Mat 30, 1896.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
433 
Now the front door of the house opened and Abram 
Chaee came hurrying out in a state of excitement quite 
incongruous with his smooth-shaven face and plain, neat 
attire, when he found his Cousin Jerusha's husband and 
his friends standing unwe.comed at his threshold and sur- 
rounded by a crowd of curious idlers. 
"God zounds! Lisher, what be you settin' there for? 
Why didn't ye come right in? Back up a leetle an' haw 
right in here an' drive tu the barn. Clear aout, boys. 
What be you a-hengin' 'raound here for?" 
As he opened the great gate and the wagon was driven 
into the barn the crowd realized its mistake and dispersed, 
the blue-coated gentleman sauntering up the street in dig- 
nified indifference, while the boys made a joke of their 
disappointment and tried to out-jeer one another. 
"Ya-ay, Kelly, how much 's the tickets to your Injin 
show? Ya-ay 1 and Kelly retorted. 
"Ya-ay, Smithy, 'baout as much as it '11 be to git int' 
your nigger show. Ya-ay 1" and both factions shouted 
"Ya-ay !" with a clamor like that of a congregation of 
crows, and Uncle Lisha was impressed by the depravity 
of town boys in calling each other by their last names. . 
"Well, Lisher, haow be you, anyway?" Abram Chace in- 
quired, when, after a bustle of general hospitality, he 
lound time to give attention to individuals. "An' haow 
be you, Samwil? An' hain't this Joseph Hill?" 
"Wal, I don't sca'cely seem tu know whether no it's me 
'r a Injin 'r a balance master 'r some other sort o' show 
feller," said Joseph, feeling his head and looking at his 
short, stumpy legs to assure himself of Mb identity. "I 
was beginnin' tu 'xpect Uncle Lisher 'd hev me a-stannin' 
on my head 'r a-turnin' summersets 'fore I knowed it." 
"Bah gosh, Ah'll give more for see dat as all de show 
dey had to-morry," cried Antoine. With that he depart- 
ed to his numerous compatriots in the "French village'' 
at the other end of the town, arid the others went into the 
house, where Cousin Chace's good wife was entertaining 
Jerusha and Huldah. 
Henceforth till bedtime these town mice and country 
mice compared experiences, now to the envy of one, now 
the other, 
When morning came no one thought of anything but 
the great event of the day already heralded in the gray 
dawn by the rumble of the heavy baggage vans. Habit- 
ual early risers were out betimes full clad, to admire the 
teams of large, handsome horses and gaily painted wag- 
ons, and sluggards came forth half dressed with garments 
in hand and unshod feet, rubbing sleepy eyes and fum- 
bling at buttons with alternate hands as they blinked at 
the lumbering procession with a fellow feeling for the 
drowsy drivers and the weary showmen asleep on the jolt- 
ing piles of canvas. 
The vans rumbled past, transferring the present interest 
to the show grounds, and the brief excitement of the street 
subsided temporarily while the citizens breakfasted. 
Then the first influx of sightseers came hurrying in, 
fearful of being late, though they reported the caravan 
two miles behind, delayed at the last stream by the ele- 
phants refusing to cross the bridge. Gradually the in- 
coming tide of Bightseers increased, some on foot, whole 
families in heavy farm wagons, and young fellows with 
their sweethearts in the cumbersome single pleasure wag- 
ons of those days, some o£ which had boxes shaped like 
bread trays, others square ones substantially framed and 
paneled, with high-backed seats cushioned with russet- 
colored leather and perched at such a lofty height that 
ascent and descent were not to be lightly undertaken. 
At last the grand triumphal chariot appeared, blazing 
and glittering with scarlet and gold and drawn by four 
white horses driven by a liveried driver, behind whom 
the band was enthroned, blowing lustily on brazen 
bugles, French horns, trombones and ophcleides, all in 
time to the thunderous beating of a bigger drum than 
had ever been heard at a general muster. Then came 
two elephants, one of whom bore a howdah in which the 
lion tamer sat dressed like a Roman gladiator and quietly 
smoking an incongruous pipe. These were followed by 
four camels ridden by Arabs, whose genuineness became 
doubtful when one was heard to address his beast with 
"Git on wid yez, ye spalpeen." Then came the train of 
closed mysterious cages, some silent, others giving forth 
growls and screams of strange beasts and birds. 
Close upon these came a crowd, hurrying for fear of 
being late, though it was two hours before the advertised 
opening of the show. Uncle Lisha and his party, rein- 
forced by Mr. and Mrs. Purington, Sis and her nephew 
Bub, were early upon the ground eagerly enjoying all 
the novel sights and sounds of the busy scene. 
Here was an excited group of Canadians, interspersed 
with a sprinkling of cool-headed Yankee jockeys, gath- 
ered around three or four sorry nags that looked as if 
the impending changes of ownership could make little 
difference to them or any one else. 
"Wal, Joe," drawled a solemn-visaged man, after an 
examination of one of these animals from all points of 
view, "it kinder looks tu me 'a if your hoss hed got the 
heaves tucked ontu him consid'able bad." 
"Yas, Harrum, 'e got some o' dem," the owner, a jolly 
little pock-marked Frenchman, frankly admitted in a 
husky voice, "mais, dey a'n't hurt him mite. You 'oss 'e 
hoi', hoi', every tarn 'e hoi', Harrum, and 'e gat Bplavin lak 
goose egg." 
"Shot That hain't nothin'," said the other, "I c'n blis- 
ter that off in a week, smooth as the palm o' my hand. 
If you want my hoss bad 'nough tu gi' me a dollar we'll 
call it a trade." 
"Oh, Harrum I Swappy de 'oss pour de 'oss," the little 
man plead. 
"No, I got tu hev a dollar tu boot." 
" 'Ow Ah goin* give you more as Ah gat?" Joe asked 
piteously . "Ah geeve you half dollar, dat all Ah gat, me, " 
He held up the coin before the other, who took it with 
a sigh of resignation, saying, "Wal, seein' it's you, Joe, 
but I'm jest the same as givin' away my hoss," and each 
began unharnessing his horse amid the congratulations of 
friends. 
The little group of Danvis people passed on to where a 
peddler mounted on a cart was auctioneering his wares. 
"O, just look what I've found tucked away in a corner 
an' I thought the last blessed pair was sold yesterday," he 
cried, stretching to arms' length a pair of puckery rubber 
Buspenders that smelled infernally of sulphur. "Just 
look. Stretch like a deacon's conscience. Long enough 
for any man. Short enough for any boy. Oak-tanned 
luther ends an' gold buckles, I guess, but mebby they're 
brass. Don't let your women folks wear their fingers 
aout knittin' galluses for you, but walk right up an' buy 
a pair of these beautiful e-lastic sus-penders, worth $1 tu 
any man, but I sell 'em for half that money, an' tu-day, 
seein' you all want tu save a quarter to go int' the show, 
I'll let you have 'em for quart' of a dollar a pair, an' I'll 
say no more an' take no less." 
Such a generous offer was not to be withstood and the 
new-fangled suspenders were passed out to the crowding 
purchasers till it seemed as if the red cart could have been 
laden with nothing else, yet the enterprising proprietor 
was continually discovering some new article, and each 
more tempting than the last. Now it was a ring or 
brooch, now some cheap and tuneless instrument, now 
pocket combs, side combs and back combs, jack-knives, 
distorting hand glasses, song books, lives and confessions 
of criminals and so on, changing as often as interest 
flagged. 
There were numerous booths where refreshments of 
mead, spruce, beer and great cardB of good old-fashioned 
yellow gingerbread were temptingly displayed, and the 
familiar obese and blue-f rocked figure of Old Beedle was 
present, dispensing foaming glasses of innocuous beer 
from a cask in the tail of his wagon, and with them such 
kindly words and genial smiles that it seemed to his 
juvenile customers as if they were receiving a great deal 
for a cent. 
There were peripatetic venders of apples in baskets and 
home-made molasses candy on boards, both wares cried 
by the youthful Canadian dealers at the usual price of 
"Two of it, 1 cen' 'piece." 
Noisiest of all were the tooters, vociferously proclaim- 
ing the wonders of the side shows, the fat woman and the 
strong man, the albino negroes and the man without 
arms, and the waxworks of Monsieur Jonsin from Paris, 
all of which were now on exhibition and each to be seen 
for the small sum of I2i cents. 
The twanging of the banjo, the thumping of the tam- 
bourine, the voices of the performers and the laughter of 
the audience sounded smothered and echoless as they 
beat against the canvas walls, yet were most attractive to 
the outsiders who crowded about the narrow entrances. 
As Joseph Hill stood in wrapt admiration of the colossal 
portrait of the fat woman, counting the coins in his 
pocket with his fingers, he was startled by hearing his 
name called in a familiarly imperative tone, and looking 
in the direction from whence it came saw the gaunt form 
of his father standing upright in a lumber wagon, brand- 
ishing his cane toward him with one hand and with the 
other restraining young Josiah from leaping to the 
ground. Maria, who with her daughter Ruby occupied 
a portion of the seat from which the patriarch had risen, 
was frantically shaking a handkerchief toward her 
husband, and Pelatiah, who as driver sat in front with 
two of the smaller children, had his breath indrawn and 
his mouth made up, to add his voice to the family call. 
"Wal, if this don't pooty nigh beat Sam Hill," Joseph 
exclaimed, as he hastened over to them. "Seems 'ough 
I thought o' most ev'b'dy a-comin', but I swaow, I never 
thought o' you a-comin', father." 
"You didn't, hey? An' you couldn't hear me when I 
did come, a-gawpin' at that 'ere pictur'," Gran'ther Hill 
scolded in a cracked catarrhal voice. "What is't a pictur' 
on, anyway? A elephant dressed up in women's clo's? 
I'll bate they hain't got no sech a critter." 
"It's the fat lady, father," Joseph explained, "an' the 
white niggers. Haow come ye tu come, father?" 
"Fat lady and white niggers," the old man repeated, 
scornfully. "By the Lord Harry, what is this cussed 
world a-comin' tuwhens/ies'at goes 'raound showin' their „ 
carkisses like hawgs tu a cattle show calls theirselves 
ladies, an' niggers calls theirselves white! I come 'cause 
I was a mine tu! Didn't you? Did you s'pose the' wa'n't 
nob' dy but you a-comin'? Don't ye s'pose Josier wanted 
tu come, an' Ruby an' t'other young uns, an' du you s'pose 
I was goin' tu let 'em come daown here along wi' M'rier 
an' Peltier and git lost an' eat up? That would be smart!" 
"Why, I'm glad you came if you can stan' it," Joseph 
declared. "Be you middlin' well? An' you, M'ri' an' 
Ruby, an' 'mongst ye an' you tew, Peltier? Oh, M'ri', if 
I hain't got the almightedest snarl o' feathers! Wal, not 
sech a turrible sight on 'em, but sech neat ones you never 
did see a'most." 
"Yonder comes Lisher an' Jerushy an' Lovel an' his 
wife an' young un, all comin' tu ask what I come for, I'll 
lay a guinea," said Gran'ther, testily, "an' if there hain't 
that 'ere cussed Pur'nt'n woman an' her man. I hain't 
nothin' ag'in' the beasts, but I swear I wish't they'd eat 
her. Young Gove, drive your hosses up tu the fence an' 
hitch 'em! Sed daown, Josier, 'fore I knock ye daown. 
G'long!" 
The horses were driven to the nearest hitching place 
and given a bundle of hay from the hinder end of the 
wagon, whose occupants were by this time overtaken by 
their townsfolk in spite of Gran'ther Hill's attempts to 
elude Mrs. Purington. 
"Wal, I should think you'd 'a' hed more regard for your 
health, Capting Hill," the tired dame panted, fanning her 
hot face with a folded handkerchief, "an' I don't see what 
you let him come for, Marier. It's jest flyin' in the face 
o' Providence." 
' 'Damn my health, marm, it's ol' 'nough tu ta' keer of 
itself," the veteran declared,. standing very erect and look- 
ing fierce. "Haow d' ye s'pose M'rier was goin' tu help 
herself? The' hain't nob'dy flew yit; but I wish t' the Lord 
Harry they would, higher 'n Gilderoy's kite, an' never 
light this side o' glory halleuyer." 
"I'm dreatful glad you come, Cap'n Hill," said Sam, 
shifting Bub to his left arm that he might shake hands 
with the old man. "They say the' 's a bustin' old painter 
an' some wolves." 
"Yi8," said Uncle Lisha, "an' some Injins; but they 
won't let ye kill 'em, 'cause they hain't got but a lew." 
"Hev they got all them?" the veteran asked, eagerly. 
"Come, le'8 git aour keerds an' g'w'int' the carry van afore 
the young uns dies o' waitin'. Take a holt o' my hand, 
Bub. For'a'd, march." 
As they approached the thronged precincts of the ticket 
wagon and Sam detached himself from his party to enter 
into the struggle for tickets, he was accosted by his impe- 
cunious youthful acquaintance of yesterday, who was now 
standing forlornly apart from the crowd with his little 
brother, looking with longing eyes at the blue and yellow 
cardB as they were passed to the outstretched hands by the 
imperturbable ticket seller. 
"You wa'n't one of 'em, was ye?" said the boy, with 
;i melancholy smile of recognition. 
\ 'Hello !" Sam responded, cheerily, ' 'Hain' fc you shaver^ 
gpin' in?" 
The boy shook his head in sorrowful resignation. 
"The big fellera got all the jobs, an' I hain't got no 
money." 
"You wait here till I come back," said Sam, after a 
moment's hesitation, and then shouldered his way into 
the crowd, through which his tall, strong figure enabled 
him soon to reach the w gon. Presently emerging from 
the press somewhat flushed and rumpled, but smiling, he 
returned to the boys and handed the elder a couple of 
half tickets, "There, bub, you an' the little chap go in an' 
see the hull caboodle on't," and Sam rejoined his friends 
before the boy could give audible expression to his thanks 
and astonishment. 
Joining the drifting tide of mixed humanity, our Dan- 
vis friends were carried with it inside the great tent into 
a world of strange new sights, sounds and atmosphere. 
If this was not the perfumed breath of Araby, these 
were the beasts and birds and reptiles of the tropics and 
far countries of the earth, this medley of discordant 
sounds that frightened children and startled their elders, 
the natural every- day voices that had shaken the torpid 
air of Indian and African jungles. 
The keepers, who walked unconcernedly in front of the 
cages and were the familiars of the uncouth elephants 
and camels, bore Buch impress of strange experience and 
wide travel as made them quite different from ordinary 
mortals and speech with them an overwhelming honor. 
"Yes, that 'ere is a boar constrictor or animal condor," 
Solon Briggs explained to his neighbors, whom, with his 
wife, he had joined near the front of a cage in which a 
great serpent was coiled, "I e'pect that was the specie 
that onderminded the humern race of mankind by tempt- 
in' of Eve, 'cause you see he's cal'lated by the dimensions 
of his len'th for reachin' arter apples. An' that 'ere is 
the rile tiger, so called on account of his alius bein' riled, 
an' that critter that's got str-pes jus' like him is called 
zebray on account o' his resemblin' a jackass. An' any- 
body 'ould know them was liorns, only the female specie 
hain't got no mane. An' hain't them elephants the 
curisest freak o' humern natur'? It does appear 'at if 
they was pervided with another pair of visible organs in 
the behind of 'em they might per need back'ards jest as 
well as for'ards, hevin' a tail on each end of 'em. That 
'ere is called the backteryan camel on account o' his 
hump." 
"Poor creetur's," said Aunt Jerusha, "I should think 
they'd git dre'f '1 tired o' goin' humped up so all the time." 
"Them is what they kerry water in when they cross 
the de-sart of Sary — she 't was Abram's wife," said Solon. 
"Briggs must ha' made mos o' these 'ere animals his- 
self, I consait, he 'pears tu know st much abaout 'em," 
Gran'ther Hill growled sarcastically. ''Come, Josier, le's 
go an' look o' the painter an' them wolves; I want tu see 
suthin' 'at I know suthin' abaout myself. There!" he con- 
tinued, as, leading his grandson and followed by Sam and 
Pelatiah, he halted in front of the cages of these animals. 
"That's the Bort o' pussycat an r dogs 'at used for tu be 
a-yaowlin' an' a-yollopin' 'raound yer gran'ser's camp-fire 
when he was on airth the fust time. Ah, ye ol'. yaller 
cat! You sneakin' whelps! Yer gre't gran'marms 
knowed me." 
He shook his cane at them and the panther spat at him 
and the wolves slunk into a corner as if each recognized 
in him an ancient enemy of its kind. 
Presently the attention of all was drawn to the perform- 
ance of the elephants, when one huge beast made its 
majestic progress around the ring with a houdah full of 
delightedly frightened children, and the other walked 
with slow and ponderously caref ul steps over the prostrate 
form of the keeper. 
Then a pony ridden by a monkey ran in the ring, at 
which time Antoine made his appoarance. Having been 
entertained by many friends, he had arrived at a condi- 
tion to fully enjoy the show. Now he was in a bellicose 
humor, thirsting for a hand-to-hand encounter with the 
bear, now he was affectionate, d siring to embrace every- 
one, including the equistrian monkey. 
"Say, Sam, Ah wan' kees dat leetly nigger. Ah luv 
heem more as Ah luv mah fam'ly, bah gosh ! Ah'll was 
nabolition mans, me, an' Ah'll wan' stole dat leetly nig- 
ger, Sam, a'n't you wan' help me stole dat leetly nigger?" 
and so maundered on till, to Sam' i great relief, his atten- 
tion was directed to the band and he began to dance in 
front of it, dividing the attention of the audience with 
the clown, who, with the ring master, made the nearest 
approach to a circus that was then permitted in our virtu- 
ous commonwealth. 
The humor displayed by the clow n in his ancient jokes 
and repartees was irresistible, and when after turning a 
succession of somersaults he ran his painted nose 
against a center post of the tent Aunt Jerusha declared: 
"He's the quickest witted man 1 ever see, but the 
clumsiest creetur' for one 'at's so spry by spells. Eunice 
Pur'nt'n, if you've got your cam phi re bottle, you le' me 
hev it an' I'U go an 5 rub some on his nose, for its painin' 
on him turribly, I know it is." 
Mrs. Purington never ventured far from home without 
her bottle of camphor and smelling salts, and possessing 
herself of the first Aunt Jerusha hastened forth to offer a 
balm for the supposedly injured member, while audience 
and actorB looked on in silent wonder. 
"Here, you poor distressed wretch, le' me put some o' 
this sperits o' camphire ont' your n se. It 11 take the 
soreness aout if it does make it smait some," she said, 
approaching the clown, who left off his lamentations to 
stare at her in dumb surprise. "Le' .ne rub some on '% 
right on," she urged, "or put it on yourself if you'd 
druther." 
"Thank you," he said politely, "if you'd be so good, 
just a drop," and he soberly submitted to the operation 
while the paint came off his nose on t ) the tipB of her 
fingers. "Thank you, dear old lady," he said in a low 
voice, "and bless your kind heart. It's done me ever so 
much good." 
He returned her to her place as politely as if she had 
been the finest and fairest lady in thu land, and then 
tripping back to the center of the ring ho \ ropounded an- 
other conundrum. 
"Why is the old lady's heart like my nose?" 
"Wal, sir, why is it?" the ring master demanded. 
"Because if s tender, of course," was the answer, and 
there was tremendous applause. 
"Oh, dear, it's tew bad, it's tew bad!" Aunt Jerusha 
gobbed, almost in dismay at having attracted such general 
attention, "but if it done him a mite o' good, I hain't 
gorry." 
JifQW the performers, reared from, the ring jfca lively 
