or a glass of anything, or anything to show me
more amusing than that nightmare of an elephant? Oh, I'm sick of the
whole business--sick! sick! The stench of the tan-bark never leaves my
nostrils except when the odor of fried ham or of that devilish camel
replaces it.

"I'm too old to enjoy a gypsy drama when it's acted by myself; I'm
tired of trudging through the world with my entire estate in my
pocket. I want a home, Scarlett. Lord, how I envy people with homes!"

He had been indulging in this outburst with his back partly turned
toward me. I did not say anything, and, after a moment, he looked at
me over his shoulder to see how I took it.

"I'd like to have a home, too," I said.

"I suppose homes are not meant for men like you and me," he said.
"Lord, how I would appreciate one, though--anything with a bit of
grass in the yard and a shovelful of dirt--enough to grow some damn
flower, you know.... Did you smell the posies in the square
to-night?... Something of that kind,... anything, Scarlett--anything
that can be called a home!... But you can't understand."

"Oh yes, I can," I said.

He went on muttering, half to himself: "We're of the same
breed--pariahs; fortunately, pariahs don't last long,... like the wild
creatures who never die natural deaths,... old age is one of the
curses they can safely discount,... and so can we, Scarlett, so can
we.... For you'll be mauled by a lion or kicked into glory by a horse
or an ox or an ass,... and I'll fall off a balloon,... or the camel
will give me tetanus, or the elephant will get me in one way or
another,... or something...."

Again he twisted around to look at me. "Funny, isn't it?"

"Rather funny," I said, listlessly.

He leaned over, pulled another cigarette from the pink packet, broke a
match from the card, and lighted it.

"I feel better," he observed.

I expressed sleepy gratification.

"Oh yes, I'm much better. This isn't a bad life, is it?"

"Oh no!" I said, sarcastically.

"No, it's all right, and we've got to pull the poor old governor
through and give a jolly good show here and start the whole country
toward the tent door! Eh?"

"Certainly. Don't let me detain you."

"I'll tell you what," he said, "if we only had that poor little
girl, Miss Claridge, we'd catch these Bretons. That's what took the
coast-folk all over Europe, so Grigg says."

Miss Claridge had performed in a large glass tank as the "Leaping
Mermaid." It took like wildfire ac