"I just threw the corn at 'em," continued Susy, "an' they picked it up out of the hay. One of 'em held up his trunk, an' his mouth was right under it, an' a man threw peanuts into his mouth, an' the ellerphant stood that way an' let the man throw peanuts at him ever so long, an' we had to go away then, 'cos the show was goin' to begin." "You have to be careful of elephants," said Minnie. "Last year there was an elephant in the circus, an' he had whiskers on his trunk, an' Billy Mason pulled 'em, an' the elephant didn't say anything, an' didn't do anything for two or three minutes, an' then just as Billy was starting to go he swung his trunk round an' if Billy hadn't dodged quick the elephant would have killed him. An' there was a man there an' he said that if that elephant ever sees Billy again, even if it's a hundred years from now, he'll remember him, an' he'll try to hit him again with his trunk." Cheerful Susy instantly remarked: "Billy's goin' to the circus to-night. Do you s'pose that ellerphant will be there?" Billy's sister tried to take a hopeful view. "Oh, this is another circus,--'tisn't the same one that was here last summer." But nothing could discourage Susy. "Perhaps they've swapped ellerphants," she suggested. Harry Fletcher rose from the steps at this moment, and observed in a shaky voice, that he guessed he would go home. He walked up the garden path with rather feeble steps. We watched him,--awestruck. "Perhaps it's the coachyneel in his insides," whispered Susy. We pondered over this suggestion for a few moments, and it certainly seemed reasonable. When Harry disappeared down the street, walking slowly, and holding to the fence, we decided that it was only a question of a few hours with him. The incident cast a gloom over us, which was not dispelled until Joe Carter said:-- "Did you go to the side-show?" "No," answered Susy; "my mother says side-shows are horrid." "They _ain't_. This was great. There was a lady without any body,--just head and shoulders sitting in a glass plate, an' there was a man that would let you stick pins in him, an' there were some grave-robbing hyenas--" "Poo!" said Susy, "I saw some hyenas in the animal tent, an' we stayed to the concert an'--" "Yes, I know," persisted Joe Carter, "but those hyenas in the animal tent weren't grave-robbing ones. Now these,--" and he entered into some grewsome details about the hyenas that made Susy regretfully admit that the side-show must have had its good points. "But there was a sea-lion," she reflected, "havin' his supper when we came out of the concert, an' he sat up on a board, an' the man tossed him fish, an' he roared lots louder than the lions, an' we saw the giraffes--" "That's nothin'" said Joe; "so did I." Susy paid no attention,--she was in full swing of narration.