full to bursting, the tables had been
set and cleared away twice while he was making one meal.

"Well, I guess you didn't hurry yourself much," said Mr. Lord, when Toby
returned to the circus ground.

"Oh yes, I did," was Toby's innocent reply: "I ate just as fast as I
could"; and a satisfied smile stole over the boy's face as he thought of
the amount of solid food he had consumed.

The answer was not one which was calculated to make Mr. Lord feel any
more agreeably disposed toward his new clerk, and he showed his ill
temper very plainly as he said, "It must take a good deal to satisfy
you."

"I s'pose it does," calmly replied Toby. "Sam Merrill used to say that
I took after Aunt Olive and Uncle Dan'l; one ate a good while, an' the
other ate awful fast."

Toby could not understand what it was that Mr. Lord said in reply,
but he could understand that his employer was angry at somebody or
something, and he tried unusually hard to please him. He talked to the
boys who had gathered around, to induce them to buy, washed the glasses
as fast as they were used, tried to keep off the flies, and in every way
he could think of endeavored to please his master.

V. THE COUNTERFEIT TEN CENT PIECE

When the doors of the big tent were opened, and the people began to
crowd in, just as Toby had seen them do at Guilford, Mr. Lord announced
to his young clerk that it was time for him to go into the tent to work.
Then it was that Toby learned for the first time that he had two masters
instead of one, and this knowledge caused him no little uneasiness. If
the other one was anything like Mr. Lord, his lot would be just twice
as bad, and he began to wonder whether he could even stand it one day
longer.

As the boy passed through the tent on his way to the candy stand, where
he was really to enter upon the duties for which he had run away from
home, he wanted to stop for a moment and speak with the old monkey who
he thought had taken such an interest in him. But when he reached the
cage in which his friend was confined, there was such a crowd around it
that it was impossible for him to get near enough to speak without being
overheard.

This was such a disappointment to the little fellow that the big tears
came into his eyes, and in another instant would have gone rolling down
his cheeks if his aged friend had not chanced to look toward him. Toby
fancied that the monkey looked at him in the most friendly way, and
then he was