changes since then, but I
reckon they're still passin' the contribution box around.' And the
parson he drew back and shook his bead again, and the showman says:
'Well, you can give it to foreign missions; maybe the heathen won't
object to takin' a showman's money.' And the parson says: 'Sir, I
appreciate your generosity, but on the whole I think it best not to take
the money.'

"Sam said the showman looked at Parson Page a minute, and then he
slapped him on the shoulder, and says he: 'Parson, you may not know it,
but we're pardners in this game. If it wasn't for the church, we
wouldn't need the circus, and if it wasn't for the circus, we wouldn't
need the church.' Says he: 'You belong to the church, and I belong to
the circus; but maybe, after all, there ain't so very much difference
betwixt an honest preacher and an honest showman.' And then he bowed to
Mis' Page like she'd been a queen, and took Parson Page by the hand, and
the next minute he was gone like he had a heap o' business to see to.
And Sam Amos laughed, and says he: 'Well, Parson, circus-goin' and
bettin' is enough for one day. You and me'd better go home now, before
the world, the flesh, and the devil lay hold of you again.'

"So they all started for town, Parson Page talkin' about how kind and
polite the showman was, and how his conscience was clear since he'd
offered to pay for his seat, and how glad he was that he hadn't taken
the five dollars the showman wanted him to take. Sam said he waited till
they got to the drug store, and then he told Parson Page to put his hand
in his coat pocket,--he had on a black luster coat with the pocket
outside,--and Parson Page put his hand in, and there was the five-dollar
gold piece. Sam said that while the showman was shakin' hands he slipped
the money in the pocket as quick as lightnin', and of course Sam
wouldn't tell on him, because he was glad to git another joke on Parson
Page.

"Well, it was all Mis' Page and Sam could do to keep him from goin' back
to the show grounds to try to find the showman and give him back his
money. Mis' Page told him it was gittin' on toward night, and they had
to go home, and Sam told him that the show was most likely on its way to
the depot. But Parson Page shook his head, and says he: 'I can't go home
with this money in my possession.' And Mis' Page reached out and took
the gold piece out o' his hand and slipped it into her reticule, and
says she: 'Well, now you can go home. That