Bolton was the town where the hospital was—the town they had just left. It would be easy to get to Bolton to the show.
“‘I’LL GIVE YOU TWENTY DOLLARS FOR THE PARROT.’”
Twenty dollars might be a small price for the parrot, but the secret of being a Wild Man and the chance to ride on a buffalo were extras that a boy could not easily resist! The parrot changed hands, and so did two ten-dollar bills. And the man gave Sonny Boy his address so that he might find him when the show came to Bolton.
“Aren’t you stuck up? Scat!” screamed Polly after Sonny Boy, by way of good-bye, when they parted at the city station.
Sonny Boy was very penitent when he found, on reaching home, that his absence had made Aunt Kate very anxious. She said a dreadful thing; she said that she never could trust Sonny Boy again!
But Sonny Boy knew she would find out that he wasn’t the kind of a boy that runs away. He thought it was enough to make any boy lose his mind to change his white mice for that parrot!
Aunt Kate thought that twenty dollars was a plenty for the parrot! She said she would see about the extras. She didn’t seem to understand the advantages of learning to be a Wild Man or of riding on a buffalo.