_What Billy Did on Thursday_
Thursday there was no performance as the circus was to break campand move to the next town where they were to take the train for alarge city. Here they would meet the rest of the circus which hadbeen divided up into small bands and sent into the country, likethe one Billy was now with. When they met in the city, all thecompanies joined forces.
The elephant told Billy to wait and see what elegant performancesthey gave when they were all together. "Why!" he said, "we havethree rings with acting going on in each one at the same time,and all the performers wear their best clothes and try their bestto outshine each other; beside we have three or four times asmany animal side-tents as we do now.
"When we meet I will introduce you to my chum who is the oldestand largest elephant in the circus business. He is a fine fellowand tells a good story, and one could listen for hours to himtelling of his adventures and experiences while in the jungle andtraveling in this country. But it nearly makes him weep when hetells of how he was once the pet elephant of a Prince of Indiaand how the Prince would never ride any other but himself whenhunting or riding in the royal processions. 'Only think of thecome-down,' he used to add, 'from having a Prince of the royalblood on your back to a common circus rider in gaudy skirts! Thenmy blankets and trappings were of velvet, studded with realprecious stones. Now they are velveteen with glass to imitate theprecious jewels. Oh, dear! Oh, dear! That I should ever live tosee this day.'"
Here the elephant's conversation was cut short by someonescreaming, "Fire, fire!"
"Where? where?" called Billy who was all excitement in a minuteand he started to run in the direction he heard the voice comefrom, but alas for Billy! He forgot he was tied until he came tothe end of his rope and it gave him a quick jerk which sent himhead over heels, breaking the rope.
"Gee whiz! I nearly broke my neck. Blame their old rope!"
"Fire, fire, fire!" called the voice again, followed by a laughand Billy, looking up, saw a green poll-parrot swinging on a ropeoverhead, that commenced to call: "April fool, April fool!" asloud as she could.
"How I do hate parrots and monkeys! I dare you to come down here,you disagreeable, impertinent, pea-green, old maid of a bird!"bleated Billy.
He had hardly gotten the words out of his mouth when somethingstruck him on the back and began to pull his hair out by theroots. It was Miss Polly who had dropped like a torpedo and whowas screeching, pecking and clawing him at a great rate. She wasin a bad humor that day as they had forgotten to feed her heraccustomed crackers and coffee.
As soon as Billy got over his surprise, which was in a second, helay down and rolled. This knocked Polly off but the minute hestopped she flew onto his back again and pecked him until theblood ran. The second time she lit on his back he thought of away to get even. He saw the elephant's tub of water a little waybefore him and with two bounds he was by its side and before MissPolly was aware of what was up, she found herself doused in thetub, and when she came up from under the water there was no goatin sight.
As Billy went out of the tent he ran into the animal keeper whowas just coming in.
"Ho, ho! Master Billy, not so fast. I was coming to look for you,for we are about to start and you have a way of turning upmissing just when you are most wanted." As he said this he caughthold of the piece of rope around Billy's neck that Billy hadbroken when he took his somersault, and said: "Come along withme. I am going to put you for once where you can't get out, nomatter how hard you bite, chew or kick."
"I wonder what he is going to do with me," thought Billy.
But he soon found out, for the man led him to a vacant cage thata wild cat had died in the day before, and made him walk up aninclined board into it.
"Heavens!" thought Billy, "I'll never get out of here unless Idie and am carried out like the wild cat was, and if I don't dieI know I will go crazy, shut up in a little cooped up place likethis, with only room enough to take one step and not enough toturn around unless you turn yourself in sections."
"Well, Billy, how do you like being caged?" asked the animalkeeper.
"Yes, you vicious beast, you, how do you like being shut up whereyou can't butt and send people flying into mud-puddles and chewup their wigs, etc.?" asked the ring-master who had joined theanimal keeper.
"Oh, it is you, is it? Well, you just wait until I get out ofhere and see where I will butt you next time, and the animalkeeper, too," bleated Billy, but neither of them understood whathe said.
When they left him alone Billy tried every way he could think ofto break out, but he could make no impression on the iron bars,chew as he would,--in fact, he broke one of his teeth trying.Then he tried butting out the ends of the cage, but it was of nouse. Next he stood on his hind legs and tried to push the roofoff with his long horns, but to no effect; so he lay down tiredand broken-hearted on the hard bottom of the cage and gavehimself up to the blues.
He was lying there quietly, apparently asleep, when a man broughthim a bundle of hay to eat, a bucket of water to drink and apitch-fork of straw to lie on.
Billy did not move when they brought the things, pretending to beasleep, but he was rudely awakened out of his supposed sleep bythe man sticking the prongs of the pitch-fork into him to makehim get up so he could spread the straw on the bottom of thecage. He felt too disheartened to eat, especially food which hedetested, but thought he would take a drink as he was verythirsty, but at one smell of the bucket he turned up hisaristocratic nose for he detected the bucket had not been washedsince it had been used by some of the other animals for he couldsmell and see their hairs on the rim; so he lay down moredisgusted than ever. Poor Billy's confinement was going to behard for him. He had roamed the fields and towns, master ofhimself, too long to take to being shut up easily.
At last Billy fell asleep and only awakened when they hitched thehorses to the wagon-like cage he was in to draw it to the depot.Just before they started he heard a man say: "Here, you forgot toput up the sides on that cage with the goat in."
Then the man brought wooden sides and fastened them onto the cageover the iron bars. This left Billy only a little iron barredopening near the top, at one side, to get air through.
"I shall surely smother," thought Billy. "Oh, this is horrible! Ifeel as if I were buried alive."
At that minute the horses started up and poor Billy went down onhis knees with a sudden jerk.
"How I wish Nanny was here to comfort me," thought Billy. "Shewas always so patient and cheerful." How like a man that was forBilly to forget all about Nanny while he was free and having agood time, but the minute he was in trouble to think of her andbe willing to have her shut up if he could only see her.
After several hours of hard traveling they stopped, and Billyknew they must be at the depot for he heard the engines whistlingand the bells ringing, and he was very glad of it for his kneeswere all skinned from slipping on the floor from one end of thecage to the other when they went up or down hill, for it wasimpossible to stand, so he had to lay down and make the best ofit.
"I never pitied caged animals before," thought Billy, "but I didnot know what they had to endure or I should."
After a great deal of commotion, swearing and fussing on the partof the men outside, Billy's cage was at last on board and thetrain started.
"Mercy!" thought Billy, "aren't they going to give me a drink ofwater or something fresh and cool to eat? Do they expect me toeat that dried up, tasteless, weedy hay this hot day; and as forthe water, that got upset the first hill we went up. Oh, dear!and to add to the rest of my troubles I have got a cinder in myeye, along with this horrible dust that is blowing in that stuffylittle window and I know I am going to be smothered to death. Oh,if Nanny were only here, to lick this cinder out of my eye! Itsmarts so I wish I had hands instead of feet for once in my lifeso I could get it out. I wonder if people ever think howinconvenient it is not to have hands sometimes."
And poor old Billy commenced to cry softly to himself. It was agood thing he did for he soo
n cried the cinder out and when hiseye stopped hurting, he got some of his spunk back again andbegan to plan some way of getting out of his cage.
At twelve o'clock at night they reached the city and were driventhrough the silent streets to a vacant lot where all the circusbands were to meet. And here I will leave Billy until nextmorning.