"I want to be the el'funt," objected Chris.

"The el'funt's mine," Jerry asserted and he closed his lips tightly.
Danny didn't have any right to that elephant. "I saw it first," he
added.

"I said 'I'll be the el'funt' first, didn't I?" asked Danny.

"Jerry orter have first choice," said Nora, the conciliator, "seein' it
was him thought of playin' circus."

"I guess I can jump the highest, can't I?" Danny asked in a tone that
said as plain as day that that settled the matter.

"It's my el'funt!" insisted Jerry.

"You always take first choice," Chris complained.

"You could take turns about being el'funt," Nora suggested.

Jerry wanted with all his soul to play that sublime elephant jumping the
fence and he summoned up all his courage. "I won't play," cried he, with
a suspicious quiver of his lips. "I won't! I won't!"

"I'll let you be el'funt part of the time," Danny promised, "just to
keep you from cryin'."

"I ain't goin' to cry," returned Jerry hotly. "I ain't!"

"We can't have a circus with just a el'funt," said Celia Jane.