One long string that ends in a gag, this starts when a circus clown asks a boy outside the tent to hold one end of a rope. Inside, the clown gives a girl the other end of the rope, and the rope goes tight because she's also holding a World's Longest Frankfurter, and a dog has just taken off with an end of that. Meanwhile the dog's leash is being pulled because his owner is embracing a woman, and her dog is pulling on his own leash. This goes on, with each leash or rope or whatever extending round the turn of the page, to involve the ladder balancing act of Barrel-Bottomed Ben and the Seven Tooty Frooties, the Fat Man's tape measure, the Hairy Lady's beard, a snake, Mr. Muscle's mustache, and lion Lickchop Leo's chain. The moral of the story: ""If some clown asks you to hold a piece of rope, always make sure you know what is at the other end."" That's fair enough, but both the text and the slick pastel pictures come through as cold, calculated displays and don't make the trail's unraveling either funny or inviting.