Part 20 (2/2)
”Oh, I guess it's perfectly safe,” remarked Joe, sleepily.
The excitement caused by the derailing was soon forgotten. Circus men are used to strenuous happenings. They live in the midst of excitement, and a little, more or less, does not bother them. Most of them slept even through the work of getting the train back on the rails.
Of course the circus was late in getting in--that is the derailed train with its quota of performers was. Early in the morning, when they should have been on the siding near the grounds, the train was still puffing onward.
Joe arose, got a cup of coffee in the buffet car, and went on ahead to inquire about Helen and some of his friends in the other coach.
”Oh, I didn't mind it much,” Helen said, when Joe asked her about it.
”I felt a few b.u.mps, and I thought we had just struck a poor spot in the roadbed.”
”She hasn't any more nerves than you have, Joe Strong,” declared Mrs.
Talfo, ”the fat lady.”
”Did you mind it much?” Joe asked.
”Did I? Say, young man, it's a good thing I had a lower berth. I rolled out, and if I had fallen on anybody--well, there might have been a worse wreck! Fortunately no one was under me when I tumbled,” and Mrs. Talfo chuckled.
”And you weren't hurt?” asked Joe.
The fat lady laughed. Her sides shook ”like a bowlful of jelly,” as the nursery rhyme used to state.
”It takes more than a fall to hurt me,” said Mrs. Talfo. ”I'm too well padded. But we're going to get in very late,” she went on with a look at her watch. ”The performers should be at breakfast at this time, to be ready for the street parade.”
”We may have to omit the parade,” said Joe.
”I wouldn't care,” declared the fat lady with a sigh. ”It does jolt me something terrible to ride over cobble streets, and they never will let me stay out.”
”You're quite an attraction,” said Joe, with a smile.
”Oh, yes, it's all right to talk about it,” sighed Mrs. Talfo, ”but I guess there aren't many of you who would want to tip the scales at five hundred and eighty pounds--advertised weight, of course,” she added, with a smile. ”It's no joke--especially in hot weather.”
The performers made merry over the accident now, and speculated as to what might happen to the show. Their train carried a goodly number of the ”artists,” as they were called on the bills, and without them a successful and complete show could not be given.
”We may even have to omit the afternoon session,” Joe stated.
”Who said so?” Helen demanded.
”Mr. Tracy.”
”Well, it's better to lose that than to have the whole show wrecked,”
said the snake charmer. ”I remember being in a circus wreck once, and I never want to see another.”
”Did any of the animals get loose?” asked Joe.
”I should say they did! We lost a lion and a tiger, and for weeks afterward we had to keep men out hunting for the creatures, which the excited farmers said were taking calves and lambs. No indeed! I don't want any more circus wrecks. This one was near enough.”
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