CHAPTER VI
THE GREAT CIRCUS
On the morning after the wonderful escape from the ravine, the wholecompany were, for a while, rather quiet and subdued.
Nothing was to be seen of Baby Jane but the top of her golden head. Herboys and beasts were huddled close round, trying to help her with sleepysuggestions, mostly silly, for raising an army to convert the Bad Bandof the Black Mountains.
But as they squatted there on the soft sand in the drowsy warmth of thesun, the councillors began to grow sleepier and their counsels sillier,till suddenly--
'What ho!' said Sammy, and they all woke up. 'Let us have a "greatestshow on earth," with a circus and gymnastics, and a play-act to follow.That will catch 'em all alive like a fly-paper, and Miss Jane can enlistthe lot! But first we must crawl along in a string in a gutter, if wecan find one, rigged out with boards with fine words on them:
'BABY JANE'S GIGANTIC JUBILEE CIRCUS
BUNNY THE FUNNY AND CROCKY THE FAIR MOUNTED ON MARY THE MUSICAL MARE.'
'No, I won't!' interrupted Mary Carmichael angrily; 'I don't mind beinga tight-rope dancer, but I _won't_ be a spotted horse!'
Sammy went on calmly:
'COMICAL CAPERS AND MARVELLOUS FEATS, _Two shilling, shilling, and sixpenny seats_.'
'Splendid!' said Baby Jane. 'All except the last words, which arewrong. The seats are all _nothing_ seats.'
Sammy looked crestfallen--he had thought of the circus an hour before,but had spent all that time in inventing those beautiful lines.
A little later a string of 'sandwich-men' might have been seen walkingin step slowly and solemnly across the desert, each bearing before him abeautiful poster (drawn by himself, with a bit of burnt wood on whitestuff stretched across four sticks).
'Don't let us tell any one we are sandwich-men,' whispered MaryCarmichael nervously; 'they might think we meant it and take a platefulof us!'
At the end of the procession came Edouardo and the barrow as a caravan.
'It's a pity,' thought Baby Jane with a sigh, 'the barrow has nolooking-glasses and gold things and a Britannia on the top and a bandinside; but they won't know what a real circus is like, so perhaps wecan amuse them.'
It is little wonder that a procession, so rarely seen in those parts,should attract the creatures who saw it from afar, and, as each one ranround the corner and beckoned and shouted to his friends to come alongquick, the solemn line of sandwich-men was soon escorted by an expectantrabble. They all seemed of the right sort--beasts really bad at heartdespised harmless fun like this.
Greater still was the curiosity aroused when Baby Jane and her troupecame to a stop in a shallow round hollow with sloping banks like therising tiers of seats in a real circus. Round the bottom of this hollowSammy drew a line in the sand, and the following crowd were marshalledinto their seats outside it.
Then the circus began. The Bear had just the proper fat figure and gruffvoice for a ring-master, and he cracked the whip (ordinarily used toencourage Edouardo) in the most correct way. The Rabbit made anexcellently idiotic clown.
The first item was a tight-rope dance by Mary Carmichael. She _would_ doit in spite of every one's advice that she was being too ambitious.Dressed in a silly little muslin skirt and carrying the umbrellacoquettishly over her shoulder, she skipped up to the rope that had beenstretched between two posts, and, with the help of the Bear, clamberedon to it. For a moment all went well. With a simpering smile she wenttrip-tripping along the rope; but then she gave a frightful stagger,swung out her legs in all directions, twisted her back cruelly in a wildeffort to recover herself, and fell with a clatter to the ground,smashing the umbrella beneath her.
The whole audience roared with delight, thinking it part of the fun, butthere were tears in Mary's eyes as she limped out of the ring.
'I am afraid I have spoiled the whole show with my silliness,' she saidin a choking voice. 'I had better be a common spotted horse now.'
As it was Miss Crocodile's turn to appear as the Queen of the Ring, theytook Mary at her word, though she had not meant it, and, having takenaway her skirt and put it on Miss Crocodile, they spotted her like aleopard and she had to canter round the ring, watering the sand withbitter tears, while Miss Crocodile, looking very winsome with her littlelegs crossed, sat sideways upon her and smiled at the audience.
Miss Crocodile was at first quite a brilliant success. Twice she leaptnimbly through the hoop of bent bamboo held aloft by the Bear, but bythe third round Mary's sadness had turned to spite.
As before, Miss Crocodile rose into the air and shot through the hoop,but to her dismay she found no horse on the other side for her to comedown upon, and she alighted on her chin, balanced for a moment with hertail pointing to the sky, and then fell flat on her back. MaryCarmichael had stopped short under the hoop!
Mary Carmichael had stopped short under the hoop.]
At this moment the Rabbit came racing into the ring mounted on a curiousfour-legged animal which looked strangely like the Piccaninny and Patseyjoined together and covered with a rug.
'A race!' squeaked the Rabbit. 'My pony Joey against oldSpots-and-corners!'
The spotted Horse appealed to the Ring-master to stop the Rabbit'srudeness, but all the same began to gallop furiously to show that shecould do at least one thing well. But the Rabbit, being nearer themiddle of the ring, had a much shorter course, and would have won easilyif only Patsey, who was the hind legs, could have run as fast as thePiccaninny. As it was, the strange pony grew longer and longer, untilthe Rabbit, who had a foot on each, was nearly pulled in half. Suddenlythe Pony broke in the middle, and both halves and the Rabbit, all mixedup in the ring, joined in a fearful battle on the ground.
'The silly little cuckoos!' squeaked the Rabbit breathlessly, as hearose from the tangled heap. 'I warned them about that.'
After that the three children were led in with ropes round their necksand let loose within a little fence, which represented a cage. Then'Leo, the heroic Baby Tamer,' trembling visibly, entered, and holdingout a stick for that ferocious creature Baby Jane to jump over, tried tosubdue her by the power of the eye. But she seemed to consider hismagical gaze merely rude, and, looking as like Miss McColl in a temperas she could, she crept towards him. She must have looked very like,for, with a screech of real fright, the Lion fell flat on his back.Before the wretched creature had time to rise the three savage bruteswere upon him.
It was a fearful scene and caused a panic in the audience. Mother-bearsclutched their baby-bears, young lady crocodiles fainted, and younglions stood up bravely--and shouted for the police. They were onlyreassured when the children and the Lion came out of the cage andpublicly shook hands to show there was no ill-feeling.
'Oh, that was fun!' cried Baby Jane, pushing aside the golden locksthat, now unbound, hung like curtains against her flushed cheeks.
'Oh, was it?' said the Lion, ruefully rubbing himself, but smilingaffectionately at her.
When the circus was over there was an interval for dinner, and such wasthe good-nature called forth by that enjoyable show that as many of theaudience got up from dinner as had sat down.
They followed the example of Baby Jane's family and dined on thedelicious foods that grew in the groves and thickets. An ill-manneredcub may have inquired 'Who's for pudding?' but he was instantly cuffedand made to ask '_What's_ for pudding?'
'It is so economical too!' whispered the matrons to one another. 'Ofcourse, one must have a missionary at Michaelmas and so forth, but atother times I shall try to make my family keep to it.'
It was a much larger audience that returned to the arena after the meal,for youngsters had been despatched, grumbling and whimpering, to bringin distant relatives, and the far-reaching whiffs of the dinner itselfhad brought in other beasts full-pelt.
And now began the Great Gymnastic Display. Baby Jane had been only abeginner in the gymnasium of her school, and Sammy's knowledge was ofthe kind gained on park-railings and lamp-posts, but the spectators kne
wnothing at all and thought it very fine.
First the Lion and Patsey, under Sammy's direction, had a trial of skillon the Parallel Bars. Sure, and it was a sweet sight to see Patsey withhis little shillelagh brandished in one foot and his hat in the other,dancing a jig wrong side up. On the other hand, the Lion tried to bestately. Now, it is nearly always a mistake to try to be stately whilestanding on your head, and so the Lion found, for in straighteninghimself out a little too far he slowly toppled backwards and fell flopon top of Patsey, who, not having eyes in the part of him thenuppermost, could not see what was coming.
They rescued Patsey and found him crushed in body but not in spirit; onthe contrary, he struggled to go and fight a duel with the Lion.
Next, fixing up a post in the middle of the arena, they fastened ropesto the top of it, and then, holding the other end of these ropes, theyswung round and round at a giddy pace, touching the ground lightly withtheir toes. Of course this sport, especially with the slender pole thatthey had, was only for the graceful little ones, and Baby Jane, thePiccaninny, and the Rabbit were growing breathless with the delightfulsweep and swing of it, when that Mary Carmichael, who was as vain as shewas sentimental, and thought herself an airy young thing, came trippingacross the ring, and, hooking her great hoofs in the loop at the end ofa rope, struck the ground with her hind legs as if she were starting atomnibus. Twice she went slinging round after the others andthen--crack!--the pole gave way, and the four performers were slung likestones amongst the crowd. The other three landed safely and softly onbroad backs, but heavy, bony Mary descended in the lap of a cross oldspinster bear, who was gossiping with two cronies.
Mary descended in the lap of a cross old spinster bear.]
'Now, can't you look where you are going?' snapped Miss Bear, bundlingMary off her lap on to the ground.
'Oh, I'm sure I beg your pardon!' said Mary hotly; and then, losing hertemper--'You don't imagine I want to join in the conversation of personswho certainly aren't ladies, and don't look it!'
And then she flounced away, while they made scathing remarks to oneanother about her at the top of their voices.
It can easily be understood that she was much too upset to play the partof a vaulting-horse as it should be played, but she had to do it,trembling all over with spite, and occasionally, to the greatinconvenience of the gymnasts, jerking half round to glare at the threespinsters, who were laughing loudly at her undignified position.
Sammy led the line that raced nimbly up to the vaulting-horse, placedhis hands upon her back and turned a neat somersault over her. Theothers all got over in some way or other, and all went well until MissCrocodile lost her head.
Instead of running round the horse and vaulting from the same side asbefore, she turned straight back, bounded lightly into the air,and--_met the Bear as he turned a somersault in the opposite direction_!There was a terrible collision, and, worse and worse, the other vaulterscould not stop themselves and joined in the crash. It was an awfulsight--a whirling mass of heads, legs, bodies, and tails high in theair!
Mary Carmichael thought that a blizzard and a thunderstorm had metoverhead, and made for shelter. It was well for her that she did so, forthe next two seconds it rained beasts and babies on the spot where shehad stood.
This succession of disasters, though painful to the performers, calledforth thunders of applause from the spectators--indeed, they would notstop clapping, and it turned out they wanted the tumbles all over again.
But Baby Jane and her troupe sadly needed the rest they enjoyed attea-time, during which they made plans for the play that was to end theday's pleasure.
'It is growing dark,' said Baby Jane; 'we shall have to have somethingthat happens at night. I know! I've read some stories from Shakespeare._Romeo and Juliet_ and _Hamlet_ both have nice night-scenes; they wouldmix beautifully into one play. Oh yes, this is it! Prince Hamlet, who isunkind to Ophelia because he is really in love with Juliet, has a sortof tame ghost, and, when he finds Romeo saying loving things to thewindow of Juliet's room, he sets his tame ghost on to him. Then, ofcourse, Romeo runs away chased by the ghost, and Juliet, who has heardthe loving things, comes out and sees Hamlet and thinks it was he whosaid them, so she tells him to climb up and kiss her, and they aremarried and live happily ever afterwards.'
'But what happens to that other poor lady, Ophelia?' asked thechivalrous Lion.
'Oh, she doesn't appear,' said Baby Jane, 'so it doesn't matter; but Iexpect she marries Romeo or the ghost and _they_ live happily everafterwards too.'
The play went off splendidly. The crowd was now immense, and there wasno need this time to have tortoises laid on their backs for spectators.A number of tortoises, who probably had been used for the tableaux, didcome and turned over on their backs of their own accord, but they werepromptly turned right-side up and chased out of the place.
The audience took everything very seriously; indeed, it was lucky noactor had to play the part of a villain, for they would certainly havepaid him the compliment of eating him.
How they roared with excitement! 'Go it, ghost! Go it, Romeo!' as theghost scuttled round and round after Romeo until he laid his paw on atree and cried 'Touch wood!' when the spectre uttered a shudderingshriek and faded away into the night.
'And a capital match for her,' said the matrons, when Hamlet marriedJuliet. 'Fancy a prince so grand that he keeps a ghost as you or I mightkeep a canary!'
All were pleased at this happy ending, and just in the mood to hear BabyJane's speech.
She began as she had heard a recited speech begin at school: 'Friends,Romans, Countrymen, I hope you've enjoyed yourselves. I want you to comeand be my beasts. You only want to be shown how to be nice and happy,but there are some poor beasts who can't be nice of their own accord. Ofcourse, it's much best to make things so good for the good ones thateverybody wants to become good; but if that won't do, then you _have_ tomake things so bad for the bad ones that nobody wants to stay bad. NowI've got to make things awfully bad for the poor Black Mountain Band, sothat they shall be happy afterwards. Will you help me? I want aregiment of Lions (loud cheers from the Lions present), and a regimentof Bears (prolonged applause from the Bears), and a regiment of Rabbits(enthusiastic squeaks). Here are my Captains!' and she held out her handtowards her own body-guard.
At this point the vast audience rose as one beast and waved their pawsand shouted:
'We will die for our Queen, Baby Jane!'
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