The Miller sun. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 190?-19??, 1905-06-28

heafd the pop, pop, pop or cracEeFS' anu
later the circus band. as the procession
paraded the streets; he had even caught
just a glimpse of the parade as it enter
ed the tent, for the circus had pitched
not far from Miss AIMS house. This
was the first circus in Ensthampton for
years, and Jack had set his heart on
going. Miss Ann strongly disapprUved
of circuses, but Jack had written to his
father and obtained consent, providing
he was a good boy, aud noW-Jack wept
afresh. Most of all he wanted to see
the elephant Git was a small circus and
had but one of the huge pachyderms).
About 3 o'clock Miss Ann r]elented to
the extent of allowing him to have his
| crackers, and in the noise of these he
tried to drown out the noise of tho circus
band that hoated out from the big diagy
canvas so near and yet so far. Sudden
ly it flashed into his head that he might
| send up crackers on his kite. WHY not?
He had read of n camera being sent up
to take photographs, and if a camera
! could go, crackers could. Jack set to
work at once to put his idea into eSecu-
ton. i long fuse was made and attach
cd to the crackers. Near the crackers a
string was tied to the fuse, and this in
turn was tied to a bit Of wire on the
Kite string near the kite, which had been
pulled in. The free end Of the fuse was
lighted, the kite set free, and Jack watch
cd the tiny sputtering sparks sail up
into the air. When the fire reached the
string it burned it off, setting free the
crackers which exploded a second later
in midair.
Finally Jack took the biggest cracker
that he had, one he had been saving for
a grand climax, made an extra long fuse,
attached it in the usual way and then
gave the kite al the string he had. Up,
up. up she sailed until she floated fairly
OveT the circus tents. Then Jack saw
the tiny speck of a cracker drop, and,
watching it speed downward without eX-
ploding, he muttered to himself in dis
appointment, why didn't ] keep il and
fire it on the ground where l could make
it go anyhow" But Jack had simply
miscalculated and had allowed too much
fuse between the cracker and string for
an explosion high in air. Just after the
tiny speck vanished behind one Of the
smaller tents, Jack heard il explode, fol-
lowed instantly by a scream that made
Jacks hair rise. Out from behind the
tent shot a huge black beast, tearing
across the felds with awkward, lumber
ing strides, but wonderfully fast. 1t
was the elephant. With trunk thrown
up and back of its head, and trumpeting
shriily, il made straight toward Jack,
smashing down the rail fences in its path
as If they were straws, his keeper in full
pursuit, hopelessly distanced. From the
big tent began to pour out a strange
motley crowd Of townspeople, painted
clowns and s~cantily dressed bareback
riders to see what had happened. For a
moment Jack, too frightened to move,
watched the huge beast bearing down
upon him, then he fed for the hayloft
in the barn, and through a crack watch
ed the mad race. Straight on came the
| elephant, nor did he stop for an instant
at Miss AIMS nice picket fence; it
crashed down as had the rails before it.
Then the runaawy caught sight of the
| big. wide-open barn doors Miss Ann had
! told Jack to close them that afternoon)
| and probably seeing safety in the dark
recesses of the barn, rushed in, where he
stood trunpeting and trembling with
fright. A few minutes later Jack heard
the keeper close the doors ard say 10
the crowd coming up, that he would shut
| the elephant in for awhile until he had
| Gained down. Then the keeper told how
someone, he didn't know who, had
thrown a cracker in front of the big
beast lust as the latter was drinking,
and the runaway had resulted.
Meantime Jack was in an unhappy
predicament and retreated to a far cor
ner of the NOV, the cold chills chasing
each other down his back as he heard
the heavy breathing of the elephant be-
low. Gradually the elephant grew quiet
er and Jacks courage began to come
back. He could hear old Nell w~hinnying
with fright and stamping u~neasily in her
stall. Curiosity got the better Of him
md hs wanted to see what was goips ~n