“Oh, mamma, may we go?” exclaimed Bawly No-Tail one day as he came home from school, and hopped into the house with such a big hop, that he hopped right up into the frog lady’s lap.
“Go where?” asked Bawly’s mother, wondering if the alligator were after her son.
“Oh, do please let us go!” cried Bully, hopping in after his brother. Bully tried to stand on his head, but his foot slipped and he nearly fell into the ink bottle. “Please let us go, mother?”
“Where? Where?” she asked again, as Bawly hopped out of her lap.
“To the circus!” cried Bully.
“It’s coming!” exclaimed Bawly.
“Down in the vacant lots,” went on Bully.
“Oh, you ought to see the posters! Lions and tigers and elephants, and men jumping in the air, and horses and—and—”
Bawly had to stop for breath then, and so he couldn’t say any more. Neither could Bully. Oh, but they were excited, let me tell you.
“May we go?” they both cried out again.
“Well, I’ll see,” began their mother slowly. “I don’t know—”
“Oh, I guess you’d better let them go,” spoke up Grandpa Croaker in his deepest, rumbling voice. “I—I think I can spare the time to look after them. I don’t really want to go, you know, as I was going to play a game of checkers with Uncle Wiggily Longears, but I guess I can take the boys to the circus. Ahem!”
“Oh, goody!” cried Bawly, jumping up and down.
“Where are you going?” asked their papa, just then coming in from the wallpaper factory.
“To the circus,” said Bawly. “Grandpa Croaker will take us.”
“Ha! Hum!” exclaimed Papa No-Tail. “I am very busy, but I guess I can spare the time to take you. We won’t bother Grandpa.”
“Oh, it’s no bother—none at all, I assure you,” quickly spoke the grandpa frog, in a thundering, rumbling voice. “We can both take them.”
“Well, I never heard of such a thing!” exclaimed Mamma No-Tail. “Any one would think you two old men frogs wanted to go as much as the boys do. But I guess it will be all right.”
So Bully and Bawly and their papa and their grandpa went to the circus next day. And what do you think? Just as they were buying their tickets if they didn’t meet Uncle Wiggily Longears! And he had Sammie and Susie, the rabbits, with him, and there was Aunt Lettie, the old lady goat, with the three Wibblewobble children, and many other little friends of Bully and Bawly.
Well, that was a fine circus! There were lots of tents with flags on, and outside were men selling pink lemonade and peanuts for the elephant, and toy balloons, only those weren’t for the elephant, you know, and there were men shouting, and lots of excitement, and there was a side show, with pictures outside the tent of a man swallowing swords by the dozen, and also knives and forks, and another picture of a lady wrapping a fat snake around her neck, because she was cold, I guess, and then you could hear the lions roaring and the elephants trumpeting, and the band was playing, and the peanut wagons were whistling like teakettles, and—and—Oh! why, if I write any more about that circus I’ll want to take my typewriter, and put it away in a dark closet, and go to the show myself!
But anyhow it was very fine, and pretty soon Bully and Bawly and their papa and grandpa were in the tent looking at the animals. They fed the elephant peanuts until they had none for themselves, and they looked at the camel with two humps, and at the one with only one hump, because I s’pose he didn’t have money enough to buy two, and then they went in the tent where the real show was.
Well it went off very fine. The big parade was over, and the men were doing acts on the trapeze, and the trained seals were playing ball with their noses, and the clowns were cutting up funny capers. And all at once a man, with a shiny hat on, came out in the middle of the ring, and said:
“Ladies and gentlemen, permit me to call your attention to our jumping dog, Nero. He is the greatest jumping dog in the world, and he will jump over an elephant’s back!”
Well, the people clapped like anything after that, and a clown came out, leading a dog. Everybody was all excited, especially when another clown led out a big elephant. Then it was the turn of the dog to jump over the elephant. Well, he tried it, but he didn’t go over. The clown petted him, and gave him a sweet cracker, and the dog tried it again, but he couldn’t do it. Then he tried once more and he fell right down under the elephant, and the elephant lifted Nero up in his trunk, and set him gently down on some straw.
Then the clown took off his funny, pointed hat and said:
“Ladies and gentlemen, I am very sorry, but my poor dog is sick and he can’t jump to-day, and I have nothing else that can jump over the elephant’s back.”
Every one felt quite disappointed at that, but still they were sorry for the poor dog. The clown led him away, and the other clown was leading the elephant off, when Bully said to Bawly:
“Don’t you think we could do that jump? We once did a big jump to get away from the alligator, you know.”
“Let’s try it,” said Bawly. “Then the people won’t be disappointed. Come on.” So they slipped from their seats, when their papa and grandpa were talking to Uncle Wiggily about the trained seals, and those two frog boys just hopped right into the middle of the circus ring. At first a monkey policeman was going to put them out, but they made motions that they wanted to jump over the elephant, for they couldn’t speak policeman talk, you know.
“Ah ha! I see what they want,” said the kind clown. “Well, I don’t believe they can do it, but let them try. It may amuse the people.” So he made the elephant go back to his place, and every one became interested in what Bully and Bawly were going to do.
“Are you already?” asked Bully of his brother.
“Yes,” answered Bawly.
“Then take a long breath, and jump as hard as you can,” said Bully. So they both took long breaths, crouched down on their hind legs, and then both together, simultaneously and most extraordinarily, they jumped. My, what a jump it was! Bigger than the time when they got away from the alligator. Right over the elephant’s back they jumped, and they landed on a pile of soft straw so they weren’t hurt a bit. My! You should have heard the people cheer and clap!
“Good!” cried the clown. “That was a great jump! Will you stay in the circus with me? I will pay you as much as I pay my dog.”
“Oh, no! They must go home,” said their papa, as Bully and Bawly went back to their seats. “That is, after the circus is over,” said Mr. No-Tail.
So the frog boys saw the rest of the show, and afterward all their friends told them how brave it was to do what they had done.
And for a long time after that whenever any one mentioned what good jumpers Bully and Bawly were, Sammie Littletail would say:
“Ah, but you should have seen them in the circus one day.”
And on the next page, if the lilac bush in our back yard doesn’t reach in through the window, and take off my typewriter ribbon to wear to Sunday school, I’ll tell you about Bully and Bawly playing Indian.