The boy and I played all the forenoon, and when the man started with the ground horseradish for the tent, we went along, and I introduced the man to pa, and pa O. K.’d the bill, and sent him to the treasurer after the money.  I was going to get on a back seat and watch the animals eat, but pa said:  “Here, you boys, get out those pans and portion out the turnips and pass ’em around just as the crowd comes in, ’cause after the animals have had a mess of cut feed they are better natured, and show off better.”

I was pretty leery about feeding the animals horseradish, and would have preferred to have some one else do it, who did not care to live any longer, but I said:  “Yes, sir,” just like that, and touched my hat to pa, and he said to the boss canvasman:  “There’s a boy you can swear by.”

The boss canvasman said:  “You are right, old man, but if he was mine, I would kill him so quick it would make your head swim,” and he and pa went off laughing, but I think they laughed too soon.

Well, we took a spud and put about a quart of horseradish in each pan, and put the pans in front of each animal, and you ought to have seen them rush for the supposed turnips, like a drove of cattle after salt.

The boy and I got up on the platform with the freaks, to be in a safe place, and watch the animals, and see how they digested their food.  The first animal to open up the chorus was the hippopotamus, ’cause we gave him about four quarts of horseradish on account of his mouth, and he swallowed it at one mouthful.  First he looked as though he felt hurt, and stopped chewing, and seemed to be thinking, like a horse that wakes up in the night with colic, and raises the whole family to sit up with him all night and pour things down his neck out of a long-neck bottle.  The hippo held his breath for about a minute, and then he opened his mouth so you could drive a wagon in, and gave the grand hailing sign of distress, and said:  “Wow, wow, wow,” as plain as a man could.  Then he rolled over into his tank and yelled “murder,” and wallowed around, and stood on his head, till one of the keepers went in the cage to try to soothe him.  He chased the keeper out, and the crowd that had just begun to come in fell back in terror.

There was quite a crowd around the camels watching them peacefully chew their cuds, as they do at evening on the dessert, and the Arabs who had charge of the camels were standing around, posing as though they were the whole thing, when the old black, double-hump camel got his quart of horseradish down into one of his stomachs, as he was kneeling down on all fours.  He yelled:  “O, mamma,” and got up on all his feet, and kicked an Arab off a prayer rug, and bellowed and groaned.  Then the rest of the herd of camels seemed to have swallowed their dose, and they made Rome howl.  This scared the people over to where the sacred cattle were trying to set a pious example to the rest of the animals by their meek and lowly conduct.