fat boy if Smithers wanted one," said Ben,
surveying the stout youth with calm contempt.

"Let's go in swimming, not loaf round here, if we can't play," proposed
a red and shiny boy, panting for a game of leap-frog in Sandy pond.

"May as well; don't see much else to do," sighed Sam, rising like a
young elephant.

The others were about to follow, when a shrill "Hi, hi, boys, hold on!"
made them turn about to behold Billy Barton tearing down the street
like a runaway colt, waving a long strip of paper as he ran.

"Now, then, what's the matter?" demanded Ben, as the other came up
grinning and puffing, but full of great news.

"Look here, read it! I'm going; come along, the whole of you," panted
Billy, putting the paper into Sam's hand, and surveying the crowd with
a face as beaming as a full moon.

"Look out for the big show," read Sam. "Van Amburgh & Co.'s New Great
Golden Menagerie, Circus and Colosseum, will exhibit at Berryville,
July 4th, at 1 and 7 precisely. Admission 50 cents, children
half-price. Don't forget day and date. H. Frost, Manager."

While Sam read, the other boys had been gloating over the enticing
pictures which covered the bill. There was the golden car, filled with
noble beings in helmets, all playing on immense trumpets; the
twenty-four prancing steeds with manes, tails, and feathered heads
tossing in the breeze; the clowns, the tumblers, the strong men, and
the riders flying about in the air as if the laws of gravitation no
longer existed. But, best of all, was the grand conglomeration of
animals where the giraffe appears to stand on the elephant's back, the
zebra to be jumping over the seal, the hippopotamus to be lunching off
a couple of crocodiles, and lions and tigers to be raining down in all
directions with their mouths wide open and their tails as stiff as that
of the famous Northumberland House lion.

"Cricky! wouldn't I like to see that," said little Cyrus Fay, devoutly
hoping that the cage, in which this pleasing spectacle took place, was
a very strong one.

"You never would, it's only a picture! That, now, is something like,"
and Ben, who had pricked up his ears at the word "circus," laid his
finger on a smaller cut of a man hanging by the back of his neck with a
child in each hand, two men suspended from his feet, and the third
swinging forward to alight on his head.

"I'm going," said Sam, with calm decision, for this superb array of
unknown pleasures fired his soul and ma