Pete and Prunella

This is a drawing of Pete the Clown and his trained pig, Prunella. Pete likes to juggle colored balls. The red balls and the green balls and the orange balls all get tossed one right after the other. Ninepins are good to throw around, too. Sometimes Pete drops a ball, and Prunella runs and brings it back to him. As you can see, Pete has very big feet. They are not his real feet, of course, just shoes that are padded way out in front and decorated to match the sunny yellow and deep purple of his clown suit.

Pete and Prunella also do a very good dance act. It would be hard to draw because he holds her front hoofs and they sort of rock-and-roll together. Between you and me it looks more like square dancing on TV with the rabbit ears crossed, but at least it always gets lots and lots of clapping from the audience in the circus or the school where Pete and Prunella perform.

Pete is really Horace Hackingbush all dressed up as a clown. Horace Hackingbush is a nice man who likes to clown around. Prunella is Prunella's real name, but at home her friends call her Pruny.

Clowns are loved by everybody. They are loved by parents and children and aunts and uncles and even by babies. They usually never stop moving, shaking hands with everyone, even the babies, and running around playing jokes on one another and whomever they can catch.

Horace Hackingbush and his wife, Hilda, have two children. The boy is named Horace Hackingbush Jr., and the girl's name is Heather Hackingbush. The Hackingbush family have lunch at home before every performance. They like tomato soup and hamburgers with brownies for dessert. For her lunch Pruny gets mash, whatever that is, and even spinach and broccoli and carrots. She likes corn on the cob, too. It is also true that she likes brownies, in case you wondered.

When it is time, Mr. Hackingbush paints his face. White paint, then black and red for the mouth and eyes. Then he puts the red rubber ball on for his nose, if Prunella has not lost it playing after lunch. Then pillows and stuffing go around his middle and he gets into his brightly colored suit. Then come the big, flat shoes, and last of all, his hat and gloves. By this time Prunella is ready, too, if she hasn't forgotten where she put her hat before lunch.

The music starts, and off go Pete and Prunella, The Greatest Clown Act in the Whole World. The parents and the children laugh, and the aunts and the uncles guffaw, and the babies giggle. Mrs. Hackingbush chuckles and Horace Junior chortles and Heather goes tee-hee, and you and I just plain laugh because we know that Pete and Prunella have been laughing ever since lunchtime, anyway.

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