ut of sight.

The circus-man tied Billy to the back of his buggy and whipping
up his horse he started for town. Billy had to run fast to keep
up and though he got out of breath, he could not stop unless the
horse did. The worst of it was the horse kicked up such a
dreadful dust that it nearly blinded Billy as it flew up in his
face from under the buggy. At last they came to the outskirts of
the town, where the circus tents were pitched, and Billy was
untied from the buggy and led inside a large tent where cages of
wild animals were arranged around the outer edge, while in the
center two elephants and four camels were tethered. When he got
inside, the circus-man called to one of the men to bring him a
strong peg. This he drove into the ground and tethered Billy to
it, like all the other animals were fastened. Then he told the
man to bring him a bunch of straw for the goat to lie on, and a
bundle of hay for him to eat.

"Hay," thought Billy, "after nice tender young grass and turnips!
Well, I won't stay here long, that is one sure thing. I wonder if
I can understand a word of what these heathen, foreign animals
say, but I expect I can read their minds, if I can't understand
their tongues for most animals are mind readers and mind is the
same the world over, though their thoughts are not the same."

While Billy was thinking this, the circus-man and the other man
left the tent and Billy was startled by the elephant sticking his
trunk up to Billy's mouth and asking him to speak through it, as
he was a little deaf and used his trunk as an ear trumpet. He was
just going to introduce himself to the elephant and ask the
elephant's name in return, when one of the camels in a weak,
weary voice asked the same question he had been going to ask the
elephant; so he introduced himself to the camel and she in return
presented him to all the other animals that were within hearing
distance. She did not introduce him to any of the beasts in the
cages, as she said the animals that were loose looked down upon
the caged ones and seldom spoke to them. The name of one of the
camels was Miss Nancy, and she was a regular old maid of a camel,
who did nothing but gossip and ask questions.

"Have you ever performed in a circus or traveled with one
before?" she asked Billy. When hearing that he had not, she
rolled up her eyes, a habit she had, and exclaimed: "Poor
uneducated beast, what you have missed, never to have been taught
to perform in