“Come on!” Celia Jane called.  “Let’s play circus.  I’m all ready.”

“Wait a minute, can’t you?” complained Danny.  “I guess I’m the head of this circus.  I’ve got the biggest part and I ain’t quite ready.  Just hold your horses.”

“Whoa!” cried Celia Jane.  “I’m just one pony.  Get up!” She flapped her side with one hand, as though urging a horse to quicken his pace, and galloped out back of the woodshed where the circus “tent” had been set up and began prancing and dancing and preening about.  Jerry was torn between desire to watch her graceful whirling and pirouetting and to keep fascinated eyes on the green elephant.  He just had to stay and see if the elephant’s ears fell off again.  But Danny was equal to the occasion and tied the cap on with a piece of string.

“Celia Jane, you just come back here,” he called.  “I guess the elephant has to enter the circus ahead of the horse.  Horses always get scared of el’funts unless they’re behind where they can see them.  How do you expect us to parade if you’re there already?”

“All right,” replied Celia Jane and came prancing back into the woodshed, “but hurry.”

“I’ll be first,” said Danny, “an—­”

“An’ I’ll be second!” cried Chris.

“I’m third!” Nora and Celia Jane exclaimed together.

Jerry said nothing.  He knew where his place would be,—­the very tail end of the parade.

“Boom!” sang out Danny and again, “Boom!”

“What’s that for?” asked Chris.

“It’s the music so that the people will know the circus is about to begin,” replied Danny.  “They always have music for the parade an’ everything.  Darn Darner said so.”

“Let’s sing then,” suggested Nora.

“Sing what?” queried Danny crossly, seeing a threat to diminish his importance in the circus.

“We might sing ‘Heigho, the cherry-o,’” said Celia Jane.

“‘I Went to the Animal Fair’ will be much more appropriate,” Nora suggested.

“All right, sing,” consented Danny, “but the crowd’s gettin’ restless; I can hear them stampin’ and whistlin’!”

“I’ll start it,” said Nora.  “All ready.”

Thus the parade started and entered the main circus tent, which consisted of a pole in the center, with no canvas at all, to the strain of,

    I went to the animal fair;
    The birds and the beasts were there;
    The little raccoon, by the light of the moon,
    Was combing his auburn hair. 
    The monkey he got drunk,
    Ran up the elephant’s trunk,
    The elephant sneezed and fell on his knees
    And what became of the monkey-monkey-monk?

Jerry tried to sing, too, but he had a very hard time, for he couldn’t crawl as fast as the others walked and the carpet-rag balloon wouldn’t stay balanced on his nose but kept rolling off to the ground.  The rest of the parade was halfway around the ring (marked by a circle of sawdust which Danny had made after sawing wood energetically for half a day to get enough sawdust) when the trained seal had just reached the main entrance.