CHAPTER II.

THE BLIND HORSE.

Reddy had laid his plans so well that all the intending partners were where they could easily be found on this evening when Toby's consent was to be won, and Ben Cushing was no exception. On the hard, uneven floor of his father's barn, with all his clothes discarded save his trousers and shirt, he was making such heroic efforts in the way of practice, that while the boys were yet some distance from the building they could hear the thud of Ben's head or heels as he unexpectedly came in contact with the floor.

When the three visitors stood at the door and looked in, Ben professed to be unaware of their presence, and began a series of hand-springs that might have been wonderful if he had not miscalculated the distance, and struck the side of the barn just as he was getting well into the work.

Then, having lost his opportunity of dazzling them by showing that even when he was alone he could turn any number of hand-springs simply in the way of exercise, he suddenly became aware of their presence, and greeted his friends with the anxiously asked question as to what Toby had decided to do about entering the circus business.

Bob and Reddy, instead of answering, waited for Toby to speak; it was a good opportunity to have the important matter settled definitely, and they listened anxiously for his decision.

"I'm goin' into it," said Toby, after a pause, during which it appeared as if he were trying to make up his mind, "'cause it seems as if you had it almost done now. You know, when I got home last summer, I didn't ever want to hear of a circus or see one, for I'd had about enough of them; an' then I'd think of poor Mr. Stubbs, an' that would make me feel awful bad. I didn't think, either, that we could get up such a good show; but now you fellers have got so much done toward it, I think we'd better go ahead--though I do wish Mr. Stubbs was alive, an' we had a skeleton an' a fat woman."

Reddy Grant cheered very loudly as a means of showing how delighted he was at thus having finally enlisted Toby in the scheme, and Bob, as proof of the high esteem in which all the projectors of the enterprise held this famous circus-rider, said:

"Now you know all about circuses, Toby, an' you shall be the chief boss of this one, an' we'll do just what you say."

Toby almost blushed as this great honor was actually thrust upon him, and he hardly knew what reply to make, when Ben ceased his acrobatic exercises, and with Bobby and Reddy stood waiting for him to give his orders.

"I s'pose the first thing to do," he said at length, "is to see if Jack Douglass is willin' for us to have his hoss, an' then find out what Uncle Dan'l says about it. If we don't get the hoss, it won't be any use to say anything to Uncle Dan'l."

Reddy was so anxious to have matters settled at once that he offered to go up to Mr. Douglass's house then, if the others would wait there for his return, which proposition was at once accepted.

Mr. Douglass was an old colored man who lived fully half a mile from the village; but Reddy's eagerness caused quick travelling, and in a surprisingly short time he was back, breathless and happy. The coveted horse was to be theirs for as long a time as they wanted him, provided they fed him well, and did not attempt to harness him into a wagon.

The owner of the sightless animal had expressed his doubts as to whether he would ever make much of a circus horse, owing to his lack of sight and his extreme age; but he argued that if, as was very probable, the animal fell while being ridden, he would hurt his rider quite as much as himself, and therefore the experiment would not be tried so often as seriously to injure the steed.

It only remained to consult Uncle Daniel on the matter, and of course that was to be attended to by Toby. He would have waited until a fitting opportunity presented itself, but his companions were so impatient, that he went home at once to have the case decided.

Uncle Daniel was seated by the window as usual, looking out over the distant hills as if he were trying to peer in at the gates of that city where so many loved ones awaited him, and it was some moments before Toby could make him understand what it was he was trying to say.

"So ye didn't get circusin' enough last summer?" asked the old gentleman, when at last he realized what it was the boy was talking about.

"Oh yes, I did," replied Toby, quickly; "but you see that was a real one, an' this of ours is only a little make-believe for three cents. We want to get you to let us have the lot between the barn an' the road to put our tent on, an' then lend us old Whitey. We're goin' to have Jack Douglass's hoss that's blind, an' we've got a three-legged cat, an' one without any tail, an' lots of things."

"It's a kind of a cripples' circus, eh? Well, Toby boy, you can do as you want to, an' you shall have old Whitey; but it seems to me you'd better tie her lame leg on, or she'll shake it off when you get to makin' her cut up antics."

Then Uncle Daniel returned to his reverie, and the show was thus decided upon, the projectors going again to view the triangular piece of land so soon to be decorated with their tents and circus belongings.

Each hour that passed after Toby had decided, with Uncle Daniel's consent, to go into the circus business, made him more eager to carry out the brilliant plan that had been unfolded by Bob Atwood and Reddy Grant, until his brain was in a perfect whirl when he went to bed that night.

He was sure he could ride as well as when he was under Mr. Castle's rather severe training, and he thought over and over again how he would surprise every one who knew him; but he did not stop to think that there might be a difference between the horse he had ridden in the circus and the lame one of Uncle Daniel's, or the blind one belonging to Mr. Douglass. He had an idea that it all depended upon himself, with very little reference to the animal, and he was sure he had his lesson perfectly.

Early as he got up the next morning, his partners in the enterprise were waiting for him just around the corner of the barn, where he found them as he went for the cows, and they walked to the pasture with him in order to discuss the matter.

Ben Cushing was in light marching and acrobatic costume, worn for the occasion, in order to give a full exhibition of his skill; and Reddy had been up so long that he had had time to procure Mr. Douglass's wonderful steed, which he had already led to the pasture, so that he could be experimented upon.

"I thought I'd get him up there," he said to Toby, "so's you could try him; 'cause if we don't get money enough to hire one of Rube Rowe, you'll have to ride the blind one or the lame one, an' you'd better find out which you want. If you try him in the pasture, the fellers won't see you; but if you did it down by your house, every one of 'em would huddle 'round."

It was a warm job Bob had undertaken, this leading the blind animal along the ill-defined line that marked the limits of the ring, for the sun shone brightly, and there were no friendly trees to lend a shelter; but he paid no attention to his discomfort, because of the fact that he was doing something toward the enterprise which was to bring them in both honor and money.

The poor old horse was the least interested of the party, and he stumbled around the circle in an abused sort of way, as if he considered it a piece of gross injustice to force him on the weary round when the grass was so plentiful and tender just under his feet.

Ben was busily engaged in lengthening Mr. Douglass's rather weak and aged bridle with a small piece of rope, and from time to time he encouraged the ambitious clown in his labor.

"Keep it up, if it is hot!" he shouted, "an' when we get him so's he can do it alone, he'll be jest as good a circus hoss as anybody would want, for we can stuff him with hay an' grass till he's fat," and Ben looked at the clearly defined ribs in a critical way, as if trying to decide how much food would be necessary to cover them with flesh.

"Oh, I can keep on as long as the hoss can," said Bob, as he wiped the perspiration from his face with one hand, and clung firmly to the forelock of the animal with the other; "but we've been round here as many as six times already, an' he don't seem to know the way any better than when we started!"

"Oh yes, he does," cried Reddy, who was practicing for his duties as ring-master, anxious that his education should advance as fast as the horse's did; "he's got so he knows enough to turn out for that second knoll, though he does stumble a little over the first one."

By this time Ben had the bridle adjusted to suit him, Toby was ready to make his first attempt at riding since he left the circus, and the more serious work was begun.

Ben bridled the horse after some difficulty, Reddy drew out from its hiding-place a whip made by tying a piece of cod line to an alder branch, and Toby was about to mount, when Joe Robinson came in sight.

He had been running at full speed, and was nearly breathless; but he managed to cry out so that he could be understood after considerable difficulty:

"Hold on! don't go to ridin' till after we get some hoops for you to jump through."

"I guess I won't try any jumpin' till after I see how he goes," said Toby, as he looked rather doubtfully, first at the horse's weak legs, and then at his sharp back; "besides, we can't use the hoops till he gets more used to the ring."

Joe threw himself on the ground as if he felt quite as much aggrieved because he was thus left out of the programme as the horse apparently did because he was in it, and Bob consoled him by explaining that he had no reason to feel slighted, since he, who, as the clown, was to be the life of the entertainment, could take no other part in these preparatory steps than to lead a blind horse round a still blinder ring.

"Hold him while I get on," said Toby, as he clutched the mane and a portion of the prominent backbone, drawing himself up at some risk of upsetting the rather shaky steed.

But there was no necessity of his giving this order, for, although four boys sprang to do his bidding, the weary horse remained as motionless as a statue, save for his hard breathing, which proclaimed the fact that the "heaves" had long since singled him out as a victim.

Toby succeeded in getting on the animal's back after some exertion; but he found standing there an entirely different matter from standing on the broad saddles that were used in the circus, and the boy and the horse made a shaky-looking pair.

"Shall I start him?" asked Bob, while Reddy stood as near the centre of the ring as he could get, prepared to snap his cod-line whip at the first signal.

Toby hesitated a moment; he knew that to attempt to stand up on, or on either side of, that prominent backbone, after its owner was in motion, would be simply to invite his own downfall; and he said, as he seated himself carefully astride the bone:

"Let him walk around once till I see how he goes."

Reddy cracked his whip without producing any effect upon the patient steed, but, after much coaxing, Bob succeeded in starting him again, while Toby bounced up and down much like a kernel of corn on a griddle, such a decided motion did the horse have.

"He won't ever do for a ridin' hoss," said Toby, with much difficulty, when he was half-way around the circle, "'cause you see his bones is so sharp that he feels as if he was comin' to pieces every time he steps."

"Jest get him to trottin' once, an' then you can tell what he's good for," suggested Reddy, anxious to try the effect of his whip; and without waiting for the rider's permission, he lashed the unfortunate animal with the cod line until he succeeded in rousing him thoroughly.

It was in vain Toby begged him to stop, and Bob shouted that such a course was not the proper one for a ring-master to pursue. Reddy was determined the rider should have an opportunity of trying the horse under full speed, and the result was that the animal broke loose from Bob's guiding hand, rushing out of the imaginary ring into the centre of the pasture at a rate of speed that would have surprised and frightened Mr. Douglass had he been there to see it.

Shaken first up, then down, and from one side to the other, Toby stretched himself out at full length, clasping the horse around the neck as the patched bridle broke, and shouting "Whoa!" at the full strength of his lungs.

After running fully fifty yards, until it seemed to Toby that his head and his body had been pounded into one, the horse stopped, leaned one heel up against the other, and stood as if dreamily asking whether they wanted any more circus out of him.

"Couldn't anybody ride him, he jolts so," said Toby to his partners, as they came running up to where he stood. "You see, in the circus they had big, wide saddles, an' the hosses didn't go anything like him."

"Well, we can fix a saddle," said Bob, thoughtfully; "but I don't know as we could do anything to the hoss."

"Perhaps old Whitey'll go better, 'cause she's lame," suggested Reddy, feeling that considerable credit was due him for having made it possible to test the animal's qualities in so short a time.

"I wouldn't wonder if this one would be all right when he gets a saddle on an' is trained," said Joe; and then he added, quickly, "I hain't got anything more to do to-day, an' I'll stay up here an' train him."

The partners were only too glad to accept this offer; and while Joe led the horse back to the supposed ring, Ben gave a partial exhibition of his acrobatic feats, omitting the most difficult, owing to the uneven surface of the land.

Then the partners retired to the shade of some alder bushes, where they could fight mosquitoes and talk over their plans at the same time, while Joe was perspiring in his self-imposed task of educating the blind horse.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

JUMBO.

BY MRS. ZADEL B. GUSTAFSON.

Just at the present moment there is not, I think, in all Europe or America a personage more talked about than Jumbo. Even the Queen, who was shot at a few weeks ago by a poor crazy man, but not hurt; even the Czar, who is shut up in one of his Russian palaces for fear of being shot at, are having less said about them.

Jumbo, as I am perfectly sure you all know as well as I do, is an elephant, the biggest elephant in captivity, as gentle as he is big, and the English people, young and old, are very fond of him.

He is an African elephant, and Sir Samuel Baker, a Fellow of the Zoological Society, who knows a great deal about elephants, says that he knew Jumbo when he was a baby about four and a half feet high, and had just been captured by Arabs on the shore of the Settite River, in Abyssinia, in 1861. Now Jumbo, the pride of the English Zoo, is twenty-one years old, and measures eleven feet in height to his withers, which is the high ridge between the shoulder-blades just at the end of the neck. He is very skillful in catching buns and apples which are thrown to him by his young admirers.

Our picture of this enormous but gentle creature represents him in the act of giving a farewell ride to a party of his little friends. From this picture you will see that Jumbo's head and ears differ from those of the Indian species. His forehead is not so high and prominent; his ears are much larger, of a different and handsomer shape, while the brows are very large and full over the eyes, and the eyes themselves, when you can see them through the thick long lashes, have a really wonderful expression of intelligence and dignity. He has a long trunk, very powerful and graceful; but his tusks seem to be only roots, just showing through the skin at the sides of the face, and it is said that he has kept them worn down by rubbing them against the walls of his den.

As soon as it was known that our great American showman, Mr. Barnum, had bought Jumbo for his travelling show, Jumbo, big as he is, was in everybody's mouth, and a very great fuss was made about his own unwillingness to go. The newspapers took up the matter, and gave whole columns of talk to Jumbo. It seemed to be taken for granted that nothing more dreadful could happen to the poor beast than to fall into Mr. Barnum's hands.

The newspapers printed a great many letters from children, who offered their pocket-money, in sums from sixpence to three or five shillings, to buy Jumbo back again. They all wrote with the same idea, that Jumbo would be cruelly used, and would surely die, if he were taken away; but still it was quite clear that the little writers of these letters were not entirely unselfish in their grief, for they had a great deal to say about the nice rides they had already had, and still wished to have, on Jumbo's enormous back.

Older people went so far as to propose to raise money to pay back to Mr. Barnum the L2000 he had given for Jumbo, and perhaps L400 or L500 besides for his disappointment, but nothing more was said of this plan after Mr. Barnum telegraphed that L100,000 would not buy Jumbo back. As Mr. Scott, Jumbo's keeper, said to me, "Mr. Barnum understands his business," and it began to appear that the Zoo Society Council had _not_ understood theirs. Every one who knows Mr. Barnum knows that he is exceedingly kind to animals, and that they thrive, are happy, and live long under his care.

But the English people are not so well acquainted with Mr. Barnum as they will be, perhaps, when Jumbo comes back to the English "Zoo"--as Mr. Barnum very kindly says that he may--and tells his own story. And, after all, it is only fair that Jumbo should try for himself the flavor of American buns, and find that the boys and girls of America are as pleasant to carry and as kind as their English cousins.

People old and young flocked daily to the "Zoo." They carried bags and baskets of buns, crackers, and sweetmeats, and everybody went straight to the elephant-house. Parrots, monkeys, pelicans, and lions were nowhere. On Ash-Wednesday (February 22), I went myself, and when I first entered the elephant-house I thought it must be all going to tumble down, I heard such a loud, startling noise. But it was only Alice, the elephant that they call Jumbo's wife, calling for food. The sound she made by gathering her breath in her cheeks, and blowing it forcibly through her long trunk, was much like that made by crashing both hands strongly down on the bass keys of a church organ when all the loud stops are on.

The greatest crowd was in front of Jumbo's cell. He did not call for food, but stretched his long and elastic trunk out in front of us just like a plate for pennies in church. When let out of the garden, he walked quietly with an even and slow step--which took him along so fast, though, that Scott had to run to keep up with him--until he came to the ladder where the children climb to mount him. The saddle, or howdah, as it is called, was put on his back, and more than a dozen boys and girls mounted, and away went Jumbo, stepping so slowly, but going fifteen feet at a step. Five times I saw him go down the promenade with his laughing load, and come back again to the ladder for a new supply, and each time he looked larger to me than ever. Then he went back with his keeper to his house, and I came away.

After Jumbo was sold, and the problem of moving him came to be considered, an effort was made to get him out of the Gardens and to the Millwall Docks on foot. He went along willingly enough, Scott leading him, until they reached the end of the "Zoo" grounds, but before going out into the road he tried it cautiously with his feet, and perceiving at once that it did not feel like the shingle paths in the "Zoo," he was afraid, and would go no farther.

Then a great box was made, which stood open at both ends. This was mounted on strong wheels, and was so placed in the garden gateway that when the elephants passed out from their own garden into the main grounds they had to walk through it. The wheels were sunk into the ground on a track, and the floor of the box was on a level with the ground. Alice walked through the box back and forth quite willingly, but for some days it was impossible to coax Jumbo to go into it.

Scott was asked to try whipping Jumbo, but he answered that he had never yet struck his favorite a blow, and he never should. In all other respects Jumbo was perfectly obedient and gentle, but he seemed to think that the box was a trap, and to know almost as well as everybody else that if he once went in, he might not come out. It was the intention to let him get used to the box by going through it, and then it was thought that when at last it was closed upon him he would not mind so much about it.

He was also put in chains, in order to accustom him to being fastened during the voyage. At first they were only put on in the mornings, but he made so much fuss and trouble about having them put on the last time, it was thought unwise to remove them again. They are cased in leather, so as not to fret him in the least. They were spread in loops, all over the floor of his cell, and men stood ready at different points to draw them up around him the moment he should place his feet within any of the loops; but the intelligent fellow managed to avoid them for some time.

But he grew tired at last, and began to thrash about with his trunk and ears, and Scott, who was in his cell with him, trying to persuade him, got suddenly pushed up against the wall by a backward movement of Jumbo's huge body. In a moment more he would have been crushed to death, but he had the presence of mind to call kindly to Jumbo, who understood, turned instantly, and released him. Jumbo then became quiet, and the chains were placed.

Kind treatment finally set Jumbo's suspicions at rest, and he was persuaded to walk through the strong box and back again. When this had been done a number of times the box was fastened at both ends, and the poor fellow was a prisoner. He was then, without further delay, shipped on board the _Assyrian Monarch_, and on the 22d of March started on his voyage across the Atlantic.

It is claimed that Jumbo was sold because he had now become liable to have the "must," a disease peculiar to most full-grown elephants, in which they become very dangerous. Jumbo has had only one attack, and was well behaved during it when let out of his cell. Scott does not feel afraid of him, and Mr. Barnum has so long had the care of elephants that we think Jumbo's best friend need not worry about him.

THE COBBLER WHO KEPT SCHOOL IN A WORKSHOP.

Did you ever hear of John Pounds? Probably not, and yet he was one of the world's benefactors. He was born in 1766, in Portsmouth, England.

In early life he learned the trade of a shipwright, but was so injured by a fall that he had to abandon this. He then mastered the art of mending shoes, and hired a little room in a weather-beaten tenement, where for a while he lived alone, except for his birds. He loved birds dearly, and always had a number of them flying about his room, perching on his shoulder, or feeding from his hand.

In the course of time, a little cripple boy, his nephew, came to live with Uncle John and the linnets and sparrows. The poor child had not the use of his feet, which overlapped each other, and turned inward. The kind uncle did not rest until he had gradually untwisted the feet, strengthening them by an apparatus of old shoes and leather, and finally taught them to walk.

Then he thought how much more pleasantly the time would pass for the boy if he knew how to read and write, and so he began to instruct him. Presently it occurred to him that he could teach a class as easily as he could manage one pupil. So he invited some of the neighboring children in, and, as the years went on, this singular picture might be seen:

In the centre of the little shop, six feet wide and about eighteen feet long, the lame cobbler, with his jolly face and twinkling eyes, would be seated, his last or lapstone on his knee, and his hands busily plying the needle and thread. All around him would be faces. Dark eyes, blue eyes, brown eyes, would shine from every corner, and the hum of young voices and the tapping of slate-pencils were mingled with the singing of the birds which enjoyed the buzz of the school.

Some of the pupils sat on the steps of the narrow stairway which led up to the loft which was John's bedroom. Others were on boxes or blocks of wood, and some sat contentedly on the floor. They learned to read, write, and cipher as far as the Rule of Three, and besides they learned good morals, for much homely wisdom fell from the cobbler's lips.

Hundreds of boys who had no other chance--for he gathered his scholars from the poorest of the poor--learned all they ever knew of books from this humble teacher. His happiest days were when some sunburned sailor or soldier would stop in his doorway, perhaps with a parrot or a monkey in his arms, saying, "Why, master dear, you surely have not forgotten _me_, I hope?"

John Pounds taught his little school for more than forty years, never asking nor accepting a cent of payment from any one.

At the age of seventy-two, on January 1, 1839, he suddenly died, while looking with delight at a sketch of his school which had just been made by an artist. For many days the children of the place were inconsolable, and by twos and threes they came and stood by the closed door which in John Pounds's time had always been open to the needy.

A life like this, so lowly yet so useful, contains lessons for us all.

THE TALKING LEAVES.[2]

[2] Begun in No. 101, HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE.

An Indian Story.

BY WILLIAM O. STODDARD.