The Circus Comes to Town Part 16

"You boys had better rub each other's backs with liniment while I get your breakfast," Mother 'Larkey said, getting a bottle down from the cupboard.

"Did Danny get a ticket, too?" Celia Jane asked.

"No," said Chris.

"Why, where is Danny?" inquired his mother.

"I don't know," replied Chris. "He was asleep when we left. We tried to wake him but he wouldn't get up."

"Land's sakes!" exclaimed Mrs. Mullarkey. "He must still be upstairs, fast asleep! I heard you calling him and then heard you tiptoeing downstairs and out of the house and thought he was with you." She went to the foot of the stairs and called and the sleepy voice of Danny answered:

"All right. Is it time for the circus to unload?"

"It unloaded hours ago," she replied, "and Chris and Jerry have got back with each of them a ticket to the circus for helping carry water for the elephants."

"Why didn't you call me!" wailed Danny.

"Chris and Jerry called you," answered his mother. "I heard them and heard you answer. It's your own fault for being such a sleepyhead."

It didn't take Danny long to dress and get downstairs, his hair all tousled and his eyes still heavy with sleep. "Let's see your tickets,"

he demanded.

Chris let him see his, but kept a possessive hold of one end. There it was:

BURROWS AND FAIRCHILD'S

MAMMOTH CIRCUS AND MENAGERIE

ADMIT ONE

COMPLIMENTARY

"That's a ticket, all right," Danny remarked. "Was that all you had to do to get it--carry water for the el'funts?"

"Yes," replied Chris, "but it took hours and hours. I'm sore all over."

"So'm I," said Jerry.

"Why didn't you make me wake up?"

"We called you and pounded you and turned you over," Chris replied, "but you went back to sleep."

"Why didn't you kick me or pull me out of bed?" Danny asked. "Then mebbe I'd've got a ticket, too."

"Mebbe you can, anyway," said Celia Jane. "The el'funts'll want a drink at noon."

"I'll go out and see," said Danny and was hurrying off at once, but Mrs.

Mullarkey made him wait for breakfast. He bolted the oatmeal and bread and raced out of the house.

"I'm glad I'm not a sleepy-head like Danny," said Chris.

"So'm I," echoed Jerry.

CHAPTER VIII

THE CROCODILE TEARS OF CELIA JANE

Jerry could hardly wait until time for the parade. He and Chris were both too excited to play; they stayed in the house most of the time and questioned Mother 'Larkey about what she had seen at the circus the time her husband had taken her to one in the city. She was busy sewing on a dress for Mrs. Johnson which was wanted by Sat.u.r.day night and was at length obliged to send them out of doors with orders to stay out until dinner was ready.

They soon exhausted each other's conversation relative to circuses and their knowledge and guesses about what they would see, and fell silent.

And the minutes dragged their slow length out towards eleven o'clock.

They could smell the mush and potatoes frying for their early dinner when Danny returned from the circus ground. They knew at once that he hadn't succeeded in getting a "ticket to paradise", as Mother 'Larkey had called their circus pa.s.ses, nevertheless Chris asked:

"Did you get a ticket?"

"No," replied Danny, sitting down dejectedly. After a while they knew he didn't intend to say any more. Jerry waited as long as he could and then asked in turn:

"Didn't the el'funts want any water for dinner?"

"No," stated Danny glumly.

That little word "No" seemed to be all that Danny cared to say about his experience, and the following silence lasted fully ten minutes. Danny was the first to break it. He did so after apparently awakening to the fact that dinner was preparing. He sniffed the penetrating odor of frying potatoes and mush that had got a little burned, and sat up.

"Gee, but I'm hungry," he said and sniffed again.

"Wasn't there anything you could do for a ticket?" Chris asked.

"No. The man said the early bird got the worm at the circus as well as in the garden."

After a time Jerry woke to the fact that Danny was looking at him out of the corners of his eyes in a peculiar, questioning manner that made him feel uneasy. He turned his glance away.

"I'll give you both my tops an' the shiny horseshoe nail an' baseball for your circus ticket," Danny proposed.

Jerry's hand flew protectingly to the pocket of his blouse. "No!" he cried loudly. "I won't! I earned it myself!"

"Well, I ain't tryin' to take it away from you, am I?" Danny asked, aggrieved. "I jest offered you some of my things for it. There ain't no law against offerin' to trade, I guess. I'll teach you to skate and let you use the skates I got at Christmas if you will. An' I'll feed your white rabbit for you."

"No," said Jerry, edging away from him, ready to run to the house if Danny should try to grab the ticket. "I earned the ticket and I'm a-goin' to see the circus."

"Dinner's ready, children," called Mrs. Mullarkey. "You'll have to hurry to get a good place to see the parade."

Jerry was ready to start without having anything to eat. He was too excited to be hungry, but Mother 'Larkey made him eat so he "wouldn't get too faint to enjoy the circus." It was a race between the boys to see who would finish first. Chris won. Danny, who confessed to being hungry, ate twice as much as Jerry and Chris.

"Now you children keep together at the parade," admonished Mrs.