coat away and brought him a chair, and dragged a table up to
it. They brought him letters and papers, and rang bells, and rolled
barrels, and swung the Italian in a big swing, and jumped a rope, and
walked up and down steps they just went around that stage as handy with
their teeth as two boys would be with their hands, and they seemed to
understand every word their master said to them.

"The best trick of all was telling the time and doing questions in
arithmetic. The Italian pulled his watch out of his pocket and showed it
to the first pony, whose name was Diamond, and said, 'What time is it?'
The pony looked at it, then scratched four times with his forefoot on
the platform. The Italian said, 'Zat's good four o'clock. But it's a few
minutes after four how many?' The pony scratched again five times. The
Italian showed his watch to the audience, and said that it was just five
minutes past four. Then he asked the pony how old he was. He scratched
four times. That meant four years. He asked him how many days in a week
there were, how many months in a year; and he gave him some questions in
addition and subtraction, and the pony answered them all correctly. Of
course, the Italian was giving him some sign; but, though we watched
him closely, we couldn't make out what it was. At last, he told the pony
that he had been very good, and had done his lessons well; if it would
rest him, he might be naughty a little while. All of a sudden a wicked
look came into the creature's eyes. He turned around, and kicked up his
heels at his master, he pushed over the table and chairs, and knocked
down a blackboard where he had been rubbing out figures with a sponge
held in his mouth. The Italian pretended to be cross, and said, 'Come,
come; this won't do,' and he called the other pony to him, and told
him to take that troublesome fellow off the stage. The second one nosed
Diamond, and pushed him about, finally bit him by the ear, and led him
squealing off the stage. The gander followed, gabbling as fast as he
could, and there was a regular roar of applause.

"After that, there were ladders brought in, Joe, and dogs came on; not
thoroughbreds, but curs something like you. The Italian says he can't
teach tricks to pedigree animals as well as to scrubs. Those dogs jumped
the ladders, and climbed them, and went through them, and did all kinds
of things. The man cracked his whip once, and they began; twice, and
they did backward what they had do