“Where’ll we meet you when we get through?” Tom asked.
“We’ll come right here in half an hour,” and Josiah looked around to make certain of the landmarks in the vicinity.
“Don’t go too far away, else you might not get back, an’ we wanter take the boat mighty soon after dark,” Bob said, as Bill, impatient for his bath, hurried away.
“I’ll look out for that,” Josiah replied confidently. “You’ll see us when you’re ready to leave.”
The three boys walked rapidly toward the beach; and Josiah, feeling it incumbent upon himself to play the part of entertainer, led Sadie to a canvas tent, the outside of which was covered with gaudily-painted representations of improbable animals in the most glaring colors.
“Are you goin’ in?” she asked, halting in front of the “band,” which was represented by a hand-organ.
“Yes, we want to see everything, an’ might as well begin right here.”
“But it costs ten cents.”
“I know it, an’ s’pose we oughter wait till the other fellers are with us; but we’ve got to do somethin’, an’ if they wanter see these things I’ll buy ’em tickets when they come back,” Josiah replied. “Then if it ain’t good we sha’n’t be losin’ so much money.”
Five minutes later the boy from Berry’s Corner was decidedly glad he had not waited to invite his friends; for the number of curiosities on exhibition was so small as compared with those seen in the “circus” on Chatham Square, as to make a dime appear a greater extravagance than was the quarter in the purchase of a clam chowder.