"I will be on my guard, but I won't worry myself about it."
They came to an open field, where half a dozen boys were engaged in athletic sports. There was soon to be a picnic, and prizes had been offered for the best running, leaping and vaulting, and these boys were engaged in practising for the grand contest.
"Let us stop and look at them," said Charlie.
"Very well," answered his friend.
So they took up a position about fifty feet away and regarded the contestants with interest.
Their presence was noticed by the boys, who at once recognized them as circus riders.
"Let us invite them to join us," said Frank Perry, a boy of sixteen.
"Yes," chimed in several others.
"I object," said Ronald Percy, stiffly. "My father wouldn't care to have me associate with circus performers."
Ronald was the son of a rich manufacturer, and was generally considered snobbish by his companions. At any rate he presumed greatly upon his "blue blood" and his father's wealth, and attempted to be very exclusive. It certainly was nothing to the discredit of his father that he had worked his way up to his present position from the position of a poor factory boy, but it might have led Ronald to reflect upon the folly of his personal pretensions. But his mother claimed to be of "genteel" family, and had imbued the boy with her own notions.