Part 15 (2/2)

The proprietor of the circus took considerable interest in Toby's instruction, and promised Mr. Castle that Mademoiselle Jeannette and Toby should do an act together in the performance just as soon as the latter was sufficiently advanced. The boy's costume had been changed after he could ride without falling off, and now while he was in the ring he wore the same as that used by the regular performers.

The little girl had, after it was announced that she and Toby were to perform together, been an attentive observer during the hour that Toby was under Mr. Castle's direction, and she gave him many suggestions that were far more valuable, and quicker to be acted upon, than those given by the teacher himself.

”To-morrow you two will go through the exercise together,” said Mr.

Castle to Toby and Ella, at the close of one of Toby's lessons, after he had become so skilful that he could stand with ease on the pad, and even advanced so far that he could jump through a hoop without falling more than twice out of three times.

The little girl appeared highly delighted by this information, and expressed her joy.

”It will be real nice,” she said to Toby, after Mr. Castle had left them alone. ”I can help you lots, and it won't be very long before we can do an act all by ourselves in the performance, and then won't the people clap their hands when we come in!”

”It'll be better for you to-morrow than it will for me,” said Toby, rubbing his legs sorrowfully, still feeling the sting of the whip. ”You see Mr. Castle won't dare to whip you, an' he'll make it all count on me, 'cause he knows Mr. Lord likes to have him whip me.”

”But I sha'n't make any mistake,” said Ella, confidently, ”and so you won't have to be whipped on my account; and while I am on the horse you can't be whipped, for he couldn't do it without whipping me, so you see you won't get only half as much.”

Toby brightened up a little under the influence of this argument; but his countenance fell again as he thought that his chances for getting away from the circus were growing less each day.

”You see I want to get back to Uncle Dan'l an' Guilford,” he said, confidentially; ”I don't want to stay here a single minute.”

Ella opened her eyes in wide astonishment as she cried, ”Don't want to stay here? Why don't you go home, then?”

”'Cause Job Lord won't let me,” said Toby, wondering if it was possible that his little companion did not know exactly what sort of a man his master was.

Then he told her--after making her give him all kinds of promises, including the ceremony of crossing her throat, that she would never tell a single soul--that he had had many thoughts, and had formed all kinds of plans for running away. He told her about losing his money, about his friends.h.i.+p for the skeleton and the fat lady, and at last he confided in her that he was intending to take the old monkey with him when he should make the attempt.

She listened with the closest attention, and when he told her that his little h.o.a.rd had now reached the sum of seven dollars and ten cents--almost as much as he had before--she said, eagerly, ”I've got three little gold dollars in my trunk, an' you shall have them all; they're my very own, for mamma gave them to me to do just what I wanted to with them. But I don't see how you can take Mr. Stubbs with you, for that would be stealing.”

”No, it wouldn't, neither,” said Toby, stoutly. ”Wasn't he give to me to do just as I wanted to with? an' didn't the boss say he was all mine?”

”Oh, I'd forgotten that,” said Ella, thoughtfully. ”I suppose you can take him; but he'll be awfully in the way, won't he?”

”No,” said Toby, anxious to say a good word for his pet; ”he always does just as I want him to, an' when I tell him what I'm tryin' to do he'll be as good as anything. But I can't take your dollars.”

”Why not?”

”'Cause that wouldn't be right for a boy to let a girl littler than himself help him; I'll wait till I get money enough of my own, an' then I'll go.”

”But I want you to take my money too; I want you to have it.”

”No, I can't take it,” said Toby, shaking his head resolutely as he put the golden temptation from him; and then, as a happy thought occurred to him, he said, quickly, ”I tell you what to do with your dollars: you keep them till you grow up to be a woman, an' when I'm a man I'll come, an' then we'll buy a circus of our own. I think, perhaps, I'd like to be with a circus if I owned one myself. We'll have lots of money then, an'

we can do just what we want to.”

This idea seemed to please the little girl, and the two began to lay all sorts of plans for that time when they should be man and woman, have lots of money, and be able to do just as they wanted to.

They had been sitting on the edge of the newly-made ring while they were talking, and before they had half-finished making plans for the future one of the attendants came in to put things to order, and they were obliged to leave their seats, she going to the hotel to get ready for the afternoon's performance, and Toby to try to do such work as Mr. Job Lord had laid out for him.

Just ten weeks from the time Toby had first joined the circus Mr. Castle informed him and Ella that they were to appear in public on the following day. They had been practising daily, and Toby had become so skilful that both Mr. Castle and Mr. Lord saw that the time had come when he could be made to earn some money for them.

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