now how many of 'em--an' the cages of the tigers an'
lions, an' all. Wa'al, I got up the next mornin' at sun-up an' done my
chores; an' after breakfust I set off fer the ten-acre lot where I was
mendin' fence. The ten-acre was the farthest off of any, Homeville way,
an' I had my dinner in a tin pail so't I needn't lose no time goin' home
at noon, an', as luck would have it, the' wa'n't nobody with me that
mornin'. Wa'al, I got down to the lot an' set to work; but somehow I
couldn't git that show out o' my head nohow. As I said, I hadn't no more
notion of goin' to that cirkis 'n I had of kingdom come. I'd never had
two shillin' of my own in my hull life. But the more I thought on't the
uneasier I got. Somethin' seemed pullin' an' haulin' at me, an' fin'ly I
gin in. I allowed I'd see that percession anyway if it took a leg, an'
mebbe I c'd git back 'ithout nobody missin' me. 'T any rate, I'd take
the chances of a lickin' jest once--fer that's what it meant--an' I up
an' put fer the village lickity-cut. I done them four mile lively, I c'n
tell ye, an' the stun-bruises never hurt me once.

"When I got down to the village it seemed to me as if the hull
population of Freeland County was there. I'd never seen so many folks
together in my life, an' fer a spell it seemed to me as if ev'rybody was
a-lookin' at me an' sayin', 'That's old Harum's boy Dave, playin'
hookey,' an' I sneaked 'round dreadin' somebody 'd give me away; but I
fin'ly found that nobody wa'n't payin' any attention to me--they was
there to see the show, an' one red-headed boy more or less wa'n't no
pertic'ler account. Wa'al, putty soon the percession hove in sight, an'
the' was a reg'lar stampede among the boys, an' when it got by, I run
an' ketched up with it agin, an' walked alongside the el'phant, tin pail
an' all, till they fetched up inside the tent. Then I went off to one
side--it must 'a' ben about 'leven or half-past, an' eat my dinner--I
had a devourin' appetite--an' thought I'd jes' walk round a spell, an'
then light out fer home. But the' was so many things to see an'
hear--all the side-show pictures of Fat Women, an' Livin' Skelitons; an'
Wild Women of Madygasker, an' Wild Men of Borneo; an' snakes windin'
round women's necks; hand-orgins; fellers that played the 'cordion, an'
mouth-pipes, an' drum an' cymbals all to once, an' such like--that I
fergot all about the time an' the ten-acre lot, an' the stun fence, an'
fust I knowed the folks was makin'