Part 29 (2/2)
”Oh, yes. I have done a good deal of it,” answered Kit.
”I thought so, as you are a country boy. How would you like to drive a span of horses attached to one of the small chariots?”
Kit was extremely fond of a horse, and he answered promptly, ”I'll do it.”
”There are two. The other is driven by Charlie Davis, once a performer but now a ticket man. He is a little older than you.”
”All right! I don't see how I came to sleep so late.”
”You and Charlie are good matches. Once he went to bed Sat.u.r.day night, and did not wake up till Monday morning.”
”That beats my record!”
Kit was dressed in less than ten minutes.
”Where shall I get breakfast?” he asked.
”The regular breakfast is over, and you will have to buy some. There is a restaurant just opposite the lot. You might get in with one of the cooks, and get something in the cook tent.”
”No; I'll go to the restaurant. To-morrow I'll be on hand at the regular breakfast.”
The restaurant was a small one, with no pretensions to style, but Kit was hungry and not particular. At the same table there was a dark complexioned boy of about his own size, who had just begun to dispatch a beefsteak.
He looked up as Kit seated himself.
”You're the new acrobat, are you not?” asked the other.
”Yes; are you Charlie Davis?”
”Yes; how do you know me?”
”Harry Thorne was speaking of you.”
”I see you're one of the late birds as well as I. I generally have to buy my breakfast outside. How do you like circus life?”
”I haven't tried it well enough to tell. This is only my second day.”
”I went into it at fourteen. I've been an acrobat, too, but I have a weak ankle, and have gone into the ticket department.”
”Are you going to remain in the circus permanently?”
”No, I'm trying to wean myself from it. A friend has promised to set me up in business whenever I get ready to retire. If I kept on, I would be no better off at forty than I am now.”
”Yet circus people make a good deal of money, I hear.”
”Right you are, my boy, but they don't keep it. They get spoiled for anything else, and soon or later they are left out in the cold. I've had a good deal of fun out of it, for I like traveling, but I'm going to give it up.”
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