While all this was going on the Noah boys had run into the Ark.

Presently they returned, dressed up as clowns, and then the fun commenced.

Ham held up a hoop, which he had carefully covered with tissue paper, and
to Mrs. Noah's amazement Marjorie leaped through it as if she had been a
circus bareback rider all her life.

The boys performed marvelous feats of tumbling and jumping, and were so
funny that half of the animals nearly split their sides with laughing.

The laughing hyena had to be carried into the Ark and put to bed for fear
she would laugh herself to death.

"Well, well," exclaimed Mrs. Noah, when it was all over, "I certainly
never enjoyed the circus so much in all my life, not even when I was a
little girl."

And that night every one slept like a top, let me tell you, for each one
was tired out with the day's work. Even the weathercock, I think, tucked
his head under his gilt wings and snored!




[Illustration: The Megaphone made Captain Noah as mad as a hornet.]

THE MAJESTY OF THE LAW