newly made ring while they were
talking, and before they had half finished making plans for the future
one of the attendants came in to put things to order, and they were
obliged to leave their seats, she going to the hotel to get ready for
the afternoon's performance, and Toby to try to do such work as Mr. Job
had laid out for him.

Just ten weeks from the time Toby had first joined the circus Mr.
Castle informed him and Ella that they were to appear in public on the
following day. They had been practicing daily, and Toby had become so
skillful that both Mr. Castle and Mr. Lord saw that the time had come
when he could be made to earn some money for them.

XV. TOBY'S FRIENDS PRESENT HIM WITH A COSTUME

During this time Toby's funds had accumulated rather slower than on the
first few days he was in the business, but he had saved eleven dollars,
and Mr. Lord had paid him five dollars of his salary, so that he had
the to him enormous sum of sixteen dollars; and he had about made up his
mind to make one effort for liberty when the news came that he was to
ride in public.

He had, in fact, been ready to run away any time within the past week;
but, as if they had divined his intentions, both Mr. Castle and Mr. Lord
had kept a very strict watch over him, one or the other keeping him in
sight from the time he got through with his labors at night until they
saw him on the cart with Old Ben.

"I was just gettin' ready to run away," said Toby to Ella on the day Mr.
Castle gave his decision as to their taking part in the performance, and
while they were walking out of the tent, "an' I shouldn't wonder now if
I got away tonight."

"Oh, Toby!" exclaimed the girl, as she looked reproachfully at him,
"after all the work we've had to get ready, you won't go off and leave
me before we've had a chance to see what the folks will say when they
see us together?"

It was impossible for Toby to feel any delight at the idea of riding in
public, and he would have been willing to have taken one of Mr. Lord's
most severe whippings if he could have escaped from it; but he and
Ella had become such firm friends, and he had conceived such a boyish
admiration for her, that he felt as if he were willing to bear almost
anything for the sake of giving her pleasure. Therefore he said, after
a few moments' reflection: "Well, I won't go tonight, anyway, even if I
have the best chance that ever was. I'll stay one day more, anyhow, an'
perhaps