bowed pompously and waved
his long claws to the audience. Then the Mock Turtle sang "Beautiful
Soup," and wept so profusely he toppled over at the end of the song and
lay flopping on his back. The Mad Hatter and the Griffon hastily raised
him only to find he had made a dreadful dent in his shell. This did not
hinder him from joining his friend, the Griffon, in "Won't You Join the
Dance?" which stately caper they performed around Alice, while the other
animals stood in a circle and marked time with their feet, solemnly
waving their paws and wagging their heads in unison.

The Cheshire Cat, who had a real Chessy Cat head which Gertrude Wells
had manufactured and painted, and who wore Arline's long squirrel coat
with a squirrel scarf trailing behind for a tail, executed a dance of
quaint steps and low bows. The Dodo jumped or rather walked through
three paper hoops, which had to be lowered to admit his chubby person.
The King and Queen gave a dialogue, every other line of which was "Off
with her head," and the Mad Hatter performed an eccentric dance
consisting of marvelous leaps and bounds that took him from one side of
the ring to the other with amazing rapidity. When he made his bow the
audience shouted with laughter and encored wildly, but with a last
nimble skip the panting Hatter made for the Griffon's ladder and,
seating himself upon it, refused to respond beyond a nod and a careless
wave of his hand. Later he left his perch and proceeded to convulse his
audience by sitting on his tall hat and taking a bite from his teacup,
the three-cornered bite having been carefully removed beforehand and
held temporarily in place with library paste until the proper moment.

As the Mad Hatter, Elfreda was entirely in her element. Her unusually
keen sense of humor prompted her to make her impersonation of the
immortal Hatter one long to be remembered by those who witnessed the
performance given by the famous animals. She was without doubt the
feature of the circus and the spectators were quick to note and applaud
her slightest movement.

The circus ended with an all-around acrobatic exhibition. The Dodo
performed on the trapeze. The Mock Turtle and the Cheshire Cat took
turns on a diminutive springboard. The March Hare and the Dormouse
energetically jumped over a small barrel. The Queen and the Duchess had
a fencing match, the Queen using her sceptre, the Duchess the rag baby
she carried, and to which she had sung the "Pepper Son