eater" and fashioning
the drop curtain from a quantity of ex-fertilizer sacks that were
Gizzard Tobin's contribution to the enterprise; the others were kept
busy knocking the show, and at the same time getting together the price
of admission.

At about two o'clock in the afternoon a great hubbub was heard in the
streets. It sounded at first as if a newspaper extra had arrived; but a
careful listener would have been able to make out that the cry was,
"Cir-cus!" instead of, "Ux-try!" Then came the additional announcement
that the big show would start at two-thirty sharp in the main tent
upstairs in Canes' barn.

The barkers darted from place to place with such amazing rapidity and
shouted so lustily that it seemed as if there must be nearer forty of
them than four. Indeed their cries appeared to come from all sides at
once. Nor was the rapidity of their movements accelerated by their
circus costumes, for they were all in full dress; and their upturned
trousers would insist on coming down over their feet and tripping them
up from time to time.

It is possible that this may account for the disreputable condition in
which two or three fathers in the neighborhood found their evening
clothes the next time they had occasion to wear them. Although, without
exception, the boys in the affected families denied any knowledge of the
matter.

When the time-piece on the shelf in Canes' kitchen reached two-thirty
o'clock the "ampatheater" was crowded to capacity, and although several
late comers were assured by the man at the door that there were plenty
of "reserved seats for every man, woman and child, one and all, admitted
to the big tent," they found on going inside that there was standing
room only.

"Plen-ty of room! Plen-ty of room!" drawled the loud nasal voice at the
door. "Do not loi-ter about the entrance, please! Either step in, or
step aside! Gangway, please! Gang-way! Do not interfere with our
pa-trons--"

These and many other remarks of a distinctly professional nature came
from Ringmaster Cane, who seemed to be everywhere at once. Now he was at
the entrance keeping it free from loiterers; now his nasal drawl could
be heard issuing orders behind the scenes; now he was assisting a couple
of ladies to find seats in the "ampatheater"; and at last, with three
shrill blasts on a police whistle, he stood before the curtain and
cracked his whip for order.

CHAPTER XIX

SUBE THE SHOWMAN

A battered silk hat t