"'Cause Job Lord won't let me," said Toby, wondering if it was possible
that his little companion did not know exactly what sort of a man his
master was.

Then he told her--after making her give him all kinds of promises,
including the ceremony of crossing her throat, that she would never tell
a single soul--that he had had many thoughts, and had formed all kinds
of plans for running away. He told her about losing his money, about his
friendship for the skeleton and the fat lady, and at last he confided in
her that he was intending to take the old monkey with him when he should
make the attempt.

She listened with the closest attention, and when he told her that
his little hoard had now reached the sum of seven dollars and ten
cents--almost as much as he had before--she said, eagerly: "I've got
three little gold dollars in my trunk, an' you shall have them all;
they're my very own, for mamma gave them to me to do just what I wanted
to with them. But I don't see how you can take Mr. Stubbs with you, for
that would be stealing."

"No, it wouldn't, neither," said Toby, stoutly. "Wasn't he give to me to
do just as I wanted to with? An' didn't the boss say he was all mine?"

"Oh, I'd forgotten that," said Ella, thoughtfully. "I suppose you can
take him; but he'll be awfully in the way, won't he?"

"No," said Toby, anxious to say a good word for his pet; "he always does
just what I want him to, an' when I tell him what I'm tryin' to do he'll
be as good as anything. But I can't take your dollars."

"Why not?"

"'Cause that wouldn't be right for a boy to let a girl littler than
himself help him: I'll wait till I get money enough of my own, an' then
I'll go."

"But I want you to take my money, too; I want you to have it."

"No, I can't take it," said Toby, shaking his head resolutely as he put
the golden temptation from him; and then, as a happy thought occurred
to him, he said, quickly: "I tell you what to do with your dollars: you
keep them till you grow up to be a woman, an' when I'm a man I'll come,
an' then we'll buy a circus of our own. I think perhaps I'd like to be
with a circus if I owned one myself. We'll have lots of money then, an'
can do just what we want to."

This idea seemed to please the little girl, and the two began to lay
all sorts of plans for that time when they should be man and woman, have
lots of money, and be able to do just what they wanted to.

They had been sitting on the edge of the