th this idea in mind we went scouting round back of the main tent to a
comparatively secluded spot, and there we found a place where the canvas
side-wall lifted clear of the earth for a matter of four or five inches.
We held an informal caucus to decide who should should go first.
The honor lay between two of us--between the present writer, who
was reasonably skinny, and another boy, named Thompson, who was
even skinnier. He won, as the saying is, on form. It was decided by
practically a unanimous vote, he alone dissenting, that he should crawl
under and see how the land lay inside. If everything was all right he
would make it known by certain signals and we would then follow, one by
one.

Two of us lifted the canvas very gently and this Thompson boy started
to wriggle under. He was about halfway in when--zip!--like a flash he
bodily vanished. He was gone, leaving only the marks where his toes had
gouged the soil. Startled, we looked at one another. There was something
peculiar about this. Here was a boy who had started into a circus tent
in a circumspect, indeed, a highly cautious manner, and then finished
the trip with undue and sudden precipitancy. It was more than
peculiar--it bordered upon the uncanny. It was sinister. Without a word
having been spoken we decided to go away from there.

Wearing expressions of intense unconcern and sterling innocence upon our
young faces we did go away from there and drifted back in the general
direction of the main entrance. We arrived just in time to meet our
young friend coming out. He came hurriedly, using his hands and his
feet both, his feet for traveling and his hands for rubbing purposes.
Immediately behind him was a large, coarse man using language that
stamped him as a man who had outgrown the spirit of youth and was
preeminently out of touch with the ideals and aims of boyhood.

At that period it seemed to me and to the Thompson boy, who was moved to
speak feelingly on the subject, and in fact to all of us, that excessive
slimness might have its drawbacks. Since that time several of us have
had occasion to change our minds. With the passage of years we have
fleshened up, and now we know better. The last time I saw the Thompson
boy he was known as Excess-Baggage Thompson. His figure in profile
suggested a man carrying a roll-top desk in his arms and his face looked
like a face that had refused to jell and was about to run down on his
clothes. He spoke longingly of the da