nothing else but burnt brandy would
do it, but that would do it, sure.

Pony was scared at first when he heard that most of the circus fellows
were stolen, but he thought if he went of his own accord he would be all
right. Still, he did not feel so much like running off with the circus as
he did before the circus came. He asked Jim Leonard whether the circus
men made all the children drink burnt brandy; and Archy Hawkins and Hen
Billard heard him ask, and began to mock him. They took him up between
them, one by his arms and the other by the legs, and ran along with him,
and kept saying, "Does it want to be a great big circus actor? Then it
shall, so it shall," and, "We'll tell the circus men to be very careful of
you, Pony dear!" till Pony wriggled himself loose and began to stone them.

After that they had to let him alone, for when a fellow began to stone you
in the Boy's Town you had to let him alone, unless you were going to whip
him, and the fellows only wanted to have a little fun with Pony. But what
they did made him all the more resolved to run away with the circus, just
to show them.

He helped to carry water for the circus men's horses, along with the boys
who earned their admission that way. He had no need to do it, because his
father was going to take him in, anyway; but Jim Leonard said it was the
only way to get acquainted with the circus men. Still Pony was afraid to
speak to them, and he would not have said a word to any of them if it had
not been for one of them speaking to him first, when he saw him come
lugging a great pail of water, and bending far over on the right to
balance it.

"That's right," the circus man said to Pony. "If you ever fell into that
bucket you'd drown, sure."

He was a big fellow, with funny eyes, and he had a white bulldog at his
heels; and all the fellows said he was the one who guarded the outside of
the tent when the circus began, and kept the boys from hooking in under
the curtain.

Even then Pony would not have had the courage to say anything, but Jim
Leonard was just behind him with another bucket of water, and he spoke up
for him. "He wants to go with the circus."

They both set down their buckets, and Pony felt himself turning pale when
the circus man came towards them. "Wants to go with the circus, heigh?
Let's have a look at you." He took Pony by the shoulders and turned him
slowly round, and looked at his nice clothes, and took him by the chin.
"Orphan?" he as