Читать книгу Hurrah for the Circus! - Enid blyton - Страница 5

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The circus went very merrily at Westsea, and Mr. Galliano took the big field for one more week. Everybody was pleased, for a great deal of money was taken at the gate.

“I shall be able to get my caravan painted again,” said Stanley the clown, “and I’ll get myself a new suit too. One with a tail sewn on.”

“A tail!” said Lotta. “Whatever do you want a tail for? I’ve never heard of a clown with a tail before.”

“That’s just why I thought I’d have one,” said Sticky Stanley, with a grin. “Think what fun you’ll all have in the ring, trying to pull my tail! I’ll be Sticky Stanley, the only clown in the world with a tail!”

“He sticks to his work and his friends stick to him!” said Lotta, giving the smiling little man a hug, for she was very fond of him. “You get your tail, Stanley, and we’ll do plenty of pulling!”

So Stanley bought himself a marvellous new suit, and it had a long tail like a cow’s that dragged along behind him, and was always tripping him up when he turned round to go another way. Lucky thought the tail was great fun, and one night in the ring she ran after Stanley and worried his tail as if it were a rat. Stanley jumped about, and yelled, and shouted, for he really was afraid that the dog would bite it off!

Of course all the watching people thought that it was part of the show, and they laughed till they cried. So the clown thought he had better let Lucky do it again each night.

“But mind you, Jimmy, you’ll have to buy me a new tail if Lucky does happen to bite it off one night!” said the clown. “Or else she’ll have to give me her own. I wouldn’t mind a tail like Lucky’s, with a fine wag in it!”

Mr. Galliano paid Jimmy quite a lot of money that week, and the little boy was overjoyed. It was wonderful to think that he and his clever little dog could earn so much. He saved half of it, and bought his mother a new dress, his father a new saw, and Lotta a fine pair of shoes, which she wore to please Jimmy, though she really preferred to run barefoot.

Mr. Galliano began to think of engaging some new performers for the circus.

Lotta’s mother and father had taken their performing terriers with them, and they would not be back for some time. The circus was doing so well that it would be a good idea to make it even better.

“What shall we have next?” he asked his wife, fat and kindly Mrs. Galliano. “We have monkeys, an elephant, a chimpanzee, Lucky the dog, and our dancing horses. We might get some performing seals, perhaps—yes?”

“Yes,” said Mrs. Galliano. “Write to Philippo and see if he will join our circus with his six performing seals. They are wonderful. They can balance long poles on their noses, they can play catch-ball, and they sit on stools and sway themselves in time to the music in a very marvellous way.”

When Jimmy and Lotta heard that perhaps the six performing seals might join the circus, they were most excited.

“I saw them once!” said Lotta. “They are nice creatures, Jimmy, and they love doing tricks, just as the monkeys and Lucky do, and just as the horses love waltzing to the music!”

“I’ve never found out yet how those horses manage to dance round in time to the music,” said Jimmy seriously. “Sometimes the music goes slow, and sometimes it goes fast—however do the horses follow it?”

“Jimmy!” cried Lotta, in surprise. “Have you been with the circus all these months, and don’t know that little trick yet?”

“What little trick?” asked Jimmy, astonished. “Is there a trick?”

“Of course there is!” said Lotta, laughing. “The horses don’t dance in time to the music! The music keeps in time with them! That’s why it sometimes goes slow and sometimes fast, silly! It keeps in time with the horses, the horses don’t keep in time with the music!”

“Well, I never!” said Jimmy, amazed. “I didn’t know that before.”

“I do hope those seals come,” said Lotta, dancing about. “We’ll have fun with them, Jimmy.”

But it was most disappointing; they didn’t come. Mr. Philippo had joined another circus, and was not free to come to Mr. Galliano. The children were sorry.

“I wonder what he will get,” said Lotta.

“Cats, perhaps,” said Jimmy.

“Pooh, cats!” said Lotta scornfully. “Don’t you know that cats can’t perform? At least, they won’t perform—not unless they’re big cats, anyway.”

“Big cats?” said Jimmy. “What sort of big cats? Fat ones, do you mean?”

Lotta went off into peals of laughter, and rolled on the grass.

“You are funny, Jimmy,” she said, as she sat up again. “Don’t you know that big cats are tigers, or panthers, or some animal of that family? They are all cats. They purr like cats too. Haven’t you heard them?”

“No,” said Jimmy. “I’ve never even seen a real tiger or lion, except in pictures. But I’d like to. They look such great, magnificent creatures.”

Well, Jimmy was soon to see some real big cats, for Mr. Galliano heard from two people called Roma and Fric, who owned six great tigers.

He showed the letter to Mrs. Galliano, and he called Mr. Tonks, Jumbo’s keeper, into the caravan, and Lilliput, who owned the four monkeys, and Mr. Wally, who owned Sammy the chimpanzee.

“I have a letter here, yes,” said Mr. Galliano. “It is from Roma and Fric, who have six tigers. They can sit on stools, jump through hoops, and play follow-my-leader. You have heard of them—yes?”

“I don’t like trained cats, whether they are tigers, lions, leopards, or lynxes,” said Mr. Wally. “It isn’t natural for cats to act.”

“They don’t like it,” said Lilliput. “They’re not like monkeys, who act all the time, nor yet like Jumbo, who was bred and born in a circus.”

“It’s a job to have travelling tigers,” said Mr. Tonks, scratching his head. “For one thing, we’ve got to have a mighty strong cage built each night in the ring before the tigers can do their turn, and that takes time.”

“Brownie can help with that—yes?” said Mr. Galliano. “We are going next to Liverpool, and Roma and Fric can join us there. Of course, people like to see performing tigers—it looks dangerous, yes!”

“I don’t like trained cats, big or little,” said Mr. Wally again. “But if people want to see them, I suppose circuses have got to have them. Give me animals that enjoy learning—tigers don’t! It hurts their feelings.”

Very soon the news went round the camp. Performing tigers were to join the circus at Liverpool. Lotta and Jimmy were thrilled. “Now I shall get to know tigers too,” said Jimmy happily, for he was a boy who loved and welcomed any animal, big or small. “I wish I knew all the animals in the world!”

“You’re a funny fellow, Jimmy,” said Mr. Tonks, pulling the boy’s ear gently. “I believe you would even love performing fleas! It’s wonderful how all the animals take to you.”

Jimmy went red with pride. “I shall make friends with the tigers too,” he said.

“Don’t be too sure about that,” said Mr. Tonks. “Tigers are funny things, and not to be trusted. I reckon they ought never to be in a circus. They won’t make friends with any one—not real friends, like old Jumbo there, or Sammy the chimp.”

“Well, we’ll see, Tonky,” said Jimmy, and he ran off to give Lucky a bath before her turn in the circus that night.

The show at Westsea finished that week-end and soon the circus was on the move again, travelling towards Liverpool. It poured with rain as they went, and the children sat inside their caravan, and looked out on the dreary surroundings. They did not like the look of Liverpool very much, after the freedom and beauty of Westsea.

“But never mind, Lotta!” said Jimmy, jigging in joy. “We shall meet the tigers at Liverpool! That will be a big treat, won’t it?”