couldn't go there, discontented and low spirited for the rest
of their lives. I'm sorry for those boys, but at the same time I may as
well go on and tell them about Benny Briggs. _He_ was preparing to be
very discontented and low spirited just at the moment when Joe and Will
and Harry and Rob and Charlie and Morris and Cad were shouting their
exultation at the only wonderful circus on earth. They all decided that
the performances were not to begin, however, until Benny Briggs arrived.
There could be no circus without Ben. No, indeed! There were stars of
the arena among them, of various magnitudes, but Benny was the comet
that outshone and outstripped them all.

"Why don't he come along?" said Charlie, dancing a double-shuffle on the
barn floor to let off his impatience.

"Let's go and look for him," said Joe, and they all shuffled off down to
the gate, thinking to see Benny with his nose pointed straight for that
gate, or as straight as could be expected, considering its faithfulness
in another direction. But no Benny was to be seen.

"He can't be far off," said Joe, seizing an opportunity to look at his
new silver watch, "for it's half-past ten now, and Ben is always here
before ten--always _was_, I mean."

"Let's go up to the top of the hill and meet him," proposed Will; "we
can see him from there anyhow."

So Charlie and Joe and Morris and Will and Cad started for the top of
the hill, while Harry and Rob, who were a good deal inclined to wait for
things to come to them, remained to swing on the gate.

The five spies soon returned and reported that Benny was nowhere to be
seen. Impatience now seized them all, and they flocked into the house to
put it to grandma whether it wasn't mighty queer that Ben Briggs hadn't
come.

"He _hasn't come_?" exclaimed grandma, looking up over her glasses at
the clock. "Why, what can be the matter? It's almost eleven o'clock!"

"It's one minute and a quarter past," said Joe, appealing to his watch.
"Your clock's 'leven minutes slow."

"O, get out!" said Charlie, with a contemptuous sniff. "All the clocks
are either fast or slow, according to that turnip."

Here would have ensued a good deal of pro and con about watches, but
grandma held them to the subject of Benny Briggs. She drew from them
that they had been to the very top of the hill and couldn't see him
coming.

Grandma was surprised and disappointed. "It's incomprehensible," said
she.

"O, I say, grandma," groaned C