nloading from the side-track
at the depot swept over the boys' side of the Sunday-school room, and
consumed all knowledge of the fifth chapter of Acts, the day's lesson.
After Sunday-school the boys broke for the circus grounds. There they
feasted their gluttonous eyes upon the canvas-covered chariots, and
the elephants, and the camels, and the spotted ponies, passing from
the cars to the tents. The unfamiliar noises, the sight of the rising
"sea of canvas," the touch of mysterious wagons containing so many
wonders, and the intoxicating smell that comes only with much canvas,
many animals, and the unpacking of Pandora's box, stuffed the boys'
senses until they viewed with utter stoicism the passing dinner hour
and the prospect of finding only cold mashed potatoes and the
necks and backs of chickens in the cupboards. They even affected
indifference to parental scoldings, and lingered about the enchanting
spot until the shadows fell eastward and the day was old.

When a boy gets on his good behavior he tempts Providence. And the
Providence of boys is frail and prone to yield. So when Bud Perkins,
who was burning with a desire to please Miss Morgan the day before the
circus, went to church that Sunday night, any one can see that he was
provoking Providence in an unusual and cruel manner. Bud did not sit
with Miss Morgan, but lounged into the church, and took a back seat.
Three North End boys came in and sat on the same bench. Then Jimmy
Sears shuffled past the North Enders, and sat beside Bud. After which
the inevitable happened. It kept happening. They "passed it on," and
passed it back again; first a pinch, then a chug, then a cuff, then a
kick under the bench. Heads craned toward the boys occasionally, and
there came an awful moment when Bud Perkins found himself looking
brazenly into the eyes of the preacher, who had paused to glare at the
boys in the midst of his sermon. The faces of the entire congregation
seemed to turn upon Bud automatically. A cherub-like expression of
conscious innocence and impenetrable unconcern beamed through Bud
Perkins's features. The same expression rested upon the countenances
of the four other malefactors. At the end of the third second Jimmy
Sears put his hand to his mouth and snorted between his fingers. And
four young men looked down their noses. In the hush, Brother Baker--a
tiptoeing Nemesis--stalked the full length of the church toward the
culprits. When he took his seat beside the