ut a half interest, Mister Sam
Welborn." Again the applause was generous.

"And that completes the hoss trade episode, my friends. I got the best
little horse west of the Mississippi River, and Miss Lough got nothing
but the satisfaction of having planned and promoted a worthy
enterprise in which all of you are participants. Now, let's get on to
the main event in the Big Top; let's talk about midgets and circuses."

Earlier, Davy had asked Paul Curtis to find if his voice was reaching
the remote fringes of the audience. Being assured by a friendly nod
that he was making himself heard, he placed his elbows on the pulpit
and rested his chin in his cupped hands to gaze at the curious.

"I wish I knew something of my subject other than my own personal
experiences," he said in a slow, lowered voice. "General literature is
silent on the classification and accomplishments of midgets. Except
for Dean Swift's recitals of the Lilliputians--which is pure fiction
and the limited paragraphs in the encyclopedias on dwarfs--which is
the wrong name for the subject--in literature the midget is the
forgotten man.

"Even the Bible, in its wide comprehension of all classes of man, to
include the race of giants, before the flood, the stalwart sons of
Anak, and the giant adversary of little David, makes no mention of the
little people except in the third book of Mosaic writings, the
'Crookbackt' or dwarfs are warned not to come nigh the altar-fires
where sacrifices are offered. A severe banishment, truly, but as a
good Presbyterian, I attribute the severity of such a decree to the
grudging envy of the jealous old 'kettle-tender' who maybe scorched
the stew; and I get my solace in the comforting words of the Master
who pledges that 'the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart and the
peacemakers--large or small--shall be called the children of God.'

"Yes, there's confusion in literature--even in dictionaries--as to the
proper classification of midgets. Their status is better established
by elimination--by stating what they are not. Midgets are neither
dwarfs, runts, pygmies, nor Lilliputians. Dwarfs may have normal
bodies but with either short legs or arms, or both; a runt is a small
specimen in a litter or drove; pygmies were a mythical creation of the
Greeks, but the name was later given to a tribe in South Africa, whose
stature was considerably less than their neighbors; and Lilliputians
were the creation of a mind that was later to go