6 FOUR-FOOTED AMERICANS 



in cages with a circus, that a respectable farm four- 

 foot shoukl not encourage. Then there is a terrible 

 noise, — worse than milk-pans falling off the fence, — 

 that tliey call a band ; it makes me forget myself and 

 dodge and dance all over the road. Yes, indeed, I 

 well remember the first circus I ever heard. It came 

 here when we were hve-year-olds. Tom and I upset a 

 load of cabbages, and they rolled all the way down 

 Long Hill into the brook." 



'' There were no foreign wild beasts in this circus," 

 said Comet, proud of his knowledge. '' I put my head 

 through the fence bars and had a fine chance to talk 

 to some of the horses. There were several kinds of 

 Horse Brothers there that I had never seen before ; 

 different even from the long-eared Donkey and Mule 

 Brothers." Here Comet stopped, took a bite of grass 

 and a drink of water, waiting to see if Tom and Jerry 

 were interested. 



They were, and as Comet looked up he saw that 

 some of the other animals were coming down to drink, 

 — Daisy, the finest cow in the herd, and Nanny Baa, 

 sauntering all alone, the other sheep not having yet 

 missed lier, Avhile Cdrney, the goat, whose whole name 

 was Capricornus, danced about on a rock, charging at 

 an imaginary enemy in the sky. 



"What other horses did yo\i see?" asked Tom and 

 Jerry together, as the others came up. 



" There Avere small horses, homely and thin, with 

 straight necks and rolling eyes. Some of these were 

 brown, aud some all mixed brown and white. Tliey 

 ran up and down tlie field, clearing the old division 

 fence at a jump. These were called Indian Ponies, 



