The music struck up, the horses cantered around the ring, and Toby had really started as a circus rider.
"Remember," said Ella to him, in a low tone, just as the horses started, "you told me that you would ride just as well as you could, and we must earn the dollars mamma promised."
It seemed to Toby at first as if he could not stand up; but by the time they had ridden around the ring once, and Ella had cautioned him again against making any mistake, for the sake of the money which they were going to earn, he was calm and collected enough to carry out his part of the programme quite as well as if he had been simply taking a lesson.
The act consisted in their riding side by side, jumping over banners and through hoops covered with paper, and then the most difficult portion of their act began.
The saddles were taken off the horses, and they were to ride first on one horse and then on the other, until they concluded their performance by riding twice around the ring side by side, standing on their horses, each one with a hand on the other's shoulder.
All this was successfully accomplished without a single error, and when they rode out of the ring, the applause was so great as to leave no doubt but that they would be recalled, and thus earn the promised money.
In fact, they had hardly got inside the curtain when one of the attendants called to them, and before they had time even to speak to each other they were in the ring again, repeating the last portion of their act.
When they came out of the ring for the second time, they found old Ben, the skeleton, the fat lady, and Mr. Job Lord waiting to welcome them; but before any one could say a word, Ella had stood on tiptoe again, and given Toby just such another kiss as she did when he told her that he would surely stay long enough to appear in the ring with her once.
"That's because you rode so well, and helped me so much," she said, as she saw Toby's cheeks growing a fiery red; and then she turned to those who were waiting to greet her.
Mrs. Treat took her in her enormous arms, and having kissed her, put her down quickly, and clasped Toby as if he had been a very small walnut, and her arms a very large pair of nut-crackers.