And, putting the chalk alongside the top, he made a low swinging bow with his long spotted neck and hurried off to his place at the rear of the group, amid the shouts and the cheers of his fellows. While the animals were cheering or telling one another just what each had been thinking when Giraffe was rummaging Dan’s pocket, the old clown’s pen was going “scratch, scratch, scratch” back and forth across the poster. “And now, Mr. President,” said Dan, as he finished writing and folded up the great sheet of paper, “I suggest that we forget business for a time and engage in a game that I have in mind.” [Illustration: Away they all went, down through the line. _Page 35._] “A fine idea,” agreed Lion as, indeed, did all the rest in one voice; that is, all but Giraffe and his folks. They nodded their approval. “It’s a game called ‘London Bridge is Falling Down,’” went on Dan. “It was Giraffe’s long neck and Elephant’s trunk that suggested the thought. So now, suppose we begin.” “Yes, let’s begin,” cried the animals, as they trooped into the circle that ran in front of all the red and gold cages. “First,” called Dan, “you, Giraffe, and your folks will stand opposite one another, with your noses touching. There! That’s the way. Now, Elephant, you and your family will do the same, only raise your trunks very high and hold them together at the tips—just as if you were shaking hands way up in the air. That’s it. Fine! Now all the rest of us will go skipping down the aisle between you.” So Dan, taking the lead and calling, “Come on, Tiger! Come on, Lion! Hi there, Hippo,” away they all went, down through the line. “Now, back again!” shouted Dan, “and this is the song that we’ll sing as we go: “London Bridge is falling down, Falling down, falling down, London Bridge is falling down, Down, down, down!” “Say! Hold on a minute!” cried Hippo. “I’m too wide! I can’t get through!” “I’ll fix that,” shouted Elephant. “Up, now!” he commanded. And at the words, all of Elephant’s folks stood up on their hind legs and Hippo passed through without any trouble at all. So the game went on, with all the animals vowing that they never had had quite so much fun before in all their lives. But, by this time, the Petal Watch had begun to close; and, at a word from Dan and the promise that he would see them again at half-past twilight on the morrow, the merry band went back to their places. As the old clown passed out of the menagerie tent, he could still hear the voices in the distance, humming the song, “London Bridge is falling down, Down, down, down!” CHAPTER VI IN WHICH THE ANIMALS SEND A MESSAGE TO THE PRETTY LADY “And that,” finished Diggeldy Dan, “is the story of the Pretty Lady with the Blue-Blue Eyes.”