"I can't crawl as fast as you can walk," answered Jerry, in a voice that
threatened to break into a sob.

"I guess a trained seal had orter crawl as fast as a man can walk,"
said Danny, "or how could they have them in circuses?"

"I'm comin' as fast as I can," returned Jerry. "I wish you'd just try
bein' a trained seal for a time and see how fast you can crawl on your
stummick." Jerry rose to his hands and knees, holding the ball of carpet
rags in his teeth, and progressed much faster.

"Who ever heard of a trained seal carryin' a balloon in his teeth?"
Danny protested. "I guess his teeth would go through the balloon and let
all the air out."

"Let's not have no trained seal," pleaded Jerry. "It ain't no fun."

"We got to have a trained seal," replied Danny.

"You be it then," suggested Jerry, "an' let me be the el'funt. You said
I could part of the time."

"I'm going to be the el'funt," proclaimed Danny. "The circus ain't even
begun yet."

"I won't be a trained seal, so I won't," said Jerry, at last catching up
with the parade. "The balloon won't stay on my nose and my neck hurts
and I've cut my hand on a piece of glass or a splinter or something
till it bleeds." He held up one hand with a little trickle of blood on