskness that
showed that many were athirst.

When he entered the great tent the brass band was blowing blatantly,
four cavaliers in rusty spangles and four dowdy women were riding round
the ring, going through the old-time preliminary called the grand entry;
for whatever else may change, the circus remains faithful to its
traditions. The Yorick of the sawdust soon followed, and said the things
which convulsed us with laughter in our tender years, and which cause us
to smile in our maturity in the recollections they bring back. It was
the same bold joke and the same grimace. The quips and quirks force on
us the fact that there is but little originality in the human mind, and
this was substantially the reflection of Rounders as he turned an
indifferent ear to the wearisome wit. He prided himself on his acumen,
and was not to be taken in with such worn buffoonery. Yet I trow that
even Rounders envied the children who gave themselves over body and soul
to the accredited man of humor.

He looked at the woman going through the hoops, the trick pony seeking
for the hidden handkerchief, and the bareback rider turning a summerset,
with a mild interest, for he had seen them or something like them
before. The strong man who threw up the cannon balls into the air, and
allowed them to fall on his nape, to roll down the hollow of his back to
the ground, hardly aroused this indifferent spectator. What he looked
forward to with curiosity was the performance of the lion-tamer, and
when it did come it exceeded his expectations.

The master of the ring, attired in what resembled the uniform of an
officer of the navy, stepped into the middle of the arena, and with the
affectation of good breeding characteristic of the class, said, "Ladies
and gentlemen: I have the honor to announce that John Brinton, the most
extraordinary and celebrated tamer of lions in the world