We reached Denby at noon; it was an uninteresting town which had grown up around some mills.  There was a great commotion in the streets, and it was evident that we had lost much in not having seen the procession.  There was a great deal of business going on in the shops, and there were two or three hand-organs at large, near one of which we stopped awhile to listen, just after we had met Leander and given the horse into his charge.  Mrs. Kew finished her shopping as soon as possible, and we hurried toward the great tents, where all the flags were flying.  I think I have not told you that we were to have the benefit of seeing a menagerie in addition to the circus, and you may be sure we went faithfully round to see everything that the cages held.

I cannot truthfully say that it was a good show; it was somewhat dreary, now that I think of it quietly and without excitement.  The creatures looked tired, and as if they had been on the road for a great many years.  The animals were all old, and there was a shabby great elephant whose look of general discouragement went to my heart, for it seemed as if he were miserably conscious of a misspent life.  He stood dejected and motionless at one side of the tent, and it was hard to believe that there was a spark of vitality left in him.  A great number of the people had never seen an elephant before, and we heard a thin little old man, who stood near us, say delightedly, “There’s the old creatur’, and no mistake, Ann ’Liza.  I wanted to see him most of anything.  My sakes alive, ain’t he big!”

And Ann ’Liza, who was stout and sleepy-looking, droned out, “Ye-es, there’s consider’ble of him; but he looks as if he ain’t got no animation.”

Kate and I turned away and laughed, while Mrs. Kew said confidentially, as the couple moved away, “She needn’t be a reflectin’ on the poor beast.  That’s Mis Seth Tanner, and there isn’t a woman in Deephaven nor East Parish to be named the same day with her for laziness.  I’m glad she didn’t catch sight of me; she’d have talked about nothing for a fortnight.”

There was a picture of a huge snake in Deephaven, and I was just wondering where he could be, or if there ever had been one, when we heard a boy ask the same question of the man whose thankless task it was to stir up the lions with a stick to make them roar.  “The snake’s dead,” he answered good-naturedly.  “Didn’t you have to dig an awful long grave for him?” asked the boy; but the man said he reckoned they curled him up some, and smiled as he turned to his lions, who looked as if they needed a tonic.  Everybody lingered longest before the monkeys, who seemed to be the only lively creatures in the whole collection; and finally we made our way into the other tent, and perched ourselves on a high seat, from whence we had a capital view of the audience and the ring, and could see the people come in.  Mrs. Kew was on the lookout for acquaintances, and her spirits as well as our own seemed to rise