“Let us get along down into Highvale. I must try to find a place for you to sleep, and remember, Lou, you’re my sister if anyone starts to question you.”
“All right; I don’t mind, if you don’t.” She gave the floppy hat a yank that slued the ridiculous green bow to a more rakish angle, and then stopped suddenly in the road. “O-oh, look!”
A barn had been built close up to the side of the fence, and freshly pasted upon it was the vividly colored poster of a circus. The enthusiastic admiration which she had denied to her first view of the great river glowed now in Lou’s eyes, and she stood transfixed.
57“What is it, Jim? The pretty lady on the horse an’ the other one up on the swing thing without–without any skirt to her, and the man with the funny pants an’ the big hat that’s shootin’─”
“There must be a circus in Highvale–yes, the date says to-night,” Jim replied.
“‘Trimble & Wells Great Circus & Sideshow,’” she read slowly. “I heard about them circuses; some of the children seen them before they came to–to where I was, an’ once one come to town an’ sent free tickets to us, but the deaconesses said it was sinful an’ so we couldn’t go. It don’t look sinful to me; it looks just grand–grand!”
She could have stood for an hour drinking in all the wonders of the poster, but Jim hurried her on although he was filled with sympathy. Poor little kid! What a rotten, black sort of life she must have had, and how he wished that he might take her to this tawdry, cheap affair and watch her naïve enjoyment.
But their combined capital would not have covered the price of the tickets, and there was 58supper to be thought of, and the hazards of the immediate future. For the present the circus must remain an unattained dream to Lou.
The steep little hill down to the village seemed very long, and twilight was almost upon them when they came to a big, open lot upon which a circular tent was in process of erection, with lesser oblong ones clustered at one side.
A fringe of small boys and village loungers lined the roadway watching the corps of men who were working like beavers within the lot, urged on by a bawling, cursing voice which seemed to proceed from a stout, choleric man who bounded about, alternately waving his arms and cupping his hands to improvise a megaphone.