was off again, tossing a nut at a squirrel as shepassed.
White mice, little and pink-eyed, nibbled and squeaked, while thefriendly cats lapped their milk close by; and even the parrots seemedto love the monkeys--a thing never heard of before.
But how could they all fail to be happy together, living as they did,in a menagerie! Oh! how the boys and girls envied them, feeling thatthey would almost be willing to give up quarreling with their dearbrothers and sisters to enjoy such a life!
"Trixie," cried Tom, when they had wandered away from the Happy Family,"come and see this queer big pin-cushion!"
"What is it?" she asked, starting back.
"A porcupine," said Tom, laughing loudly. He had startled the strangeanimal, which, fearing some danger near, had rolled itself into a ball,and thrust out the quills with which it protects itself.
"Would you like to pet and smooth it, Gay?" asked Mr. Barnum.
"No, no! I'd rather smooth that little animal," said she, pointing tothe chinchilla. "It looks like a sister of my little muff."
"O, Gay! you are a funny baby," said Trixie, laughing, and speaking asthough she, herself, were quite an elderly person.
"Do you want to see the kangaroo do the high running jump?" Tom asked.But the kangaroo refused to jump for them. Mr. Barnum then told themhow, like the opossum, the mother carries her babies snugly tucked inher pocket.
"We haven't seen any bears yet," said Trixie.
"No, but you _shall_ see them, Toodles," said Mr. Barnum. "Who everheard of a menagerie without its bears? And here they are!"
Up on their hind legs they stood, waiting a minute till the musicbegan, and then, at the first note of the fiddle, off they went--slowlyat first, then faster and faster, until really they were almostgraceful! Even the baby bears danced! But a grey old grizzly satgossiping with a polar bear in a corner, while they too watched thedancing, like old ladies at a ball. Afterward, at a sign from themaster, the same old grizzly took the fiddle himself, and played forthe young people's dancing. Then the bears marched up and down, singlyand in pairs, "cooling off," Tom said.
Trixie heard a lady say to her friend, "The _camels_ are coming!" andthen they both laughed, but Trixie could not see why. Sure enough, thecamels _were_ coming, and racing camels are even more awkward thandancing bears.
"Their backs are all broken," said Gay.
"No," said Tom, "they were born all humps and bumps--they are camels."
"Oh, yes!" said Gay. "I know--mama has got a shawl made out of one."
"And," added Tom, "he can drink enough at one time to last him ahundred years."
"Don't stretch it, sir," said Mr. Barnum, shaking his head at the boy;but Tom went on--"and he will carry you across the desert quicker thanlightning!"
The snakes, and especially the boa-constrictor, made Gay shiver, andshe refused to look at them after the first glance. But the othersenjoyed seeing them. "Nothing that is quiet frightens me," said Trixie,"and I love to see the snakes twist and wriggle."
"I like the big green frogs," said Gay--"Ker-chong! ker-chong!" She hadlearned the whole frog language in an instant!
Then she straggled away with Tom, to listen to wonderful stories aboutthe beaver, and how he builds his curious log hut; "But," added Tom,"his roof always leaks."
"Gay, here is an animal with a name longer than you are yourself!" saidMr. Barnum.
"What is it?" she asked, as they paused before a creature with atremendous mouth.
"The Hippopotamus."
"Hip-po-pot-a-mus!" baby tried to say after him, adding, "he is notpretty, and I do not like him."
Tom was still less polite, and called the animal "beastly ugly;" thoughhe seemed to admire the one-horned rhinoceros, which Gay thought stillmore frightful. "But how wallopy his skin is!" said Tom.
"Yes," said Mr. Barnum, "but he has a thinner skin under his heavyhide, which is only what Trixie would call his 'upper skirt'--eh,Toodles?" and the little girl laughed to think that he should knowanything about such drapery.
When she saw the alligator she wished for his scaly skin, that shemight have it made into slippers for papa.
But what had become of Gay? She had left the others, and they found hertrying to stroke a downy little yellow chicken, which was just beyondher reach.
"Why this is like being in the country!" cried the delighted Trixie,looking around at the horses and the cattle, the pigs and the chickens."Where's Tom?"
But a barn-yard scene was quite too tame for that young gentleman,who was chattering away to a funny little squat Esquimau, who did notunderstand a word he said. Near him were a fat seal and a walrus withtwo great tusks which seemed to say, "The better to eat you, my dear!"
The Esquimau and his pets had come from a faraway, cold country, wherethere were very few people, and I do not think they liked the crowd andthe noise.
"Where are the tigers?" Tom asked, suddenly remembering that he had sethis heart on being half-scared to death by the glance from a tiger'seye.
"They certainly would never forgive us if we forgot to presentourselves," said Mr. Barnum, bowing low before a cage, against the barsof which the Royal Bengal Tiger was rubbing his glossy sides, as hemarched angrily backward and forward.
"Come away!" cried Trixie, trying to clasp her three friends in hertiny arms.
"You go, Toodles, if you are afraid," said Mr. Barnum.
"No, no!" she cried, "I will not go without you!" and she became stillmore frightened when she saw a beautiful, fierce-eyed leopard, and ahyena whose horrible grin showed three rows of teeth.
"The little goose!" said Tom. "See! Gay enjoys it all." And so shedid, afterward going with him to look at the wolves, the wildcats, andthe dainty little red foxes, while Mr. Barnum took his pet to see thebrilliant birds which had been brought from their own homes in the hotcountries to our town of the little brown sparrow.
Great green parrots, gold and silver pheasants, white cockatoos, andthe flaming red flamingo! Trixie was wild with joy, but, oh! she couldnot half enjoy them without Gay and Tom; so she scampered off afterthem, not noticing in her joy that she passed once again very near thetiger's cage.
The little Bird of Paradise, with its long train of plumage whichshowed all the colors of the rainbow, was more beautiful than anythingthey had ever imagined. "Let us stay here all the rest of the day!" Gaysaid.
"All the rest of the day, darling!" repeated Mr. Barnum, looking at hiswatch, "Why it is almost time for my own birds to be in their nest."
Yes, the sun was fast sinking in the west, and the time had come fortired little feet to turn toward home. Mama was watching for them atthe parlor window, and she lifted baby in her arms as she opened thedoor.
"O, mama! I want my supper, and I want to go to bed!"
But in the middle of the night she awoke with a laugh, crying--"Oh, howfunny! I dreamed that the little Chinese dwarf was waltzing with thegiraffe!"
"Hush, darling!" said Trixie, softly, sitting up in her little crib."You'll wake mama, baby!"
* * * * *
Transcriber's note:
One missing closing quotation mark was added to the text after: "Heswallowed a man once."
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