room.

"Mr. Thayer hired me. He sent me here. He told me Charley would attend
to me. I'm looking for Charley."

The man asked: "What Charley are you looking for?"

"I don't know. Mr. Thayer told me Charley would put me to work."

The man laughed and led the way into the tent as he cautioned the lad to
use the name of Mr. Noyes instead of Charley.

Mr. Noyes was too busy to talk to him. Alfred's attention was divided
between the performance and the novel scenes in the men's dressing
tents; the latter were as interesting to him as the ring performance.
The order and decorum pervading the organization was marked.

Charley Noyes, a most competent director of a circus performance, the
deportment of his employes was nearly perfect. Even the property men
were respectable and well behaved. The performance over, a heavy set man
was packing a huge trunk with horse covers and other trappings. He had
repeatedly requested the others to lend a hand. Alfred assisted the man
with his work until completed. In the interim Alfred advised him why he
was there. The man looked the boy over carefully saying: "Where are you
going to pad?"

Alfred had no idea of the meaning of the word "pad." Afterwards, he
learned that "pad" was slang for bed and sleep.

He answered correctly by chance, "I don't know."

"Well, you can get in with me. It's a two o'clock call. I'm going to
spread a couple of blankets under the band chariot. I sleep better there
than in a hotel."

The blankets spread, Alfred's carpet sack served as a pillow for him.
They were about to crawl in when the other asked Alfred if he had been
to "peck." "Not within the last week."

The man looked at him pityingly. There was a lunch stand nearby. The
man, returning from it, handed Alfred a half of a fried chicken and an
apple pie. Although Alfred insisted, the man would not eat any of it.
He ordered Alfred to eat it all, remarking "You need it."

Alfred found himself the object of considerable sympathy the following
day and not until someone asked him how it was he had been without food
for a week did he learn that "peck" in show slang signified
meals--eating.

Boy-like, he had worn his new Sunday shoes. His feet were feverish and
sore. Even had Alfred not been footsore, the snoring of the other would
have made sleep impossible to him. How long he lay awake he had no
reckoning of. It seemed to him he had only closed his eyes when he felt
a yank at the blankets and a roug