ss and poverty.

The courthouse in Shaftesville seemed a very imposing edifice to people
unaccustomed to the giddy heights of a second story. When the two
staring young rustics left the desk of the county court clerk and
repaired to the dwelling of the minister of the Methodist Church near
by, with the marriage license just procured safely stowed away in
Brent's capacious hat, their anxieties were roused for a moment lest
some delay ensue, as they discovered that the minister was on the point
of sitting down to his dinner. He courteously deferred the meal,
however, and as the bride apologetically remarked after the ceremony
that they might have awaited his convenience were it not for the circus,
he imagined that the youthful couple had designed to utilize a round of
the menagerie as a wedding tour. The same thought was in the minds of
the metropolitan managers of the organization when presently the two
young wildings from the mountain fastness were ushered into their
presence, having secured an audience by dint of extreme persistence,
aided by a mien of mysterious importance.

They found two men standing just within the great empty tent, for the
crowd had not as yet begun to gather. The most authoritative, who was
tall and portly, had the manner of swiftly disposing of the incident by
asking in a peremptory voice what he could do for them. The other, lean
and languid, looked up from a newspaper, in which he had been scanning a
flaming circus advertisement, as he stood smoking a cigar. He said
nothing, but concentrated an intent speculative gaze on the face of
Valeria, who had pulled off her faint green sun-bonnet and in a flush of
eager hopefulness fanned with the slats.

"Ventriloquist?" the portly man repeated with a note of surprise, as
Brent made known his gifts and his desire for an engagement. "Oh,
well--ventriloquism is a chestnut."

Then with a qualm of pity, perhaps, for the blank despair that settled
down on the two young faces he explained: "Nothing goes in the circus
business but novelty. The public is tired out with ventriloquism. No
mystery about it now--kind of thing, too, that a clever amateur can
compass."

Brent, hurled from the giddy heights of imminent achievement to the
depths of nullity, could not at once relinquish the glowing prospects
that had allured him. He offered to give a sample of his powers. He
would like to bark a few, he said; you couldn't tell him from a sure
enough dog; he could