“Oh, I’m sure I don’t want to cut short his popularity,” exclaimed the boy gymnast quickly.
“Popularity!” The Fire Queen burst into a laugh. “You can’t, Leo.”
“Why?”
“Because he never was popular. Why, they used to call him Sour Snipper.”
It was now announced that the afternoon performance would not go on, and the different people separated to take off their ring dresses and put on their everyday clothes.
Leo was rather slow to make the change. He began to practice around the tent on several turns which as yet were difficult for him to do gracefully.
“You must love to work,” growled Snipper on seeing him.
“I love the exercise,” returned Leo shortly.
“You won’t catch me doing any more of that than I have to.”
“I want to become perfect.”