e, listened to the men
who were loudly crying the wonderful things they had for sale, and all
the while kept a bright lookout in the hope of seeing some of their
circus friends.

It was nearly time for the performance to begin when the boys went into
the skeleton's tent, and said good-bye to the thin man and his fat wife.

Then Toby, anxious to run around to the dressing-rooms to speak with
Ella, and not daring to take Abner with him, said to the boy:

"Now you wait here for a minute, an' I'll be right back."

Abner was perfectly contented to wait; it seemed to him that he would
have been willing to stay there all night, provided the excitement
should be continued, and he gazed around him in perfect delight as he
leaned against one of the tent ropes.

Toby found Ella without much difficulty; but both she and her mother had
so much to say to him that it was some time before he could leave them
to go in search of Ben.

The old driver was curled up on his wagon, taking "forty winks," as he
called a nap, before starting on the road again.

When Toby awakened him, he explained that he would not have taken the
liberty if it had not been for the purpose of saying good-bye, and Ben
replied, good-naturedly:

"That's all right, Toby; I should only have been angry with you if you
had let me sleep. I've fixed it with your uncle about that little
cripple; and now, when I get pitched off and killed some of these dark
nights, there'll be one what'll be sorry I'm gone. Be a good boy, Toby;
don't ever do anything you'd be afraid to tell your Uncle Dan'l of, and
next year I'll see you again."

Toby wanted to say something; but the old driver had spoken his
farewell, and was evidently determined neither to say nor to hear
anything more, for he crawled up on the box of the wagon again, and
appeared to fall asleep instantly.

Toby stood looking at him a moment, as if trying to make out whether
this sudden sleep was real, or only feigned in order to prevent the
parting from being a sad one; and then he said, as he started towards
the door:

"Well, I thank you over and over again for Mr. Stubbs's brother, even if
you have gone to sleep." Then he went to meet Abner.

When he reached the place where he had left his friend, to his great
surprise he could see nothing of him. There was no possibility that he
could have made any mistake as to the locality, for he had left him
standing just behind the skeleton's tent.

Toby ran quic