"
When Billy heard this his heart sank for he disliked the
ring-master and was afraid they would make him stand on his
hind-legs and walk. Had he only known it, that was the easiest
thing he would have to do. He was led to the performing ring and
there stood the hated ring-master facing a line of animals
standing in a straight line reaching from one side of the ring to
the other. In the middle stood the elephant, with the summer
house, as Billy called it, on his back; next him stood a camel;
next the camel a giraffe; next the giraffe a horse; next the
horse, a zebra, and last a little Shetland pony. On the other
side of the elephant were more animals standing in the same
order.
"What in the world can they want of me," thought Billy, but he
soon found out for they dressed him up as a clown in a white
suit with red spots on it and tied a mask on his face and a
pointed clown's cap on his head. Then they led him to where the
pony stood and made him walk up a step ladder, onto a little
platform, strapped to the pony's back. From this he was made to
walk up another step onto a similar platform on the zebra's back;
here he was made to stop and make a bow and so on until he had
reached the little summer house on the elephant's back.
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