projectors of the enterprise should desert his post of duty.

"Watch the animals?" screamed Reddy, in a rage; "you go an' watch 'em
awhile instead of eatin' doughnuts, an' see how you like it. Mr.
Stubbs's brother picked a hole in the bag so my cat got out, an' she
jumped on the calf, an' he tore 'round awful till he let the hen an'
Mrs. Simpson's cat loose, an' I got knocked down an' scratched, an' the
whole show's broke up."

Reddy sat down on the ground, and wiped the blood from his face after he
had imparted the painful news; and all the party started for the tent
as rapidly as possible.

It was a scene of ruin which they looked in upon after they had pulled
aside Mr. Mansfield's flag, and one well calculated to discourage
amateur circus proprietors.

Mr. Stubbs's brother was seated amid Reddy's paper and paint, holding
the crowing hen by the head while he picked her wing-feathers out one by
one. Mrs. Simpson's cat and kittens each had one of Bob's mice in its
mouth, while Reddy's cat was chasing one of the squirrels with a
murderous purpose. The calf was no longer an inmate of the tent; but a
large rent in the canvas showed that he had opened a door for himself
when the cat scratched him; and afar in the distance he could be seen,
head down and tail up, as if fleeing from everything that looked like a
circus.

The destruction was as complete as it could well have been made in so
short a time, and the partners were, quite naturally, discouraged. Toby
retained sufficient presence of mind, amid the trouble, to rescue the
crowing hen from the murderous clutches of Mr. Stubbs's brother, and the
monkey scampered up the tent-pole, brandishing two or three of poor
biddy's best and longest wing-feathers, while he screamed with
satisfaction that he had accomplished at least a portion of the work of
stripping the fowl.

"The show's broke up, an' that's all there's to it," said Bob,
sorrowfully, as he gazed alternately at the hole in the canvas and his
rapidly vanishing calf.

"Are the squirrels all gone?" asked Joe, driving the cat from her
intended prey long enough to allow Master Bushy-tail to gain a refuge
under the barn.

"Every one," replied Reddy. "The calf kicked the box over when he come
towards me, an' it looked as if there was as many as a hundred come out
jest as soon as the cover was off. I could have caught one or two; but
somehow Mrs. Simpson's cat got out of the basket jest then, an' she flew
right