ugh.

"Oh, I think I can manage to get some," said, Joe, as he covered up,
for the morning was a bit chilly.

"I hope my glass tank didn't get cracked in the mix-up," remarked
Benny. "It wouldn't take much to make that leak, and I've had troubles
enough of late without that."

"Oh, I guess it's perfectly safe," remarked Joe, sleepily.

The excitement caused by the derailing was soon forgotten. Circus men
are used to strenuous happenings. They live in the midst of
excitement, and a little, more or less, does not bother them. Most of
them slept even through the work of getting the train back on the rails.

Of course the circus was late in getting in--that is the derailed train
with its quota of performers was. Early in the morning, when they
should have been on the siding near the grounds, the train was still
puffing onward.

Joe arose, got a cup of coffee in the buffet car, and went on ahead to
inquire about Helen and some of his friends in the other coach.

"Oh, I didn't mind it much," Helen said, when Joe asked her about it.
"I felt a few bumps, and I thought we had just struck a poor spot in
the roadbed."

"She hasn't any more nerves than you have, Joe Strong," declared Mrs.
Talfo, "the fat lady."

"Did you mind it much?" Joe asked.

"Did I? Say, young man, it's a good thing I had a lower berth. I
rolled out, and if I had fallen on anybody--well, there might have been
a worse wreck! Fortunately no one was under me when I tumbled," and
Mrs. Talfo chuckled.

"And you weren't hurt?" asked Joe.

The fat lady laughed. Her sides shook "like a bowlful of jelly," as
the nursery rhyme used to state.

"It takes more than a fall to hurt me," said Mrs. Talfo. "I'm too well
padded. But we're going to get in very late," she went on with a look
at her watch. "The performers should be at breakfast at this time, to
be ready for the street parade."

"We may have to omit the parade," said Joe.

"I wouldn't care," declared the fat lady with a sigh. "It does jolt me
something terrible to ride over cobble streets, and they never will let
me stay out."

"You're quite an attraction," said Joe, with a smile.

"Oh, yes, it's all right to talk about it," sighed Mrs. Talfo, "but I
guess there aren't many of you who would want to tip the scales at five
hundred and eighty pounds--advertised weight, of course," she added,
with a smile. "It's no joke--especially in hot weather."

The performers made merry over t