“Say, are you kids going to get busy, or do you want me to help you to?”
Phil did not object to work, but he did not like the way the canvasman spoke to them.
“I guess you’ll have to do your own work. Come on, Teddy; let’s take a run and warm ourselves up.”
Hand in hand the lads started off across the field. The field was so dark that they could scarcely distinguish objects about them. Here and there they dodged wagons and teams that stood like silent sentinels in the uncertain light.
“Turn a little, Teddy. We’ll be lost before we know it, if we don’t watch out—”
“Ouch! We’re lost already!”
The ground seemed suddenly to give way beneath them. Both lads were precipitated into a stream of water that stretched across one end of the circus lot.
Shouting and struggling about they finally floundered to the bank, drenched from head to foot. If they had been shivering before, they were suffering from violent attacks of ague now.
“Whew! I’m freezing to death!” cried Phil.
“I feel like the North Pole on Christmas morning,” added Teddy. “I wish I was home, so I could thaw out behind the kitchen stove.”