"Where'll we get the water?" asked Chris.
"From that house across the road. You'll have to pump it. Your brother there had better go home; he's too little to carry water."
"No, I ain't, mister," said Jerry eagerly. "I'm awful strong for my age."
"How old are you?" asked the man.
"I don't know," Jerry confessed. Then, fearful of losing this opportunity to see the circus, he continued, "I guess I'm almost seven or mebbe eight."
"You don't know how old you are!" exclaimed the man. "You look much younger than seven or eight."
"He's not my brother," Chris explained. "He's a orfum my father found when he was alive. My brother's at home with mother and my sisters. We couldn't wake him up. But Jerry's awful strong."
"A orfum, hey? And awful strong?" said the man and seemed to be studying over something in his mind. "Have you ever seen a circus?" he asked.
"No, sir," they both assured him and Chris continued: "Mother did once, just after she was married to father. She wished she could bring us all to the circus but she didn't have money enough."
"H'm," said the man. "I used to be a orfum myself and I know how you feel."