eel."

"Did you?" asked Jerry, and he smiled up at the man, unafraid, with a
sort of fellow feeling.

"I sure did," the man smiled down at Jerry. "I got to see my first
circus through carrying water for the elephants."

At this moment Sam returned with four other boys, all older than either
Jerry or Chris.

"I never saw boys so shy of a circus before, Mr. Burrows," he said.
"They've melted away as though the circus were a plague. But I guess we
can get along with these."

"All right, Sam," replied Mr. Burrows, "but I want you to pump the water
and let the boys do the carrying. These two boys," and he put a hand on
Jerry's head and one on Chris's shoulder, "have never seen a circus.
They'll help carry water and be sure that they get a matinee ticket
apiece."

"All right, sir," replied Sam. "Come on, boys."

"Let these two carry a pail between them," continued Mr. Burrows, "I
don't want them breaking their backs."

Jerry felt an unusual warmth go surging through him. He was going to
carry water for the elephants and get a ticket to the circus, after all!
He was gladder than ever that he had bought the cough medicine for
Kathleen with the black half-dollar. He looked up at Mr. Burrows, and it
was such a look as a friendless dog might give to a man who had just
petted it and given it something to eat.

"Thank you, mister, for lettin' me carry water for the el'funts," said
Jerry.

"That's all right," replied the man. "Here, there's a dime for peanuts.
Have a good time."

Jerry was too surprised to take the dime and Mr. Burrows pressed it into
his hand and went back into the tent before Jerry had recovered.

"The boss must have taken a fancy to you!" said Sam to Jerry. "Well,
them elephants is awful thirsty and we've got to get to work. Come on."

Jerry, envied of all the boys, put the dime in his blouse pocket. He
seemed to be treading on air instead of the solid earth as he followed
Sam to another part of the ground where the boys were given large pails.

He felt in his blouse pocket every now and then to make sure that he
really had a dime and also that it had not grown wings and flown out of
his pocket, or made a hole in it and dropped out. It was always there
and his feeling of exhilaration at his good fortune kept up, despite the
hard work of carrying that pailful of water from the pump across the
street to the back of the second biggest tent, where he and Chris
emptied it into a kind of a tub. There w