Fast and furiously the circus stunts were performed. Men in shaggy
trousers on horses threw ropes about each other and picked up
handkerchiefs from the ground while their horses were running
lickety-split. They just leaned over in the saddle until Jerry thought
they were falling off, and picked up the handkerchiefs.

And there was a tight-rope walker. It was a woman with no skirts on at
all, and the rope was way up much higher than a man's head and she
didn't touch the ground with her balancing pole at all. Nora could never
walk the rope like that. And the dancing ponies and the trained seals
and the dog that wound in and out among the spokes of a buggy wheel and
all the other acts thrilled Jerry and made him almost dizzy, they came
so fast; but best of all he liked the clowns with their funny faces and
droll antics. He did not pick out Whiteface the first time the clowns
came out, there were so many of them and they looked so much alike with
their white faces and red mouths.

But just after the dancing horses had left the tent and the clowns
swarmed in again, Jerry saw one of them stop and look up at the boys
above him. He had a bulldog under his arm.

Jerry, unmindful of those about him, stood up and shouted:

"Whiteface! Here I am!"

The clown turned to him, made that funny clicking noise in his mouth and
bowed.

"Jerry Elbow," said the clown and clapped his hands.