Uncle Josh at a Circus

WALL, 'long last year, 'bout harvest time, thar
wuz a cirkus cum to Punkin Centre, and I think
the whole population turned out to see it. They
cum paradin' into town, the bands a-playin'
and banners flying, and animals pokin' their
heads out of the cages, and all sorts of jim
cracks. Deacon Witherspoon sed they wuz a sinful
lot of men and wimmin, and no one aughter go and
see them, but seein' as how they wuz thar, he
alowed he'd take the children and let them
see the lions and tigers and things. Si Pettingill
remarked, "Guess the Deacon won't put blinders
on himself when he gits thar." We noticed afterwards
that the Deacon had a front seat whar he could see
and hear purty well.

Wall, I sed to Ezra Hoskins, "Let's you
and me go down to the cirkus," and Ezra
sed, "All right, Joshua." So we got on our
store clothes, our new boots, and put some
money in our pockits, and went down to the
cirkus. Wall, I never seen any one in my
life cut up more fool capers than Ezra did.
We got in whar the animals wuz, and Ezra
he walked around the elefant three or four
times, and then he sed, "By gum, Josh,
that's a durned handy critter--he's got two