went elsewhere, did Nellie, and that forthwith. But she went out, as a perfect lady should, by the customary stage entrance, taking most of it with her and subsequently accumulating large portions of the storm door as well.
Once in Forty-third street Nellie turned toward the east. She was closely pursued by Bill Milligan, a Hippodrome groom, who endeavored with the aid of a shovel to dissuade her from her intention to travel. Mr. Milligan was subsequently reproached severely by Prof. Rossi because he did not use a goad. But Mr. Milligan rejoined with some asperity that he was shaving at the time Nellie tiptoed past him and it was only by the merest chance that he happened to notice her. "And," added Mr. Milligan, "I don't use no goad to shave with, anyhow."
Putting this aside for the moment, the fact remains that Nellie proceeded eastward as far as Fifth avenue. Here she turned to the south. As she approached Forty-second street Traffic Policeman John Finnerty raised one commanding hand, thereby stopping all traffic that had been previously headed in Nellie's direction. But Policeman Finnerty complains that Nellie did not obey his order to stop. He says he can prove it, too, because there were a number of persons around and several of them in all probability noticed the elephant and can swear that she did not stop when he raised his hand. For a moment, he says, he thought of arresting her, but abandoned the idea, thinking perhaps it would be making too much of a trifling infraction of the traffic rules by a stranger in the city.
At all events Nellie turned to the eastward again when she reached Forty-second street and moved along as far as Second avenue without meeting a soul she knew. In fact she didn't meet so very many persons face to face, though there were quite a number of people in the lobby of the Manhattan Hotel and the Grand Central Station, and a little group now and then shinning up a casual lamp post or roosting on the top of a subway pagoda. And there weren't more than 10,000 or 20,000 behind her either.
It looked so lonesome in Forty-second street that Nellie turned southward again when she got to Second avenue out of sheer yearning for human companionship. As a matter of fact there were several persons in Second avenue until a few seconds after Nellie turned the corner, but they all seemed to be in some haste and went away from there before Nellie
