The Fairy Caravan: Chapter VIII - The Pigmy Elephant

CHAPTER VIII

THE PIGMY ELEPHANT

PADDY PIG was an important member of the circus company. He played several parts—the Learned Pig that could read, in spectacles; the Irish Pig that could dance a jig; and the Clown in spotty calico.

And he played the Pigmy Elephant.

It was done in this way. He was the right elephant colour—shiny black, and he had the proper flap ears, and small eyes. Of course, his nose was not nearly long enough and he had no tusks. So tusks were shaped from white peeled sticks out of the hedge, and a black stocking was stuffed with moss for a trunk.

The tusks and trunk were fastened to a bridle, which Paddy Pig wore on his head. His own nose was inside the stocking, so he could move the sham trunk a little bit.

One time when there was too much moss stuffing in the stocking, Paddy Pig started sneezing, and he sneezed so violently that he sneezed the stocking off altogether. Fortunately, this happened at Fold Farm where the audience was only calves and poultry; they knew so little about elephants that they thought it was part of the performance.

Paddy’s thin legs were clothed with black calico trousers, long enough to hide his small feet, and he learned to walk with a slow swinging gait. His worst fault was forgetting to let his tail hang down.

Upon his back he carried a howdah made of a brightly coloured tin tea caddy. The lid was open; and inside upon a cushion sat the dormouse, as “Princess Xarifa.” She had a doll’s parasol, a blue dress and a crimson shawl; and a lace handkerchief across her nose, with her black beady eyes peeping over it (provided she was not asleep).

After Tuppenny joined Alexander and William’s Circus, he rode on the elephant’s neck in front of the howdah, holding on by the bridle, as Paddy Pig was slippery.

Tuppenny’s get-up was gorgeous as the Sultan of Zanzibar; he wore the scarlet bandana handkerchief robe, a brass curtain-ring round his neck, a green sash with a wooden sword stuck in it, and the crystal-headed pin stuck in his turban of rolled up hair; and at gala performances his whiskers were dyed pink!

No one would have recognized him for the miserable, ill-used little guinea-pig who ran away from his home in the City of Marmalade.

And most audiences were completely deceived by the Pigmy Elephant. It is true there was once some dissatisfaction. It was on an occasion when other pigs were present.

During the first part of the programme they behaved well. They squealed with delight when Sandy stood on his head on the back of Billy the pony; and when the pony jumped through a hoop, rolled a barrel about, and went down on one knee—the four little pig’s applauded vociferously.

Pony William and Sandy went out of the ring at a canter, and disappeared under the canvas flap door of the tent. There was rather a long interval. (The fact was a brace button had come off the elephant’s trousers; and Xarifa, the dormouse, who did all the mending, was sewing it on again.)

The four little pigs began to fidget and play jinks; they tickled one another and disturbed several hens and two rabbits who were sitting in the front row. Then one of them jumped up and ran to the tent, and peeped under the flap. Sandy bit his nose.

Whether because he had seen something, or because his nose smarted, it is certain the four little pigs commenced to behave badly. The entrance of the Pigmy Elephant drew exclamations of awe from the rest of the audience; but the four little pigs sniffed, and whispered together.

“I say, Mister!” said a pig to Sandy, as he stalked past, leading the elephant by a string, “I say, Mister! What’s the matter with your elephant’s tail?”

Sandy ignored the question; but as soon as they were out of hearing at the opposite side of the ring, he whispered to the elephant:

“Uncurl it, Paddy, you stupid! hang your tail down!”

The elephant obediently allowed his tail to droop.

“I say, Mr. Elephant!” said another little pig as the procession marched round a second time—“I say, Mr. Elephant! have a potato?”

Now Paddy Pig would have liked to accept the potato which they offered to the toe of his stocking trunk, but he was quite unable to grasp it.

“There is something funny about that elephant!” exclaimed all four little pigs; and they started shouting, “Give us back our peppercorns!” (that was their entrance money)—“Give us back our peppercorns! We don’t believe it is an elephant!”

“Do be quiet behind there!” expostulated the rabbits and poultry; “Oh, how sweetly pretty! Look at the Princess’s parasol!”

The Princess Xarifa in the howdah beamed down on the admiring hens.

“That is not a proper elephant at all. Give us back our peppercorns!” shouted all four little pigs, scrambling over the turf seats into the ring, and sniffing at Paddy’s calico trousers.

Then Sandy lost his temper; he barked and he bit the four little pigs, and chased them out. The elephant and his riders galloped away under the tent flap in such a hurry that Tuppenny and Xarifa were nearly pulled off by the canvas.

Then Jane Ferret was led round in a heavy chain and a large wire muzzle, to impersonate the “Live Polecats and Weasels,” mentioned on the posters. Jenny Ferret lived on bread and milk and she had not a tooth in her head, being, in fact, cook-housekeeper to the circus company, but the rabbits scrambled hastily into back seats.

Of course that was part of the performance that they had paid for and expected; if they had not had a fright for their peppercorns, they would have been dissatisfied too.

In the meantime the elephant had changed his clothes; he came back as Paddy Pig himself, and he danced a jig to perfection, while Sandy fiddled. The four little pigs, quite restored to good humour and polite behaviour, applauded loudly and threw potatoes at him; and the audience went home at 4.30 a. m. well satisfied.

And two hours later the farmer, who owned the four little pigs, when he fed them, remarked—that ‘For sure they were doing a deal of grunting and talking together that morning’; and there were a lot of little pig-foot-marks in the lane. But they were shut up all right in the sty when he brought them their breakfast, so he never guessed that they had been to Sandy and William’s Circus to see the Pigmy Elephant.