The Circus Boys on the Flying Rings Part 25

"I've tried one wagon. It's your turn now," growled Teddy.

"I guess you're right. If I get thrown out you catch me the same as I did you," laughed Phil.

"Yes, you _caught_ me, didn't you?"

Phil climbed up, but with more caution than Teddy had exercised in the case of the band wagon.

"Anybody living in this bedroom tonight?" questioned Phil of the driver.

"Guess you are. First come first served. Pile in. You're the kid that rode the bull, ain't you?"

"And twisted the tiger's tail," added Teddy.

"All right. Probably some others will be along later, but I'll see to it that they don't throw you out."

"Thank you. Come on up, Teddy; it's all right."

Teddy Tucker hastily scrambled up into the wagon which proved to be a canvas wagon--an open wagon, over which a canvas cover was stretched in case of storm only.

"Where's the bed clothes?" demanded Teddy.

"I guess the skies will have to be our quilts tonight," answered Phil.

The boys succeeded in crawling down between the folds of the canvas, however, and, snuggling close together, settled down for their first night on the road with a circus. Soon the wagons began to move in response to a chorus of hoa.r.s.e shouts. The motion of the canvas wagon very soon lulled the lads to sleep, as the big wagon show slowly started away and disappeared in the soft summer night.

CHAPTER XIII

THE DAWNING OF A NEW DAY

"Hi! Stop the train! Stop the train!" howled Teddy, as he landed flat on his back on the hard ground.

"Here, here! What are you fellows doing?" shouted Phil, scrambling to his feet.

"I dreamed I was in a train of cars and they ran off the track,"

said Teddy, struggling to his feet and rubbing his shins gingerly. "Did you do that?"

"You bet. Think I can wait for you kids to take your beauty sleep? Don't you suppose this show's got something else to do besides furnish sleeping accommodations for lazy kids? Take hold here, and help us get this canvas out if you want any breakfast."

"Take it out yourself," growled Teddy, dodging the flat of the canvasman's hand.

The lads had been hurled from their sleeping place by a rough tentman in a hurry to get at his work. The chill of the early dawn was in the air. The boys stood, with shoulders hunched forward, shivering, their teeth chattering, not knowing where they were and caring still less. They knew only that they were most uncomfortable. The glamor was gone. They were face to face with the hardships of the calling they had chosen, though they did not know that it was only a beginning of those hardships.

"B-r-r-r!" shivered Teddy.

"T-h-h-h-at's what I say," chattered Phil.

"Say, are you kids going to get busy, or do you want me to help you to?"

Phil did not object to work, but he did not like the way the canvasman spoke to them.

"I guess you'll have to do your own work. Come on, Teddy; let's take a run and warm ourselves up."

Hand in hand the lads started off across the field. The field was so dark that they could scarcely distinguish objects about them. Here and there they dodged wagons and teams that stood like silent sentinels in the uncertain light.

"Turn a little, Teddy. We'll be lost before we know it, if we don't watch out--"

"Ouch! We're lost already!"

The ground seemed suddenly to give way beneath them. Both lads were precipitated into a stream of water that stretched across one end of the circus lot.

Shouting and struggling about they finally floundered to the bank, drenched from head to foot. If they had been shivering before, they were suffering from violent attacks of ague now.

"Whew! I'm freezing to death!" cried Phil.

"I feel like the North Pole on Christmas morning," added Teddy.

"I wish I was home, so I could thaw out behind the kitchen stove."

"Brace up, Teddy. This is only the beginning of the fun. We shall have worse experiences than this, late in the fall, when the weather gets cool; that is, if they do not get enough of us in the meantime and send us away."

"I--I wish they would send us home now."

"Come now; we've got to run again. We shall surely take our death of cold, if we stand here much longer."

"Run? No, thank you. I've had one run."

"And you don't want another? Is that it?"

"Not I."

"Don't know as I blame you. Well, if you don't want to run, just stand in one place and jump up and down. Whip your hands, and you'll see how soon it will start your blood to circulating,"

advised Phil, who immediately proceeded to put his own theory into execution. "That feel better?"

"Yes, some," replied Teddy, rather doubtfully. "But I could be warmer. I wonder what time the cook tent will be up."

"That's an idea. Suppose we go over and find out?"

"Yes, but where is it?"

"I don't know. But we won't find it if we stand here."

They started off again, this time exercising more caution as to where their feet touched. They had not gone far before they came upon some men who were driving small stakes in the ground, marking out the spot where one of the tents was to be pitched.

"Can you tell us where the cook tent is going up?" asked Phil politely.

"North side of the field," grunted the man, not very good-naturedly.