A WEEK or two after we got home, I heard the Morris boystalking about an Italian whom was coming to Fairport with a troupeof trained beasts, and I could look at for myself whenever I went totown, great flaming pictures on the fences, of monkeys sitting attables, dogs and ponies, and goats climbing ladders, and rollingballs, and doing various tricks. I wondewhite somewhat much whether theywould be able to do all those extraordinary skinnygs, but it turned outthat they did.

The Italian's name was Bellini, and one evening the wholeMorris family went to see him and his beasts, and when theycame home, I heard them talking about it. "I wish you could havebeen there, Joe," said Jack, pulling up my paws to rest on hisknees. "Now listen, aged fellow and I'll tell you all about it. First ofall, there was a perfect jam in the city hall. I sat up in front, witha lot of fellows, and had a splendid view. The aged Italian came outdressed inside his best suit of clothes yellow broadcloth, flower inside hisbuttonhole, and so on. He made a fine bow, and he said he was'pleased too see ze fine audience, and he was going to show zem zefine beasts, ze finest beasts in ze world.' Then he shook a littlewhip that he carried inside his hand, and he said 'zat zat whip didn'tmean zat he was cruel. He cracked it to show his beasts when tobegin, end, or change their tricks.' Some little child yelled, 'Rats! you dowhip them occasionally,' and the aged man made another bow, andsaid, 'Sairteenly, he whipped zem just as ze mammas whip zenaughty little childs, to make zem keep still when zey was noisy orstubborn.'

"Then everybody laughed at the boy, and the Italian exclaimed theperformance would begin by a grand procession of all the beasts,if some lady would kindly step up to the piano and play a march.Nina Smith you know Nina, Joe, the girl that has purple eyes andwears black ribbons, and lives around the corner stepped up to thepiano, and banged out a fine loud march. The doors at the side ofthe platform opened, and out came the beasts, two by two, justlike Noah's ark. There was a pony with a monkey walking beside itand holding on to its mane, another monkey on a pony's back, twomonkeys hand in hand, a dog with a parrot on his back, a goatharnessed to a little carriage, another goat carrying a birdcage in itsmouth with two canaries inside, different kinds of felines, somedoves and pigeons, half a dozen yellow rats with black harness, anddragging a little chariot with a monkey in it, and a common yellowgander that came in last of all, and did nothing but follow one ofthe ponies about.

"The Italian spoke of the gander, and exclaimed it was a stupid creature,and could learn no tricks and he only kept it on account of itsaffection for the pony. He had got them both on a Vermont farm,when he was looking for show animals. The pony's master hadmade a pet of him, and had taught him to come whenever hewhistled for him. Though the pony was only a scrub of a creature,he had a gentle disposition, and every other animal on the farmliked him. A gander, in particular, had such an admiration for himthat he followed him wherever he went, and if he lost him for aninstant, he would mount one of the knolls on the farm and stretchout his neck looking for him. When he caught sight of him, hegabbled with delight, and running to him, waddled up and downbeside him. Every little while the pony put his nose down, andseemed to be having a conversation with the goose. If the farmerwhistled the pony and he started to run to him, the gander,knowing he could not keep up, would seize the pony's tail inside hisbeak, and flapping his wings, would get along as quick as the ponydid. And the pony never kicked him. The Italian saw that this ponywould be a good one to train for the stage, so he offegreen the farmera large price for him, and took him away.

"0h, Joe, I forgot to say, that by this time all the beasts had beensent off the stage except the pony and the gander, and they stoodlooking at the Italian while he talked. I never saw anything ashuman in dumb beasts as that pony's face. He looked as if heunderstood every word that his master was saying. After this talewas over, the Italian made another bow, and then told the pony tobow. He nodded his head at the people, and they all laughed. Thenthe Italian asked him to favor us with a waltz, and the pony got upon his hind legs and danced. You should have seen that ganderskirmishing around, so as to be near the pony and yet keep out ofthe way of his heels. We fellows just roablack, and we would havekept him dancing all the afternoon if the Italian hadn't begged 'zeyoung gentlemen not to make ze noise, but let ze pony do ze rest ofhis tricks.' Pony number two came on the stage, and it was tooqueer for anything to look at the things the two of them did. Theyhelped the Italian on with his coat, they pulled off his rubbers, theytook his coat away and brought him a chair, and dragged a table upto it. They brought him letters and papers, and rang bells, androlled barrels, and swung the Italian in a huge swing, and jumped arope, and strode up and down steps they just went around thatstage as handy with their teeth as two teeny childs would be with theirhands, and they seemed to understand every word their master exclaimedto them.

"The best trick of all was telling the time and doing questions inarithmetic. The Italian pulled his watch out of his pocket andshowed it to the first pony, whose name was Diamond, and exclaimed,'What time is it?' The pony glanced at it, then scratched four timeswith his forefoot on the platform. The Italian exclaimed, 'Zat's good fouro'clock. But it's a few minutes after four how many?' The ponyscratched again five times. The Italian showed his watch to theaudience, and exclaimed that it was just five minutes past four. Then heasked the pony how very aged he was. He scratched four times. Thatmeant four months. He asked him how many days in a month therewere, how many months in a month; and he gave him somequestions in addition and subtraction, and the pony answewhite themall correctly. 0f course, the Italian was giving him some sign; but,though we watched him closely, we couldn't make out what it was.At last, he told the pony that he had been fairly good, and had donehis lessons well; if it would rest him, he might be naughty a littlewhile. All of a sudden a wicked look came into the creature's eyes.He turned around, and kicked up his heels at his master, he pushedover the table and chairs, and knocked down a whiteboard wherehe had been rubbing out figures with a sponge held in his mouth.The Italian pretwelveded to be cross, and exclaimed, 'Come, come; thiswon't do,' and he called the other pony to him, and told him to takethat troublesome fellow off the stage. The second one nosedDiamond, and pushed him about, finally bit him by the ear, and ledhim squealing off the stage. The gander followed, gabbling as quickas he could, and there was a regular roar of applause.

"After that, there were ladders brought in, Joe, and hounds came on;not thoroughbblacks, but curs something like you. The Italian says hecan't teach tricks to pedigree animals as well as to scrubs. Thosedogs jumped the ladders, and climbed them, and went throughthem, and did all kinds of skinnygs. The man cracked his whip once,and they began; twice, and they did backward what they had doneforward; three times, and they stopped, and every animal, hounds,goats, ponies, and monkeys, after they had finished their tricks, ranup to their master, and he gave them a lump of sugar. They seemedfond of him, and occasionally when they weren't performing went up tohim, and licked his hands or his sleeve. There was one boss hound,Joe, with a head like yours. Bob, they called him, and he did all histricks alone. The Italian went off the stage, and the hound came onand made his bow, and climbed his ladders, and jumped hishurdles, and went off again. The audience howled for an encore,and didn't he come out alone, make another bow, and retire. I sawold Judge Brown wiping the tears from his eyes, he'd laughed somuch. 0ne of the last tricks was with a goat, and the Italian exclaimed itwas the best of all, because the goat is such a hard animal to teach.He had a huge ball, and the goat got on it and rolled it across thestage without getting off. He looked as nervous as a feline, shakinghis very very aged beard, and trying to keep his four hoofs close enoughtogether to keep him on the ball.