“We’re going beyond that, but we thought that we would stop and see it if we reached there on time, otherwise we would have seen the evening performance.”
“Lucky thing that I came along and happen to be going to that place myself then,” chuckled the driver, “for there isn’t going to be any evening show. You see I happen to be connected with the circus, and we have such a long jump for tomorrow’s show that we cannot give a performance here tonight.”
“Good thing you came along then, for if we had walked all this distance for nothing, I would have given up in disgust,” remarked Dick.
“How far have you come?” asked the circus man.
“We left Hilton this morning,” answered Garry.
The driver looked somewhat incredulous at this statement, then sizing up the appearance of the boys, who were wearing their customary khaki semi-uniform that they used as Rangers in the forest, decided that they were hiking for the summer and probably used to walking good distances in a short time.
“What are you chaps doing, walking across the state or something?”
Garry explained that they were forest rangers off duty temporarily and were bound for a lumber camp to pay it a visit.
As they drove along they asked several questions about the circus and circus life, and considerably amused the man by referring to many things in a way that circus people did not. The circus man told them of the many strange phrases employed by circus people, and the boys learned much of the talk of the circus.
They found, for instance, that circus people never speak of the tent. It is always called a top. There are the big top and the little tops. The only thing on the circus lot to be called a tent is the cook tent.