
dusk. Also a little like the excited scream of herald trumpets just before something great is to happen. All
of that was Lion Ellison. She was a small thing. Audiences loved her, and so did circus people—and so
had the head gaffer of the last show that Lion worked. The head gaffer had given her a kiss, minus
permission, so immediately they had quite a clem. A clem is a fight. It was out back of the crumb castle,
which is the cookhouse. The head gaffer got a black eye. Lion got the sack, for the head gaffer happened
to own a good part of that particular mud-opera.
All of which explained why Lion happened to be getting off a train in Kirksville, Missouri, and looking
ruefully into her purse which she found, as she had expected, contained only six dollars and some odd
cents.
"Well, it can’t get much worse," Lion said grimly.
This thought was an error.
Lion checked her suitcase, then walked uptown. The circus was in town. She could see that. The
tack-spitters—bill-posters, called tack-spitters from their habit of spitting tacks on a magnetic
hammer—had done a good job of plastering the town.
Suddenly she heard martial music and knew the parade was coming. She crowded to the curb to watch,
and being a seasoned showman, she cast a speculative eye over the crowd. She could tell from the
interest shown by the gillies and thistle-chins—circus lingo for the local inhabitants—that this was a good
show town, and no boomer stand.
The parade came. She watched. First marched the windjammers, the band, in sartorial glory and melodic
uproar. Then the bulls, the elephants. And all the gaudy rest of it. The convicts, or zebras. The big
turkeys—ostriches. Two hogs—hippos—in a cage. A cage of old folks—monkeys. And another cage of
zekes—hyenas, also called gravediggers. They were all there, all the great stupendous and unsurpassed
wonders and marvels of the civilized and uncivilized world that make up the stock in trade of a fairly
good circus. All thundered past in spectacle and glory, spangles and silks not very noticeably frayed.
Lion breathed rapidly and was as excited as a little girl seeing her first parade, only with a feeling that was
deeper. It was marvelous. Her eyes were moist. She hadn’t realized how she had been missing it all.
She went to see about the job.
The advertisement had appeared in a newspaper and Lion had clipped it; she now carried it with her.
She just about had it memorized:
ANIMAL TRAINER—Girl, experienced finker, no First of May, handle babies, stripes, all cats. Top
pay. Apply Room 12, Voyagers Hotel, Kirksville, Missouri.
Lion Ellison considered that a divine providence had directed this advertisement specifically at her,
because she was an experienced finker, which meant a circus performer, so certainly she was no First of
May, which meant a newcomer to the profession. She could handle babies, which were pumas; stripes,
which were tigers, and any other big cat. She also could use some of that top pay.
The Voyagers Hotel was a rather nice-looking hostelry. Room 12 proved to be on the second floor. Lion
knocked.
"Goodness!" she exclaimed.
The little old man who had opened the door must have been exclaimed at a great deal by persons who
were seeing him for the first time, because he smiled.