"A _what_?" inquired Ed Mason, in a tone of deep scorn.
"A ger-noo," said Susy; "but he was asleep--"
"That ain't ger-noo," Ed returned, "it's '_noo_,'--just like that."
"It isn't! It said 'Ger-noo or Horned Horse' right on the cage. I guess I saw it, Ed Mason, and you weren't there, so what do you know 'bout it?"
"I don't care," replied Ed, doggedly, "'tain't 'ger-noo.'"
Susy puckered up her face and seemed about to cry, but Flossie Mason remarked hurriedly: "Never mind, Susy. What was in the next cage?"
"Oh, there was--" and then Susy's mind jumped ahead--"there was a countryman with a big umbreller an' just as the lady was goin' to dive into the water he came along right in front of us an' said he'd give any one three cents for a seat, but of course no one would give him a seat, 'cos they cost seventy-five cents, an' he got into a fight with another countryman who was sittin' in the front row, an' tried to pull him out of his seat, an' a great, big, fat p'liceman came runnin' an' tried to arrest 'em both, an' they grabbed _him_ an' pulled him over to the tank, an' all three of 'em fell into the water, an' the tank was all full of 'em, swimmin' round, an' they had to stop the circus an' get 'em out!"
Susy stopped for breath, and Ed Mason found time to ejaculate:--
"Hoh! that was all made up! They were clowns, all of 'em!"
"They were _not_ clowns. They were dressed up just like _men_!"
"That's all right," I put in, "they were clowns just the same. They go round with the circus doin' that. I saw 'em do somethin' like that last summer, only there wasn't but one countryman, an' they drove 'em off in a wagon with donkeys."
"They weren't clowns!" Susy stamped her foot. "Clowns have white faces, an' funny clothes, an' there were two real clowns helpin' get these men out, they stopped bein' funny an' were awful scared 'cos the p'liceman couldn't swim, an' he floated round on top of the water, an' when he got hold of the rope he was so heavy the clowns couldn't pull him out an' _they_ fell in, too."
"That's so," said Charley Carter, with a serious countenance, as he recalled the catastrophe; "an' a man that sat in front of me said he knew the first countryman,--the one with the umbreller--he lives over in Rowley."