Mary Jane—Her Visit

by Clara Ingram Judson

Such a jolly drive as that was! They talked about the circus they were to see and how they would spend their money. And whether the lion would roar and what they should buy. And if the lady could really truly do everything on her horse that the picture said she could and how much ice cream cones would cost. You see Grandmother had been right—half the fun of spending money was the holding the money beforehand and planning how it was to be spent.

Arriving at the village where the circus was, Grandfather drove them by the great white tents—how wonderful and mysterious they did seem too!—and then he found a good place to leave the car and they walked to the main street where, from the second story of an office building, they saw the parade go by.

When the sound of the calliope was growing fainter in the distance and the children were certain sure that every bit of the parade had gone by, John looked away from the window and asked, "Can we go to the circus just as soon as we eat our lunch?"

"Yes, I should think we could," answered Grandfather.

"Then let's eat right now!" said John eagerly.

"Not such a bad idea," laughed Grandfather as he looked at his watch. "Then we'll have plenty of time."

They thanked the kind gentleman in whose office they had been and walked to the car to eat their lunch. It was a good thing Grandfather had left the car out of sight of the circus tent, for it was hard enough to think about eating as it was! Had the tents been in sight it would have been harder still. But on this quiet street and with the wonderful parade to talk about they did full justice to Grandmother's good meal. And when they had finished, even to the tempting little apple pies, one for each person, they started for the circus.

If you've been to a circus yourself, you know something of the sights they saw and of the sounds they heard. If you haven't better get your grandfather (or your father, if your grandfather isn't handy) to take you to see one, for all the interesting things Mary Jane and John heard and saw couldn't be put into one chapter—not even if it was a double long one! They saw curious animals, munching away at their dinner as though they had lived right there in that spot all their lives instead of seven hours. They saw crawling snakes and marvelous birds and the elephants that swayed their trunks backward and forward, backward and forward, as though they were doing morning exercises. And the ponies! The prettiest little ponies! Mary Jane didn't know there were such pretty ponies in all the world. She liked them the best of anything she saw. John liked the monkeys, and Mary Jane and he fed them peanuts that Grandfather bought and they felt so very important because the keeper said that the sign, "Don't feed these animals," needn't bother them!

Then they went into the big tent and found their seats—just in time they were too, for the clowns came running in at that very minute and kept the children, and the grown folks, too, in an uproar of laughter. After the circus really began, it seemed to Mary Jane that she must be in a dream. It didn't seem as though all those jumping, racing, men and horses and elephants and all, could be real! She had to pinch herself hard to be sure she was awake.

Right in the middle a man came around with ice cream cones and John bought one.