CHAPTER VII
In Which the Animals Meet with a Disappointment and a Surprise and a Story Is BegunNow, had the keepers who slept so soundly at the foot of the big blue poles in the great menagerie tent suddenly wakened at a little after half-past twilight on the evening following that which saw the balloons go sailing over the hill, they no doubt would have rubbed their eyes, pinched themselves and then exclaimed:
“Well, of all things! Wherever can those animals be?”
But, of course, they did nothing of the kind, for the very good reason that not a single one of them so much as opened one eye. Though, if they had, where do you suppose they would have found all their charges? Away over behind the red and gold cages.
Yes, there they stood, side by side in a row, their noses pressed close ag
