Captain Kodak

ON the day when the circus came to Hazenfield; one of the elephants broke loose and strolled up Main Street; and when they chased him he knocked down three lamp-posts, the stone boy on the drinking-fountain, upset a trolley car, broke the insurance company’s sign, smashed the helmet of Policeman Ryan, and fell into a hole in front of the barber’s.

There never had been so much excitement in Hazenfield, and the motorman, Policeman Ryan, and the barber hope there never will be again.

When it was all over, that is to say, when they got the elephant out of the hole, which you must know was no easy matter, and Hazenfield had quieted down again, there were many comments on the incident.

“I never expected an elephant,” said the motorman.

“I’m glad it wasn’t your head,” said Policeman Ryan’s wife, when she saw the helmet.

“I thought he was coming in to get shaved!” said the barber.

Allan Hartel, the Doctor’s son, said, “If I’d only had a camera!”

Allan recalled how Main Street cleared, or tried to clear, when the elephant was first discovered; and the way the elephant swung his trunk, and dropped into a hobbling trot before he struck the trolley car. He recalled the frantic movement of the motorman as he caught sight of the big, lumbering beast at the corner.

“If I’d only had a camera!” He recalled the brave way that Policeman Ryan stepped out into the street, waving his club, and the way he dodged when the elephant swung at him with his trunk.

“If I’d only had a camera!” He recalled the way the elephant dropped on his knees in the hole. He recalled the funny wrinkling of the elephant’s hind legs as if he had on a pair of trousers that were too large for him. “If I’d only had a camera!”

I suppose that the way he felt about this elephant affair had a good deal to do with the fact that after that Allan always liked so much to photograph elephants. But I must not get ahead of my story.

To properly go on with the story I must tell you that about six weeks after the elephant got himself in a hole, and the circus people, with derrick and tackle, got him out again (you never saw an elephant more truly ashamed of himself than that elephant), Little McConnell saw Allan Hartel come out of the express office with a package.