r, Ivy's eleven-year-old brother,
whose only consolation was the memory of a happier time in the early
spring when the circus had come to town with its elephants and caged
animals, its clown in cap and bells, to say nothing of its fine ladies
in red and green velvet habits all gold bespangled, riding so
gracefully the high-stepping horses to the music of the band, perched
high on a scarlet-and-gold mirrored chariot--not to forget the calliope
bringing up the rear. Then, with glowing countenance and swift-beating
heart, Lafe and his companions had followed the parade to "the
bottoms," a level space sacred to the circus and baseball, where men
were busy erecting tents for the afternoon's show.

One lusty fellow whose bronze cheeks were tanned by the wind and sun of
many climes immediately engaged the three boys to carry water to the
animals, in exchange for passes to the evening performance, the memory
of which would never, never fade from Lafe's mind, were he to live as
long as Methuselah himself. Every detail, the sawdust-covered
racetrack around the ring, the acrobats swinging and diving so far, far
up in the air that one held his breath till they made a safe descent;
the jokes of the clown never too old to evoke laughter, the noises of
wild animals which might break through their barred cages and cause a
panic among the people, a possibility that lent spice to the whole; the
peanuts and lemonade,--weak in lemon but strong in sugar, and of a
lovely shade of pink,--genuine circus lemonade, on which they had spent
their last pennies, with all this comparatively fresh in his memory no
wonder that Lafe gazed longingly on the posters, and read with avidity
every item concerning the attraction, which, if not the circus, was
related to it in a sort of third or fourth cousin degree.

Lafe could not gain entrance by the drawing-of-water method, nor yet,
alas, by scattering bills; and he knew it was useless to apply at home.
Did not the pinching of shoes worn the first time the Sunday previous
remind him of his mother's latest ill-spared expenditure? All he could
do, therefore, was to grumble at his luck in having missed the agent.
This he did so persistently and in tones so loud that everybody either
commiserated or scolded him, with the exception of Ivy, who only
laughed and dubbed him Master Glumface. To her, who measured every woe
with her own, his disappointment seemed a pitifully small thing to
bewail.

"Now, I'm su