Pa tried to head off Bolivar at the grocery, but Bolivar took half a
watermelon and put the red side on top of pa's head, and squashed it
down so the seeds and juice and pulp ran down pa's shirt and neck, and
he looked as though murder had been committed, but pa wiped his face on
his shirt sleeve and showed game, because he kept mauling Bolivar with
the hook. Bolivar broke up a millinery store by throwing tomatoes at the
women in the windows, and he went into a yard where a woman was washing
and squirted the bluing water all over the woman, and all over pa, and
then he chewed the clothes on the line, and drove the family over the
fence.
[Illustration: Bolivar Took Half a Watermelon and Put the Red Side on
Top of Pa's Head.]
You'd a died to see those milliners climb over a high board fence head
first, and Bolivar actually seemed to laugh. Bolivar run one of his
tusks through a barrel of gasoline, and it run out on the street car
track, and an electric spark set it on fire, and the fire department
turned out, but the engines had to all go around Bolivar, 'cause he
wouldn't budge an inch, but seemed to say: "Let 'er rip, boys; this is
the Fourth of July."
The circus men began to come with ropes and clubs, to tie Bolivar and
throw him, but he escaped into a side street and watched the engines put
out the fire, and he swung around with his trunk and tusks and wouldn't
let anyone come near him but pa with the hook, and he seemed to enjoy
the prodding, but I guess that gave him courage to keep on doing things.
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