en any of the hands then it'll be 'Come on in or you'll catch your
death of cold.'"

He mimicked voice and tone faithfully, so that Slim laughed and thought
that there had never been so funny a fellow as Red.

Slim said, eagerly, "Do you come out here every day like this, Red? Real
early? It's like the whole world is just yours, isn't it, Red? No one
else around and all like that." He felt proud at being allowed entrance
into this private world.

Red stared at him sidelong. He said carelessly, "I've been up for hours.
Didn't you hear it last night?"

"Hear what?"

"Thunder."

"Was there a thunderstorm?" Slim never slept through a thunderstorm.

"I guess not. But there was thunder. I heard it, and then I went to the
window and it wasn't raining. It was all stars and the sky was just
getting sort of almost gray. You know what I mean?"

Slim had never seen it so, but he nodded.

"So I just thought I'd go out," said Red.

They walked along the grassy side of the concrete road that split the
panorama right down the middle all the way down to where it vanished
among the hills. It was so old that Red's father couldn't tell Red when
it had been built. It didn't have a crack or a rough spot in it.

Red said, "Can you keep a secret?"

"Sure, Red. What kind of a secret?"

"Just a secret. Maybe I'll tell you and maybe I won't. I don't know
yet." Red broke a long, supple stem from a fern they passed,
methodically stripped it of its leaflets and swung what was left
whip-fashion. For a moment, he was on a wild charger, which reared and
champed under his iron control. Then he got tired, tossed the whip aside
and stowed the charger away in a corner of his imagination for future
use.

He said, "There'll be a circus around."

Slim said, "That's no secret. I knew that. My Dad told me even before we
came here--"

"That's not the secret. Fine secret! Ever see a circus?"

"Oh, sure. You bet."

"Like it?"

"Say, there isn't anything I like better."

Red was watching out of the corner of his eyes again. "Ever think you
would like to be with a circus? I mean, for good?"

Slim considered, "I guess not. I think I'll be an astronomer like my
Dad. I think he wants me to be."

"Huh! Astronomer!" said Red.

Slim felt the doors of the new, private world closing on him and
astronomy became a thing of dead stars and black, empty space.

He said, placatingly, "A circus _would_ be more fun."

"You're just saying that."