And there, in many gay posters was the announcement that “Twomley & Sorber’s Herculean Circus and Menagerie” would show that day in Pompey, the town they had then reached.
“It’s Uncle Bill’s show!” cried Neale. “Maybe I’ll hear some news of my father.”
“And shall we have to give back Josh mule?” asked Tess, who had taken quite a liking to the animal.
“Well, we’ll see,” said Mr. Howbridge. “But I think we may as well, all of us, go to the circus,” he added.
And, that afternoon, the trick mule having been left in the towpath barn with Hank’s animals, almost the whole party, including the driver, went to the circus. Only Mrs. MacCall decided to stay on the houseboat.
On the way to the circus the party passed the post-office. Ruth remembered that this was a town she had mentioned in a letter to Luke Shepard and ran in to see if there was any mail.
“Ruth Kenway,” said the clerk, in answer to her question, and a moment later passed out a fine, fat letter, addressed in the hand she knew so well.
“I’ll read it to-night—I haven’t time now,” she told herself, and blushed happily. “Dear Luke—I hope everything is going well with him.”
[CHAPTER XV—REAL NEWS AT LAST]
“Oh, look at the toy balloons! Look, Alice-doll,” and Dot held her constant companion up in her arms.