WHAT FREDDIE SAW AT THE CIRCUS

New Zealand Tablet, 7 August 1913, Page 61

WHAT FREDDIE SAW AT THE CIRCUS

Freddie had never been to the circus, and he, came home from his first visit in a state of wild excitement. He had hardly breath enough to give his mother a sketch of the wonders he had witnessed. ' Oh, mother, you ought to been there! Were you ever at a circus?' ' Oh, yes, dear,' his mother replied, ' but not since I was a little girl, and that seems a long while ago. I suppose the circus has grown immensely since my first visit. We used to have just one ring and one clown, and maybe one elephant and two or three cages of wild beasts. I imagine that everything has changed since then.' ' Yes, it has,' exclaimed Freddie. Why, mother, they have three big rings, and something doing all the time in all three of them. It almost made me crosseyed trying to look at them at the same time. I tell you it makes you twist your neck if you try to see everything !' 'Did they have many wild animals ' I never saw so many in my life, and I guess nobody ever did. They had lions and tigers and leopards and dangeroos and—' ' Oh, no, darling,' his mother said, smilingly, ' you mean kangaroos.' Yes, and they had them, too,' exclaimed Freddie. 'No, dear,' his mother explained; 'there is no ' such animal as a dangeroo. As I said, you mean kangaroo ' No,'. replied Freddie, with great positiveness, I mean dangeroos, and the name is on the cage, too.' ' You must be mistaken, dear,' his mother persisted. ' Well, you go to the circus with me to-morrow . afternoon, and I'll show you the dangeroos.' 'Well,' replied his mother, we'll certainly go, dear, for I never heard of the dangeroos before. He must be well worth seeing.' So the next afternoon saw Freddie and his mother in the circus grounds, and Freddie led his mother in triumph to a cage of wild hyenas. Over the cage there was the word ' dangerous' in large letters. There,' said Freddie, 'now what did I tell you?' Mother bit her lip hard and tried not to laugh, V and fortunately something funny happened in the crowd which offered, an excuse for her amusement.