“I don’t care if it’s a dollar, we’re goin’ into that circus,” Josiah said resolutely, as he changed his valise from one hand to the other in order to rest his arm, and walked rapidly toward what was announced by the posters to be the “Oriental Palace of Wonders.”
CHAPTER IV.
A SYSTEMATIC SEARCH.
Josiah did not regret his reckless extravagance in spending twenty cents for admission to the “circus.”
Without seeing the collection of alleged wonders he never could have believed so many strange and odd things ever had an existence, and not until fully two hours had elapsed was he willing to listen to Sadie’s oft-repeated assertion that it “was time to go home.”
Very reluctantly he allowed himself to be led out of the building, and once on the sidewalk again found it necessary to place the valise on the curb in order that he might the better free his mind.
“Well, I declare! It beats anything I ever saw or heard tell of! Do you s’pose that fat woman could be all alive, or was she blowed up the way we do toads out our way?”
“She was a truly woman,” Sadie replied. “I used to know where one of them kind of people lived, an’ she was so big she couldn’t hardly get into a hoss car. If you want to see a dime show that’s better’n this one, you oughter go up on the Bowery. All the boys say it’s just gorgeous.”
“When I sell my woodchuck skins I’ll go, an’ you shall come along too. We’ll stay all the afternoon, ’cause Bob an’ Tom’ll be with us, an’ I reckon they’ll want to see it as much as I do.”
Sadie made no reply to this generous proposition, possibly because she did not believe it would ever be carried into effect; and Josiah, taking up his valise once more, followed as she led him toward Mother Hunter’s.