The Circus Comes to Town

AUTHOR OF One Boy Too Many and Here, Tricks, Here!
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY PUBLISHERS - - - NEW YORK
OTHER LEBBEUS MITCHELL BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY ARE
ONE BOY TOO MANY & HERE, TRICKS, HERE!
THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
PRINTED IN U.S.A.

The apple seemed to Jerry Elbow too big to be true.
He held it out at arm's length to get a good squint at its bigness and its redness. Then he turned to look wonderingly after the disappearing automobile with the lady who had tossed him the apple for directing her to the post office. A long trail of dust rose from the unpaved street behind the motor car.
Next he addressed himself to the business of eating the apple. He rubbed it shiny against his patched trousers, carefully hunted out the reddest spot on it, and took a big, luscious bite. Instead of chewing the morsel at once, he crushed it against his palate just to feel the mellowness of it and to get the full flavor of the first taste of juice. Then he chewed vigorously.
He started on to Mother 'Larkey's where he had made his home for nearly three years, ever since Mr. Mullarkey, dead this year now, had found him by the roadside one dark night. He had just started to take a second bite when a shout stopped him.