"Yes; how do you know me?"
"Harry Thorne was speaking of you."
"I see you're one of the late birds as well as I. I generally have to buy my breakfast outside. How do you like circus life?"
"I haven't tried it well enough to tell. This is only my second day."
"I went into it at fourteen. I've been an acrobat, too, but I have a weak ankle, and have gone into the ticket department."
"Are you going to remain in the circus permanently?"
"No, I'm trying to wean myself from it. A friend has promised to set me up in business whenever I get ready to retire. If I kept on, I would be no better off at forty than I am now."
"Yet circus people make a good deal of money, I hear."
"Right you are, my boy, but they don't keep it. They get spoiled for anything else, and soon or later they are left out in the cold. I've had a good deal of fun out of it, for I like traveling, but I'm going to give it up."
"I took it up because I had nothing else to do, but I shan't stay in it long. I'll tell you about it some day. I hear you drive one of the pony chariots."