k mark on the other side. Looks as
though somebody had smeared it with black paint."

"That doesn't hurt it any, does it?" asked Jerry in trepidation.

"Not a bit! It's good for a ticket to the circus."

"If I hadn't of run into you, I wouldn't get to go," observed Jerry.

"That's so," responded Mr. Barton. "I wouldn't let any one know you
found the money. Just sneak off to the circus when it comes and buy your
ticket. Danny would find some way to get it away from you if he knew you
had it."

"I guess mebbe he would," Jerry responded.

"You just keep it to yourself and enjoy the circus," Mr. Barton advised
him and went on to the store.

Jerry trudged slowly back toward Mrs. Mullarkey's, thinking intently.

The gloom that pervaded the house was so deep that Jerry perceived it as
soon as he opened the door. Danny sat glowering by the window; Celia
Jane was weeping unashamed, while Chris and Nora were trying not to show
their disappointment.

So Mother 'Larkey had not yet been able to make both ends meet--those
troublesome, refractory ends that made her life a continual round of
hard work--and there were no fifty-cent pieces for the children to buy
tickets with to see the elephant jump the fence. Jerry hugged himself
just to feel the half-dollar in his blouse pocket and a glow of
exultation ran over his body at the thought that he was going to get to
see the circus.

Mrs. Mullarkey, looking tired and worn, was ripping apart the dress for
Mrs. Green that she had just finished at noon. Baby Kathleen sat at her
feet, playing with the old rag doll that had once been Nora's and was
now claimed by Celia Jane.

Jerry entered the room slowly and took a seat on the chair without a
back. He said nothing at all and finally Mother 'Larkey looked up at
him.

"Why don't you ask for fifty cents, too?" she inquired. "Don't you want
to see the circus?"

"Yes'm," replied Jerry, "but I ain't got no mother."

"What difference does that make?" she asked, in a voice sharper than she
was accustomed to use in speaking to Jerry. "Haven't I done everything a
mother could--"

"Yes'm," Jerry interrupted hastily, for he didn't want her to think he
thought _that_. "But it said to ask your _mother_ for fifty cents and I
ain't got none to ask."

"Sure and you haven't, you blessed boy," said Mother 'Larkey. "If I had
it to give, you wouldn't need a mother to ask it of. I wish I could send
all of you to the circus and go myself."

"W