"Is Bud going to be home long?"
"He got leave of absence for a few days, because the boy isn't feeling very well. They've worked him too hard altogether. You observed how pale-looking he is?"
Fred could not say that he had noticed any alarming paleness about the young man, but he did not deny the assertion of the mother.
"Does Bud like it with the circus?"
"Oh, yes, and they just dote on him. Bud tells me that Colonel Bandman, the owner of the circus and menagerie, has told him that if he keeps on doing so well he's going to take him in as partner next year."
"Mrs. Heyland, why do you call him Bud?"
"He was such a sweet baby that we nick-named him 'Birdy,' and it has stuck by him since. When he went to school he was called Budman, that being a cunning fancy of the darling boy, but his right name is Nathaniel Higgens, though most people don't know it."
Fred Sheldon had got the information he was seeking.