‘Much as you know about it,’ answered Caper, ‘you are all theory!’

‘That maybe,’ quoth Rocjean; ’you know what THEOS means in Greek, don’t you?’

AMONG THE WILD BEASTS.

There came to Rome, in the autumn, along with the other travelers, a caravan of wild beasts, ostensibly under charge of Monsieur Charles, the celebrated Tamer, rendered illustrious and illustrated by Nadar and Gustave Dore, in the Journal pour Rire.  They were exhibited under a canvas tent in the Piazza Popolo, and a very cold time they had of it during the winter.  Evidently, Monsieur Charles believed the climate of Italy belonged to the temperance society of climates.  He erred, and suffered with his ‘superbe et manufique ELLLLLEPHANT!’ ’and when we reflec’, ladies and gentlemen, that there are persons, forty and even fifty years old, who have never seen the Ellllephant!!!...and who DARE TO SAY so!!!...’  Monsieur Charles made his explanations with teeth chattering.

Caper, anxious to make a sketch of a very fine Bengal tiger in the collection, easily purchased permission to make studies of the animals during the hours when the exhibition was closed to the public; and as he went at every thing vigorously, he was before long in possession of several fine sketches of the tiger and other beasts, besides several secrets only known to the initiated, who act as keepers.

The royal Bengal tiger was one of the finest beasts Caper had ever seen, and what he particularly admired was the jet-black lustre of the stripes on his tawny sides and the vivid lustre of his eyes.  The lion curiously seemed laboring under a heavy sleep at the very time when he should have been awake; but then his mane was kept in admirable order.  The hair round his face stood out like the bristles of a shoe-brush, and there was a curl in the knob of hair at the end of his tail that amply compensated for his inactivity.  The hyenas looked sleek and happy, and their teeth were remarkably white; but the elephant was the constant wonder of all beholders.  Instead of the tawny, blue-gray color of most of his species, he was black, and glistened like a patent-leather boot; while his tusks were as white as—­ivory; yea, more so.

‘I don’t understand what makes your animals look so bright,’ said Caper one day to one of the keepers.

’Come here to-morrow morning early, when we make their toilettes, and you’ll see,’ replied the man, laughing.  ’Why, there’s that old hog of a lion, he’s as savage and snaptious before he has his medicine as a corporal; and looks as old as Methusaleh, until we arrange his beard and get him up for the day.  As for the ellllephant ... ugh!’

Caper’s curiosity was aroused, and the next morning, early, he was in the menagerie.  The first sight that struck his eye was the elephant, keeled over on one side, and weaving his trunk about, evidently as a signal of distress; while his keeper and another man were—­blacking-pot and shoe-brushes in hand—­going all over him from stem to stern.