Part 11 (2/2)
”Well, it won't hurt Teddy to be funny. Do something funny, Teddy.”
Teddy looked up soulfully as he munched a cookie.
”Costs money to see me act funny,” he said.
”Go on; go on!” urged the boys. ”You never showed us any of your tricks except what you did in the ring this evening.”
”Do you know, it's a funny thing, but I never can be funny unless there is a crop of new-mown sawdust under my feet,”
remarked Teddy.
”Nothing very funny about that!” growled a voice at the further end of the table.
Teddy fixed him with a reproving eye.
”Very well, but you'll be sorry. I will now present to you the giddiest, gladdest, gayest, grandest, gyrating, glamorous and glittering galaxy--as the press agent says--that ever happened.”
Teddy, who sat at the extreme end of the table, placed both hands carelessly on the table, then drew his body up by slow degrees, until a moment later as his body seemed to unfold, he was doing a hand stand right on the end of the supper table.
The boys shouted with delight and Teddy kicked his feet in the air.
”Go on! Don't stop,” urged the lads.
”You'll be wis.h.i.+ng I had stopped before I began,” retorted the lad, starting to walk on his hands right down the center of the table.
There were dishes in the way, but this did not disturb Tucker in the least. He merely pushed them aside, some rolling off on the floor and breaking, others falling into the laps of the boys.
”Here, here, what are you doing?” called Phil.
”This is what I call the topsy-turvy walk.”
Teddy paused when halfway down the table, to let his mouth down to the table, where he had espied another cookie. When he pulled himself up, the cookie was between his lips, and the boys roared at the ludicrous sight.
Then, the lad who was walking on his hands, continued right on.
He was nearing the foot of the table when something occurred that changed the current of their thoughts, sending the heart of every boy pounding in his throat.
Cras.h.!.+
It seemed as if the roof had been suddenly hurled down upon their heads.
Teddy instantly fell off the table, tumbling into the laps of two of the boys, the three going down to the floor in a heap, finally rolling under the table. The other boys sprang to their feet in sudden alarm.
”It's a band,” cried Phil. ”Don't be afraid.”
Then the circus band, that had been waiting in the hall just outside the dining place, marched in with horns blaring, drums beating, and took up their position at the far end of the room.
”It's the circus band,” cried the lads, now recovering from their fright. ”How did they get here?”
By this time Teddy, his face red and resentful, was poking his head from beneath the table.
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