ir master, and he gave them a
lump of sugar. They seemed fond of him, and often when they weren't
performing went up to him, and licked his hands or his sleeve. There was
one boss dog, Joe, with a head like yours. Bob, they called him, and he
did all his tricks alone. The Italian went off the stage, and the dog
came on and made his bow, and climbed his ladders, and jumped his
hurdles, and went off again. The audience howled for an encore, and
didn't he come out alone, make another bow, and retire. I saw old Judge
Brown wiping the tears from his eyes, he'd laughed so much. One of the
last tricks was with a goat, and the Italian said it was the best of
all, because the goat is such a hard animal to teach. He had a big ball,
and the goat got on it and rolled it across the stage without getting
off. He looked as nervous as a cat, shaking his old beard, and trying to
keep his four hoofs close enough together to keep him on the ball.
"We had a funny little play at the end of the performance. A monkey
dressed as a lady in a white satin suit and a bonnet with a white veil,
came on the stage. She was Miss Green and the dog Bob was going to elope
with her. He was all rigged out as Mr. Smith, and had on a light suit of
clothes, and a tall hat on the side of his head, high collar, long
cuffs, and he carried a cane. He was a regular dude. He stepped up to
Miss Green on his hind legs, and helped her on to a pony's back. The
pony galloped off the stage; then a crowd of monkeys, chattering and
wringing their hands, came on. Mr. Smith had run away with their child.
They were all dressed up, too. There were the father and mother, with
gray wigs and black clothes, and the young Greens in bibs and tuckers.
They were a queer-looking crowd. While they were going on in this way,
the pony trotted back on the stage; and they all flew at him and pulled
off their daughter from has back, and laughed and chattered, and boxed
her ears, and took off her white veil and her satin dress, and put on an
old brown thing, and some of them seized the dog, and kicked his hat,
and broke his cane, and stripped his clothes off, and threw them in a
corner, and bound his legs with cords. A goat came on, harnessed to a
little cart, and they threw the dog in it, and wheeled him around the
stage a few times. Then they took him out and tied him to a hook in the
wall, and the goat ran off the stage, and the monkeys ran to one side,
and one of them pulled out a little r
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