“There, it’s all right, Davie,” she said, “Mother knows all about it.”
“I’ve made—I’ve made—you all—ashamed,” said Davie in little shivery gasps, throwing his arms around her neck.
“You will make us very much ashamed,” said Mrs. Pepper, “unless you sit up now, and be Mother’s good boy.”
“Will I?” David raised a little face that was quite white. The soft waves of light hair tumbled over his forehead.
“Yes, indeed,” Mother Pepper brushed them back soothingly.
“I will be your good boy, Mamsie,” said David, sitting up in her lap, his miserable little face brightening a bit.
“He better take some o’ this med’cine.” The little old woman tried to pass the small bottle she picked out of her black silk bag. “I always carry it everywhere’s I go, ef I sh’d be sick.”
But Mrs. Pepper shook her head. And Joel being now absorbed in the bears that somehow were determined not to march with the others, but to get up a show all by themselves, till the trainer with his little whip had to get them into line, everything became quiet once more.
Well, after the grand parade, there was the big show when the animals did the most surprising things, and the men and the women in spangles and satin and velvet jumped from horses going at top speed—or through hoops, or swung in the air like big birds.
And then there was a great to-do, everybody clambering down from the seats—all trying to get out of the tent at once.