ANIMALS

A WEEK or two after we got home, I heard the Morris boys talking about
an Italian who was coming to Fairport with a troupe of trained animals,
and I could see for myself whenever I went to town, great flaming
pictures on the fences, of monkeys sitting at tables, dogs and ponies,
and goats climbing ladders, and rolling balls, and doing various
tricks. I wondered very much whether they would be able to do all those
extraordinary things, but it turned out that they did.

The Italian's name was Bellini, and one afternoon the whole Morris
family went to see him and his animals, and when they came home, I heard
them talking about it. "I wish you could have been there, Joe," said
Jack, pulling up my paws to rest on his knees. "Now listen, old fellow
and I'll tell you all about it. First of all, there was a perfect jam
in the town hall. I sat up in front, with a lot of fellows, and had
a splendid view. The old Italian came out dressed in his best suit of
clothes black broadcloth, flower in his buttonhole, and so on. He made
a fine bow, and he said he was 'pleased too see ze fine audience, and he
was going to show zem ze fine animals, ze finest animals in ze world.'
Then he shook a little whip that he carried in his hand, and he said
'zat zat whip didn't mean zat he was cruel. He cracked it to show his
animals when to begin, end, or change their tricks.' Some boy yelled,
'Rats! you do whip them sometimes,' and the old man made another bow,
and said, 'Sairteenly, he whipped zem just as ze mammas whip ze naughty
boys, to make zem keep still when zey was noisy or stubborn.'

"Then everybody laughed at the boy, and the Italian said the performance
would begin by a grand procession of all the animals, if some lady would
kindly step up to the piano and play a march. Nina Smith you know Nina,
Joe, the girl that has black eyes and wears blue ribbons, and lives
around the corner stepped up to the piano, and banged out a fine loud
march. The doors at the side of the platform opened, and out came the
animals, two by two, just like Noah's ark. There was a pony with a
monkey walking beside it and holding on to its mane, another monkey on a
pony's back, two monkeys hand in hand, a dog with a parrot on his back,
a goat harnessed to a little carriage, another goat carrying a birdcage
in its mouth with two canaries inside, different kinds of cats, some
doves and pigeons, half a dozen white rats with red harness, and
dragging a little