THE GIANT’S SWING

“To-night we shall have a most wonderful time,” said the Elephant from the Noah’s Ark to a Double Humped Camel who lived in the stall next to him.

“What kind of a time?” asked the Camel.  He stood on the toy counter of a big department store, looking across the top of a drum toward a Jack in the Box who was swaying to and fro on his long spring.  “What do you call a wonderful time, Mr. Elephant?”

“Oh, having fun,” replied the big toy animal, slowly swinging his trunk to and fro.  “And to-night the Calico Clown is going to give a special exhibition.”

“Oh, is he?” suddenly asked a funny little Wooden Donkey with a head that wagged up and down.  “Is he going to climb a string again and burn his red and yellow trousers as he once did?”

“Indeed I am not!” exclaimed the Calico Clown himself.  The Clown was leaning against his friend Mr. Jumping Jack, who was a cousin of Jack in the Box.  “I’m not going to give any special exhibition like that,” went on the Clown.  “I’m just going to do a few funny tricks, such as standing on my head and banging my cymbals together.  And, I am not sure, but I may ask a riddle.”

“Will it be that one about what makes more noise than a pig under a gate?” inquired a Celluloid Doll.  “Well, yes, it will be that riddle,” replied the Clown, trying to look very stern.

“That’s the only riddle he knows,” whispered the Elephant.

“What I should like to know,” said the Camel, “is why a pig should want to get under a gate, anyhow.  Why didn’t he stay in his pen?”

“Oh, there’s no use trying to make you understand,” sighed the Clown.  “I’ll just have to dance around, do a few jigs, bang my cymbals together, and do things like that to amuse you.”

“Well, we’ll have a good time to-night, anyhow,” said the Celluloid Doll.  “We really haven’t had much fun since the Candy Rabbit and the Monkey on a Stick went away.  I wish—­”

“Hush!” suddenly called the Calico Clown.  “Here come the clerks.  The store will soon be filled with customers.”

The toys became very still and quiet.  This talk among them had taken place in the early morning hours, after a night of jolly good times.  But when daylight came, and when clerks and customers filled the store, the toys were no longer allowed to do as they pleased.  They could not move about or talk as they could on other occasions.

The Calico Clown was a jolly chap, and he seemed to stand out among all the other toys on the counter.  He wore calico trousers of which one leg was red and the other yellow.  He had a calico shirt that was spotted, speckled and striped in gay colors, and on each of his hands was a round piece of brass.  These pieces of brass were called “cymbals,” and the Calico Clown could bang them together as the drummer bangs his cymbals in the band.

I say the Calico Clown could bang his cymbals together, and by that I mean he could do it when no boys or girls or grown folk were looking at him.  This was the rule for all the toys.  They could move about and talk only when no human eyes were looking.  As soon as you glanced at them they became as still and as quiet as potatoes.