sang the clown. And again from Willem and the rest came the answering:
"Ha-H'm!"
"Billy Miller's Big Show!" yelled the clown. "Come one, come all! So long, Sonny!"
He was gone. The others came back to earth. But Willem was still in the wonder clouds. It had been to him an experience to rehearse a thousand times, to dream over, to remember forever. Peter Grimm, reading the boy's thoughts as could only a heart that must ever be boyish, beckoned Willem to him, as Kathrien and Marta departed to their interrupted work in the dining-room and the rest looked half ashamed at their momentary excitement over so garish and trivial a thing.
"Willem!" called Grimm.
"Ja, Mynheer," answered the boy, coming slowly, his face still alight with his tremendous adventure of a moment ago.
"Willem," repeated Grimm, "you wouldn't care to go to that circus, would you? Wouldn't it be pretty stupid?"
"Stupid!" gasped the boy. "Oh!"
"Well," said Peter, "suppose you go, then?"
"Go? Really, Mynheer Grimm?"