ious of a misspent life. He stood dejected and
motionless at one side of the tent, and it was hard to believe that
there was a spark of vitality left in him. A great number of the people
had never seen an elephant before, and we heard a thin little old man,
who stood near us, say delightedly, "There's the old creatur', and no
mistake, Ann 'Liza. I wanted to see him most of anything. My sakes
alive, ain't he big!"

And Ann 'Liza, who was stout and sleepy-looking, droned out, "Ye-es,
there's consider'ble of him; but he looks as if he ain't got no
animation."

Kate and I turned away and laughed, while Mrs. Kew said confidentially,
as the couple moved away, "_She_ needn't be a reflectin' on the poor
beast. That's Mis Seth Tanner, and there isn't a woman in Deephaven nor
East Parish to be named the same day with her for laziness. I'm glad she
didn't catch sight of me; she'd have talked about nothing for a
fortnight."

There was a picture of a huge snake in Deephaven, and I was just
wondering where he could be, or if there ever had been one, when we
heard a boy ask the same question of the man whose thankless task it was
to stir up the lions with a stick to make them roar. "The snake's dead,"
he answered good-naturedly. "Didn't you have to dig an awful long grave
for him?" asked the boy; but the man said he reckoned they curled him up
some, and smiled as he turned to his lions, who looked as if they needed
a tonic. Everybody lingered longest before the monkeys, who seemed to be
the only lively creatures in the whole collection; and finally we made
our way into the other tent, and perched ourselves on a high seat, from
whence we had a capital view of the audience and the ring, and could see
the people come in. Mrs. Kew was on the lookout for acquaintances, and
her spirits as well as our own seemed to rise higher and higher. She was
on the alert, moving her head this way and that to catch sight of
people, giving us a running commentary in the mean time. It was very
pleasant to see a person so happy as Mrs. Kew was that day, and I dare
say in speaking of the occasion she would say the same thing of Kate and
me,--for it was such a good time! We bought some peanuts, without which
no circus seems complete, and we listened to the conversations which
were being carried on around us while we were waiting for the
performance to begin. There were two old farmers whom we had noticed
occasionally in Deephaven; one was telling the other