suggested Nora, without any great fervor of conviction in her voice.
"I'll ask him to."

With that Nora left the room. He wondered if she could persuade Danny to
let him be the elephant part of the time. He might play then, if Danny
coaxed him to.

He heard the screen slam after Nora and waited, listening for it to go
slam-bang much louder. That would mean that Danny was coming to let him
play elephant. Danny always let the door go shut slam-bang. He waited a
long time and then he heard the shouting of the children. They were
playing circus without him! Danny wouldn't let him be the elephant. Very
well, if they didn't want him around and wouldn't let him play with
them, he would run away. Danny would be sorry then. Perhaps he would be
killed on a railway track or something and Danny would cry over his dead
body, he'd be so sorry he didn't let him be the elephant.

That thought comforted him and he began gathering up the things he
wanted to take with him. There was the fur cap that Mother 'Larkey had
made for him out of an old muff of hers, the winter before. He couldn't
leave that behind, nor yet the overcoat which she had made for him out
of an old coat of her husband's just after Mr. Mullarkey had died. The
other things he didn't care much about. Yes, after all, he would take
the ragged, fuzzy cloth dog that Kathleen had insisted on giving him.
The dog had lost an ear, a forepaw and one eye; still he cherished it
because Kathleen had given it to him of her own free will, something
that Danny nor Chris nor Celia Jane nor even Nora had ever done.

He would wear the cap and overcoat, even if it was summer; then he
wouldn't get so tired carrying them. He put on the fur cap, pulling it