how, and say: "Please, mister, can I go with
you?" And the man would say, "Yes." (As easy as that.) But the purpose
wavered as he saw the roustabouts come tumbling out, all frowsy and
unwashed, rubbing the sleep out of their eyes, cross and savage. And the
man whose word they jump to obey, he's kind of discouraging, it's all
business with him. The fellows may plead with their eyes; he never sees
them. If he does, he tells them where to get to out of that and how
quick he wants it done, in language that makes the boldest efforts of
the boys from across the tracks seem puny in comparison. The lads
divide into two parties. One follows the buggy of the boss canvasman to
Vandeman's lots where the stand is made. They will witness the spectacle
of the raising of the tents, but they will also be near the man that
runs the show, and if all goes well it may be he will like your looks
and saunter up to you and say: "Well, bub, and how would you like to
travel with us?" You don't know. Things not half so strange as that have
happened. And if you were right there at the time....

The other party lingers awhile looking up wistfully at the unresponsive
windows of the sleeping-cars, behind which are the happy circus-actors.
Perhaps the show-boy that stands up on top of his daddy's head will look
out. If he should raise the window and smile at you, and get to talking
with you maybe he would introduce you to his pa, and tell him that you
would like to go with the show, and his pa would be a nice sort of a
man, and he'd say: "Why, yes. I guess we can fix that all right." And
there you'd be.

Or if it didn't come out like that, why, maybe the boy would be another
"Little Arthur, the Boy Circus-rider," like it told about in he Ladies'
Repository. It seems there was a man, and one day he went by where there
was a circus, and in a quiet secluded, vine-clad nook only a few
steps from the main tent, he heard somebody sigh, oh, so sadly and so
pitifully! Come to find out, it was Little Arthur, the Boy Circus-rider.
He had large sensitive violet eyes, and a wealth of clustering ringlets,
and he was very, very unhappy. So the man took from his pocket a Bible
that he happened to have with him, and he read from it to Little Arthur,
which cheered him up right away, because up to that moment he had only
heard of the Bible. (Think of that!) And that night at the show, what do
you s'pose? Little Arthur fell off the horse and hurt himself. And this
man