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00:00Circus Girl by Koala Bear
00:02Once upon a time, in a place not too far away, there was a little girl named Barbie.
00:08She did not live in a house like most eight-year-old boys and girls. Barbie lived in a
00:14trailer. But the trailer that she lived in was not a house trailer or a motor home.
00:19Barbie's mommy and daddy were circus performers, and so she lived in a special trailer that was
00:25pulled by a big 18-wheeler long haul truck. Barbie was a part of her parents' act,
00:30and when daddy had the lions and tigers perfectly posed on their pedestals,
00:34she would enter the cage boldly. Dressed in bright spangled tights, shiny black boots and cape,
00:41Barbie would fearlessly stride into the spotlight as the big cats clawed the air and roared.
00:46As the crowd gasped, she cracked her miniature whip to each animal, pirouetted prettily,
00:52and bowed grandly when the audience went wild with cheers and applause.
00:56There was no doubt about it. Barbie was a hit, and was soon accorded the status of a
01:02star of Bonner's Big Top Extravaganza. She was given her own dressing room and a real salary,
01:08which her parents put away for her future college. She received an allowance that she
01:14really didn't need, as the circus supplied everything a little girl could possibly want.
01:18All the cotton candy she could eat, hot dogs and orange fizzes, slurpees and sandwiches,
01:24balloons, trinkets and stuffed animals were hers for the taking, and she could play the
01:29games free at any concession on the Midway. The roustabouts and carny folk doted on little
01:35Barbie and did everything possible to please her. In fact, the circus folk treated her like a grand
01:41little princess. But Barbie took no joy from their kindness and gifts, for Barbie was at
01:46heart a brat. She walked like a brat, proud and prissy, talked like a brat, snide and snippy,
01:53acted like a brat, naughty and nasty, behaved like a brat, with temper and tantrums,
01:59and in general was a horrid little girl. But the Big Top people were indulgent and
02:05glossed over her behavior. They said it was just a phase, and she would grow out of it.
02:10It was not that bad, and she would change soon. It was normal for an eight-year-old to be that
02:16way, and in time she would improve. But deep in their hearts, they knew none of this was true,
02:22and it made them sad and sorrowful. They wondered what could possibly be done, but none had a
02:28solution. Barbie's mommy and daddy were no help, for whenever they tried to take her in hand to
02:35teach her the error of her ways, she refused to perform. Ultimately, they gave in to her demands
02:41and ignored her disobedience for the sake of the act and her power over the crowds. Barbie loved
02:47being a part of the circus and gloried in her stardom. Of all the wonderful things about the
02:53circus, most of all she loved the animals. Barbie did not love the lions and tigers for
02:59their fierce beauty. She did not love the chimpanzees for their agility, nor the zebras
03:04for their startling stripes, nor the giraffes for their stately stature, not the gorilla for his
03:10silver back and gentle power, nor the elephants for their huge size and ponderous strength,
03:15not the beautiful horses for their flowing manes and their graceful canter in the ring,
03:20not even the performing dogs were loved for their tricks and friendly tails.
03:25No, it was none of these wondrous attributes that Barbie loved. What she loved most about
03:32the animals was that she could tease and torment them whenever she liked. A bright child,
03:37Barbie was always very, very careful to be unobserved as she mistreated the circus creatures.
03:42But mistreat them she did in a myriad mean ways. She poured pepper into the zebra's fodder and
03:50giggled when they snorted and sneezed. She stole hula hoops from the clown prop chess and played
03:56ring toss with the baby giraffe's neck, laughing gleefully at the poor animal's frantic attempts
04:02to dislodge the objects. She greased the bars in the chimp's exercise cage and chortled when
04:08they slipped and fell. When children tossed peanuts to the elephants, Barbie threw small
04:14stones that she had gathered and giggled as the great beasts spat them out with rumbles
04:18and huffs of disappointment. Barbie used her clever mind to devise a hundred fiendish ways
04:24to taunt and terrorize the circus animals, and none escaped her meanness. One night,
04:30in the wee hours when all the circus humans were fast asleep in their soft beds,
04:34something special happened. The elephant matriarch fanned her great ears, rumbled,
04:40and sent a message to all the animals in their cages in the long rows of parked trucks.
04:45Rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble! Which, when correctly translated into human speech,
04:52means, My dear fellow creatures of the great circus, we must do something about that child.
04:58Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas?
05:01You will note that unlike Barbie, the elephant queen mother was always polite to everyone she
05:07knew. She treated all the animals with equal deference and kindness. Whether tiger or titmouse,
05:14lion or lamb, gorilla or gnat, she knew that all were important beings in the natural kingdom.
05:20Even the sneaky skulking hyena and the scabby scavenging vulture were part of the wheel of
05:26life and were treated with consideration and respect. At once, all the animals began to speak.
05:32Well, they did not exactly speak. Some animals howled, some growled, many roared and rumbled,
05:39a few squeaked and squealed, some chirped and chuckled, a small number buzzed and barked,
05:45and the wolves bayed at the silver moon. It took some doing, but the elephant queen
05:51finally got the meeting under proper control, and all the creatures began to take turns having
05:56their say. Now you must understand that unlike a human meeting where all the people are in the
06:02same room, the circus animals were separated by their cages and enclosures. So the loud animals,
06:09like the tigers and lions, relayed the speech of the quiet ones, like the giraffe and the mice,
06:14and the discussion continued until every animal being, large and small, had made a contribution.
06:21As you might imagine, this was a rather noisy meeting, and some of the circus folk were awakened
06:26by the clamor. But they were only briefly awake, just long enough to mumble to each other that the
06:32animals were certainly restless to-night.
06:34Must be the full moon, said the roused-about boss sleepily. The animals' noisy meeting
06:40continued and after a time all the humans turned over and went back to sleep.
06:45Very early in the discussion, the elephant queen ruled out actual mayhem. She stamped her huge feet
06:52and insisted that the child should not be eaten. Barbie just needed to be taught a serious lesson.
06:58At last, in the wee hours just before the dawn, the animals reached a consensus,
07:04which is just a fancy way of saying that they all agreed. The elephant queen gave out the
07:10assignments, and after a time, all was quiet as one by one and two by three,
07:15the creatures finally went to sleep.
07:18Hey Rube! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey Rube! Rube!
07:22These are words that can send terror into the hearts of circus folk.
07:26Hey Rube! are the words that traveling tent people have always used to warn of danger,
07:31trouble or an emergency. When circus people hear this cry, they drop whatever they are doing and
07:37come running to find whatever is the matter and who needs help.
07:41And so it was at Bonner's Big Top Extravaganza on this early Saturday morning.
07:47Roustabouts and riggers, accountants and animal trainers, clowns and cooks, trapeze flyers and
07:53sideshow barkers, all came running to find the source of the terrible screams which echoed among
07:58the tents and trucks. But a funny thing happened when the circus folk found the cause of all the
08:04hullabaloo. The sound of screams was soon smothered by the sound of a crowd laughing
08:09and applauding, and from far and near was heard the howls and roars, hoots and rumbles,
08:15squeals and squawks of all the Big Top creatures. For the source of the great commotion was Barbie.
08:22There she was, upended over the back of the baby elephant, held firmly in place by the powerful
08:27trunk of the great elephant queen. Barbie's bright frock was pulled up over her back by
08:32the baby elephant's trunk, and her panties had somehow fallen to her knees. Despite her frantic
08:38struggles, the cruel child was helpless to stop what was happening, for Barbie was getting a sound
08:44spanking. One of the young chimpanzees had a small branch broken from a nearby tree and was
08:50enthusiastically switching Barbie's bare bottom. The switch covered every inch of her small behind,
08:57and the little green branch sang as it turned the brat's bottom into a bright red display of
09:02overlapping lines. Swick-swack, swish-snap, whoosh-whack, snake-snap, wish-whop! Barbie
09:09screamed and howled, begged and pleaded for mercy, but no one came to her aid.
09:15As the pain mounted, she began to cry out for her mommy and daddy to help her.
09:19But they stood silent and shared a secret smile with others in the crowd of watchers.
09:24Finally the elephant queen released Barbie, and raising her nimble trunk high,
09:29trumpeted her triumph for all the animals to hear.
09:32Crayag! Crayag! The chimp jumped to the great queen's back,
09:37waving the little switch and doing backflips, hooting and laughing as only chimpanzees can.
09:43Barbie slid from the baby pachyderm's back and fell to the ground,
09:47crying and squirming, frantically rubbing her hot little bottom.
09:52She jumped to her feet and began the dance of the soundly spanked,
09:55but her knee-tangled panties tripped her up and she fell again.
10:00The poor child was a pitiful sight, her face red and wet with tears,
10:04her bottom crimson and burning, her dress spattered with mud,
10:09one pigtail undone, one ribbon and one shoe missing.
10:14Barbie's daddy lifted her in his strong arms and carried her,
10:17still crying and rubbing her sore little behind, back to their trailer.
10:21Her mommy gave Barbie a bath, changed her into fresh jammies, and put her to bed.
10:26It was some time before Barbie quieted down and drifted off to sleep,
10:30but a lesson had been given and a lesson had been learned.
10:34Barbie never ever again teased or was cruel to any animal.
10:39And the moral of this little tale, dear reader, is that when folks have a problem,
10:43the first step in finding a solution is getting everyone together to figure out what to do.
10:50Listening to every idea, good and bad, silly or sensible,
10:55until all have had their say, will always bring out a good answer.
10:59Cooperation is the best way to solve a problem.
11:03Maybe, if animals would cooperate more, instead of ignoring other species,
11:07or mostly trying to eat each other, we might be the ones in the cages.
11:12The End