six or seven other neighbourhood children--a most satisfactory audience,
although, subsequent to Miss Rennsdale and governess, admission was
wholly by pin.

"GEN-til-mun and LAY-deeze," shouted Penrod, "I will first call your
at-tain-shon to our genuine South American dog, part alligator!" He
pointed to the dachshund, and added, in his ordinary tone, "That's him."
Straightway reassuming the character of showman, he bellowed: "NEXT,
you see Duke, the genuine, full-blooded Indian dog from the far Western
Plains and Rocky Mountains. NEXT, the trained Michigan rats, captured
way up there, and trained to jump and run all around the box at the--at
the--at the slightest PRE-text!" He paused, partly to take breath and
partly to enjoy his own surprised discovery that this phrase was in his
vocabulary.

"At the slightest PRE-text!" he repeated, and continued, suiting the
action to the word: "I will now hammer upon the box and each and all may
see these genuine full-blooded Michigan rats perform at the slightest
PRE-text! There! (That's all they do now, but I and Sam are goin' to
train 'em lots more before this afternoon.) GEN-til-mun and LAY-deeze I
will kindly now call your at-tain-shon to Sherman, the wild animal
from Africa, costing the lives of the wild trapper and many of his
companions. NEXT, let me kindly interodoos Herman and Verman. Their
father got mad and stuck his pitchfork right inside of another man,
exactly as promised upon the advertisements outside the big tent, and
got put in jail. Look at them well, gen-til-mun and lay-deeze, there is
no extra charge, and RE-MEM-BUR you are each and all now looking at two
wild, tattooed men which the father of is in jail. Point, Herman. Each
and all will have a chance to see. Point to sumpthing else, Herman.
This is the only genuine one-fingered tattooed wild man. Last on