“Oh, please, not today,” the little girl pleaded. “I don’t feel well. I will do it tonight at the regular performance, if only you won’t make me practice it now.”
“The somersault, Eva!” ordered her father again. He knew that his daughter only said she did not feel well as an excuse to avoid the turn. “You must practice it over and over until you have no fear.”
Connie and Veve couldn’t keep from feeling sorry for the little circus girl. They didn’t blame her a bit for being afraid to try the somersault.
Eva rode her horse at a prancing trot around the sawdust ring. Behind her came another white horse without a rider. However, its gait was even and the animal knew exactly what to do without being guided.
At a signal from her father. Eva stood up on her mount. Then at exactly the right moment, she turned a quick somersault in the air, landing on the broad back of the second horse.
“Well done, Eva!” praised her father.
Then to the surprise of Connie and Veve, he made the little girl do the somersault several times more. Once Eva slipped and would have fallen had not her father caught and held her.
“Now you may rest for a few minutes,” he told his daughter at last.
Eva went over and sat down beside Connie and Veve.
“Must you always work so hard?” asked Connie.