good book'!" thought he.

Then he resolved to awaken Jenny.

"Jen!" called he, "awake, we shall eat."

"What is it?" asked the girl; "where are we?"

"In the wilderness."

She was now wide awake.

"What light is that?"

"A man lives there; we shall eat."

Poor Orso was very hungry.

Meanwhile they were nearing the fire. The dog barked more violently,
and the old man, sitting by the fire, shaded his eyes and peered into
the gloom. Shortly he said:

"Who is there?"

"It is us," answered Jenny in her delicate voice, "and we are very
hungry."

"Come nearer," said the old man.

Emerging from behind a great rock, which had partly concealed them,
they both stood in the light of the fire, holding each other's hands.
The old man looked at them with astonishment, and involuntarily
exclaimed:

"What is that?"

For he saw a sight which, in the sparsely populated mountains of Santa
Ana, would astonish any one. Orso and Jenny were dressed in their
circus attire. The beautiful girl, clothed in pink tights and short
white skirt, appearing so suddenly before him, looked in the firelight
like some fairy sylph. Behind her stood the youth with his powerful
figure, covered also with pink fleshings, through which you could see
his muscles standing out like knots on the oak.

The old squatter gazed at them with wide-open eyes.

"Who are you?" he inquired.

The girl, relying more on her own eloquence than on that of Orso,
began to speak.

"We are from the circus, kind sir! Mr. Hirsch beat Orso very much and
then wanted to beat me, but Orso did not let him, and fought Mr.
Hirsch and four negroes, and then we ran off on the plains, and went a
long distance through the cacti, and Orso carried me; then we came
here and are very hungry."

The face of the old man softened and brightened as he listened to her
story, and he looked with a fatherly interest on this charming child,
who spoke with great haste, as if she wished to tell all in one
breath.

"What is your name, little one?" he asked.

"Jenny."

"Welcome, Jenny! and you, Orso! people rarely come here. Come to me,
Jenny."

Without hesitation the little girl put her arms around the neck of the
old man and kissed him warmly. He appeared to her to be some one from
the "good book."

"Will Mr. Hirsch find us here?" she said, as she took her lips from
his face.

"If he comes he will find a bullet here," replied the old man; then
added, "you said that you wanted