Agnes was just as excited as her older sister. "I'll go up Ral-Ralph Avenue, Ru-Ruth!" she gasped. "Oh! It will be dreadful if that awful Sorber takes away our Neale——"
"He sha'n't!" declared the older girl, starting off at once for the Old Ridge Road.
They had said nothing to Mrs. MacCall about the coming of Mr. Sorber—not even to tell the good housekeeper of the Old Corner House that she would have company at supper. But Mrs. MacCall found that out herself.
Finding Tess and Dot remarkably quiet in the garden, and for a much longer time than usual, Mrs. MacCall ventured forth to see what had happened to the little girls. She came to the summer-house in time to hear the following remarkable narrative:
"Why, ye see how it was, little ladies, ye see how it was. I saw the folks in that town didn't like us—not a little bit. Some country folks don't like circus people."
"I wonder why?" asked Tess, breathlessly.
"Don't know, don't know," said Mr. Sorber. "Just born with a nateral hate for us, I guess. Anyway, I seen there was likely to be a big clem—that's what we say for 'fight' in the show business—and I didn't get far from the lions—no, ma'am!"
"Were you afraid some of the bad men might hurt your lions, sir?" asked Dot, with anxiety.
"You can't never tell what a man that's mad is going to do," admitted the old showman, seriously. "I wasn't going to take any chances with 'em. About a wild animal you can tell. But mad folks are different!
"So I kept near the lion den; and when the row broke out and the roughs from the town began to fight our razorbacks—them's our pole- and canvas-men," explained Mr. Sorber, parenthetically, "I popped me right into the cage—yes, ma'am!