. As he did so, a crowd of
persons going to the circus passed between them and when they had passed
he saw Celia Jane running for home with Nora following at a slower pace.

"Why, what's the matter, little boy? Why are you crying?" he heard a man
ask.

Jerry felt the hot tears of bitter disappointment coming and he did not
want all those persons to see him crying. So he turned and ran blindly
around the big tent; when he was alone he flung himself down on the
ground and sobbed out his grief, with face pressed into the grass.

Never, never, never would he forgive Celia Jane for her perfidy,--nor
Danny either for taking the ticket, when he knew that it had been given
to Celia Jane because Jerry thought she was really crying because she
wanted to see the circus. He would really run away this time. He would
run away without going back to tell Mother 'Larkey and Kathleen and
Nora good-by.

Now he would not get to see the elephants jumping the fence, nor the
trapeze performers, nor the dancing pony. Even the trained seals took on
a halo of enchantment now that the magic ticket that was to open all
those joys to him was irrevocably gone.

His sobbing rose in a renewed outburst, but even as he sobbed he felt
something shake his foot very slightly. He stopped sobbing so hard.
There was no further shaking of his foot and he again gave himself up to
the bitterness of his grief.

Then there came a tug at his foot; it was shaken harder than before and
then pulled. Very much startled, Jerry sat up and found himself staring
into a pair of twinkling yet sympathetic eyes and a face which was just
as white as chalk, with very, very red lips. It was a man, and he wore a
white skullcap over his head and a white, loose sort of gown with blue
dots all over it.

It was Whiteface, the clown, sitting on his heels right there in front
of him! That very surprising individual suddenly turned a handspring,
and without standing up, kicked his heels together straight up into the
air and then sat down in front of Jerry, leaned his head on his elbow
and smiled with twinkling eyes, without uttering a word.

CHAPTER IX

CLOWN OF CLOWNS

Jerry was so surprised that he almost forgot that he had been cheated
out of his ticket to the circus, and he stopped crying except for a long
shuddering sob every now and then, though the tears stood on his cheeks.

The clown looked at him long and steadily; finally he made a little
squeaky noise wi