We all went to the show together that night, and I sat on Marshal Foch’s
cage wagon and rode around in the parade at the beginning of the show.
All the fellows cheered me, even those new fellows. After the show I
told them all that I wanted to go into the side show and say good-bye to
my friends. We were all standing outside and Dorry Benton said, “I’ll go
with you.”
Of course, as soon as he said that, they all wanted to go, but Harry
said he guessed two were enough. So Dorry and I went in and made a call.
The freaks were getting ready to go to bed, but anyway, they were glad
to see us. I guess Madame Whopper slept in another tent; anyway, we
didn’t see her. Maybe she had a whole tent to herself.
Mr. Lemuel Long said he was hungry and he wished he could eat a lot like
scouts do. Gee, I have to admit that scouts eat a lot—especially
dessert. You can bet I wouldn’t want to be a human skeleton. Judge Dot
said he should worry, because he couldn’t grow any taller no matter what
happened. He said he was fifty-two years old and after you get to be
fifty-five you begin to shrink. He said everybody does, mostly. He said
if he shrunk, he was going to make Mr. Costello give him more money. Gee
whiz, I couldn’t blame him, especially on account of the high cost of
living. He said Madame Whopper had gained fifty pounds and she made Mr.
Costello give her a raise.
While we were talking with Judge Dot, Jib Jab came in and said, “Hello,
Scouty, how did you like the show?”
I said, “You looked good and wild, that’s one thing, especially with
that chain on.” He said that chain was his own idea.
I guess he had just been washing his face, anyway, there wasn’t any hair
on it and the brown was all cleaned off. I could see now that he was a
mighty nice looking fellow. His hair was kind of curly and his eyes were
awful bright. He took off his fur covering and put on a kind of a bath
robe and then sat down on a chair and stuck his feet up on Madame
Whopper’s platform. Oh boy, you should have seen Dorry stare. First he
looked at the fur covering. It had paws and claws on it just like an
animal. Then he looked at Jib Jab. I guess he didn’t know what to make
of him.
Jib Jab said, “Now for a smoke,” and he lighted a cigarette; “nothing
like a quiet smoke after the day’s work is over. Back in the jungle I
never had all this bother of dressing and undressing. Civilization is
just killing me. Fact is I can’t be tamed. Anybody got a newspaper? I
suppose I ought to be thankful I haven’t got my face all plastered up
with fly paper. Where’s old Sky Scraper?” That’s what he called the
giant.
“Gone to bed,” Judge Dot said.
“How about you, Shorty; got a match?” he asked Judge Dot.
Judge Dot just said very stiff like, “I’ll bid you good night, sir.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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