e circus was to be held.

As they came nearer they could hear the sound of the church bell
ring out on the stillness, calling the people to early morning
mass, and soon they could see the people going to church, and the
mothers take their children by the hand and pull them into the
church as they did not want them to see anything so wicked as a
circus procession on Sunday morning.

Billy noticing this, said, "Let us give the children a treat.
When the people are all in the church we will walk in and see
what it looks like inside."

The two mischief-makers hung around out of sight, until the
people had stopped going in, then they walked boldly into the
vestibule. Here they saw a marble basin filled with clear,
cool-looking water. They stopped and drank it, not knowing it was
the holy water the Catholics cross themselves with before
entering church.

The church aisle was separated from the vestibule only by two
green baize doors. These Billy and Betty pushed open with their
noses and while the organ was playing and the priests were
kneeling, Billy and Betty walked the whole length of the middle
aisle, side by side, as if they were a bridal couple. When they
arrived at the altar, Billy stopped and commenced to eat some
roses that were in a vase on the altar steps.

The congregation sat stupefied with horror to see these animals
in church and directly behind the kneeling priest and choir boys.
The music made Betty lonesome and she threw up her head and let
out such a loud, mule-like bray that it frightened the kneeling
priest and he jumped up as if shot for he thought he had heard
Balaam's ass bray; but when he turned and saw standing behind him
a live burro and a goat, his astonishment knew no bounds and he
stood gazing at them with open mouth, while the choir boys
laughed and giggled and thought it a good joke.

Soon the ushers and deacons came to their senses enough to come
forward and try to drive the beasts out. But when Billy saw them
coming he ran up the altar steps into the pulpit, and Betty ran
through the first door she saw open, which proved not to be the
outer door but one which led into the room where the choir boys
dressed.

When Betty appeared there, the boys laughed and screamed and
drove her out into the church again, and kicking up her heels she
ran out of the church, braying for Billy. When Billy saw her go
he ran down the altar steps, upsetting a near-sighted deacon who
was coming up to help