tree and discussing one
of the professor's tricks which they had witnessed the night before.

"Then there was the fireworks explosion. I rescued the professor--ran
away from home--was chased by the constables--hopped into the freight
car--the deacon's house was robbed and set on fire and---- Say! what a
lot has happened in a short time," mused Joe. "And now comes this
offer from the circus. I wonder if I'd better take it or keep on with
the professor's show. Of course it would be easier to do this, as I'm
more familiar with it."

Just then there recurred to Joe something he had often heard Deacon
Blackford say.

"The easiest way isn't always the best."

The deacon was not, by any means, the kindest or wisest of men, and
certainly he had been cruel at times to Joe. But he was a sturdy
character, though often obstinate and mistaken, and he had a fund of
homely philosophy.

Joe, working one day in the deacon's feed and grain store, had proposed
doing something in a way that would, he thought, save him work.
"That's the easiest way," he had argued.

"Well, the easiest way isn't always the best," the deacon had retorted.

Joe remembered that now. It would be easier to keep on with the
professor's show, for the work was all planned out for him, and he had
but to fulfil certain engagements. Then, too, he was getting to be
expert in the tricks.

"But I want to get on in life," reasoned Joe. "Forty dollars a week is
more than I'm getting now, nor will I stick at that point in the
circus. It will be hard work, but I can stand it."

He had almost made up his mind. He decided he would go back and
acquaint the professor with his decision.

As Joe was passing a sort of hotel in a poor section of the town he
almost ran into, or, rather, was himself almost run into by a man who
emerged from the place quickly but unsteadily.

Joe was about to pass on with a muttered apology, though he did not
feel the collision to be his fault, when the man angrily demanded:

"What's the matter with you, anyhow? Why don't you look where you're
going?"

"I tried to," said Joe, mildly enough. "Hope I didn't hurt you."

"Well, you banged me hard enough!"

The man seemed a little more mollified now. Joe was at once struck by
something familiar in his voice and his looks. He took a second glance
and in an instant he recognized the man as one of the circus trapeze
performers he had seen the day he went to the big tent, or "m