Part 14 (1/2)

Finally, in his despair, he stammered out,

”Don't you think you could find another boy in this town, Mr. Lord?”

Mr. Lord moved round sideways, in order to bring his crooked eye to bear squarely on Toby, and then there was a long interval of silence, during which time the boy's color rapidly came and went, and his heart beat very fast with suspense and fear.

”Well, what if I could?” he said at length. ”Do you think that trade is so good I could afford to keep two boys, when there isn't half work enough for one?”

Toby stirred the lemonade with renewed activity, as if by this process he was making both it and his courage stronger, and said, in a low voice, which Mr. Lord could scarcely hear,

”I didn't think that; but you see I ought to go home, for Uncle Dan'l will worry about me; an', besides, I don't like a circus very well.”

Again there was silence on Mr. Lord's part, and again the crooked eye glowered down on Toby.

”So,” he said--and Toby could see that his anger was rising very fast--”you don't like a circus very well, an' you begin to think that your uncle Daniel will worry about you, eh? Well, I want you to understand that it don't make any difference to me whether you like a circus or not, and I don't care how much your uncle Daniel worries. You mean that you want to get away from me, after I've been to all the trouble and expense of teaching you the business?”

Toby bent his head over the pail, and stirred away as if for dear life.

”If you think you're going to get away from here until you've paid me for all you've eat, an' all the time I've spent on you, you're mistaken, that's all. You've had an easy time with me--too easy, in fact--and that's what ails you. Now, you just let me hear two words more out of your head about going away--only two more--an' I'll show you what a whipping is. I've only been playing with you before when you thought you was getting a whipping; but you'll find out what it means if I so much as see a thought in your eyes about goin' away. An' don't you dare to try to give me the slip in the night an' run away; for if you do I'll follow you, an' have you arrested. Now, you mind your eye in the future.”

It is impossible to say how much longer Mr. Lord might have continued this tirade, had not a member of the company--one of the princ.i.p.al riders--called him one side to speak with him.

Poor Toby was so much confused by the angry words which had followed his very natural and certainly very reasonable suggestion that he paid no attention to anything around him, until he heard his own name mentioned; and then, fearing lest some new misfortune was about to befall him, he listened intently.

”I'm afraid you couldn't do much of anything with him,” he heard Mr.

Lord say. ”He's had enough of this kind of life already, so he says, an'

I expect the next thing he does will be to try to run away.”

”I'll risk his getting away from you, Job,” he heard the other say; ”but of course I've got to take my chances. I'll take him in hand from eleven to twelve each day--just your slack time of trade--and I'll not only give you half of what he can earn in the next two years, but I'll pay you for his time, if he gives us the slip before the season is out.”

Toby knew that they were speaking of him, but what it all meant he could not imagine.

”What are you going to do with him first?” Job asked.

”Just put him right into the ring, and teach him what riding is. I tell you, Job, the boy's smart enough, and before the season's over I'll have him so that he can do some of the bare-back acts, and perhaps we'll get some money out of him before we go into winter-quarters.”

Toby understood the meaning of their conversation only too well, and he knew that his lot, which before seemed harder than he could bear, was about to be intensified through this Mr. Castle, of whom he had frequently heard, and who was said to be a rival of Mr. Lord's, so far as brutality went. The two men now walked toward the large tent, and Toby was left alone with his thoughts and the two or three little boy customers, who looked at him wonderingly, and envied him because he belonged to the circus.

During the ride that night he told Old Ben what he had heard, confidently expecting that that friend at least would console him; but Ben was not the champion which he had expected. The old man, who had been with a circus, ”man and boy, nigh to forty years,” did not seem to think it any calamity that he was to be taught to ride.

”That Mr. Castle is a little rough on boys,” Old Ben said, thoughtfully; ”but it'll be a good thing for you, Toby. Just so long as you stay with Job Lord you won't be nothin' more'n a candy-boy; but after you know how to ride it'll be another thing, an' you can earn a good deal of money, an' be your own boss.”

”But I don't want to stay with the circus,” whined Toby; ”I don't want to learn to ride, an' I do want to get back to Uncle Dan'l.”

”That may all be true, an' I don't dispute it,” said Ben; ”but you see you didn't stay with your uncle Daniel when you had the chance, an' you did come with the circus. You've told Job you wanted to leave, an' he'll be watchin' you all the time to see that you don't give him the slip.

Now, what's the consequence? Why, you can't get away for a while, anyhow, an' you'd better try to amount to something while you are here.

Perhaps after you've got so you can ride you may want to stay; an' I'll see to it that you get all of your wages, except enough to pay Castle for learnin' of you.”