Part 7 (2/2)
”That's the way people used to dress hundreds and hundreds of years ago.
Don't you remember the picture of Ben Hur in the chariot race? Letty's dressed like that and she's driving a sort of chariot, too.”
”Poor kind of a thing to ride in, I think. You can't sit down,”
commented Christopher. ”I like the little carriage better that she used to drive.”
The heavy, closed wagons, painted red and gold, that are used to carry the tents and luggage of a circus, now appeared in line. Upon the top of every third or fourth wagon stood comic figures, men dressed in false heads of exaggerated size, who nodded and danced and performed antics to make the crowds laugh. A painted clown in a donkey cart, and a calliope (so necessary to every circus parade) brought up the rear of the procession. The calliope was playing ”Wait till the Clouds Roll by, Jennie” in a loud squawk, and the people along the street whistled the tune as they shouted and exchanged jokes with the clown. It was not at all an appropriate tune, for there was not a cloud in the sky. Indeed, the light was almost too bright, for it revealed mercilessly all the bare spots on the wagons where the scarlet paint and gilt had peeled off; and it shone pitilessly upon the shabby trappings of the horses and upon the anxious, tired faces of the performers. But the crowd was neither particular nor critical and after cheering and whistling the procession out of sight, it scattered gayly to hunt up families and lunch baskets.
”Now then,” exclaimed Jane with great satisfaction, ”we shall see Letty again,” and she tucked her hand into her grandmother's.
The circus tents were pitched in a wide field just outside the town and grandfather selected the adjoining field, under a clump of trees and beside a brook, for the picnic dinner. While Josh and Huldah were unpacking the hampers Mr. and Mrs. Baker, with the twins, crossed to where the circus people were grouped. The troupe had reached Hammersmith rather late in the morning, only just in time to form for their parade, so that the tents were just now being put up.
While grandfather went in search of the manager, grandmother and the children stood watching this ceremony of tent pitching with absorbed interest. Men ran here and there with coils of rope and long stakes which they drove into the ground and then stood in a circle around a broad sheet of canvas that lay spread on the ground. At a given word the men tugged at their ropes and slowly a mountain of dingy yellow white rose in their midst. It swelled and swayed and flapped and then took shape. More tugging of ropes, more shouting, the last securing hammer on a stake or two and lo, the circus tent was raised!
A second tent was erected over the animal wagons and vans which had been arranged in a half circle and the horses removed. Then smaller tents were put up and painted signs hung out to advertise different side-shows.
”Where do you suppose all the queer people of the side-shows were while the percession was going on? The bearded woman, the armless man and all those?” whispered Jane to her brother.
”I don't know. Maybe they were shut up inside of some of those closed wagons.”
”Oh, I should think that would be lots of fun,” laughed Jane. ”Making people think you were some kind of a wild animal when really you were something lots more wonderful.”
Presently grandfather reappeared, followed by Mr. Drake and Letty. Mrs.
Drake joined them, carrying her baby, who insisted upon Letty's taking him at once, and chuckling with delight in her arms.
”So you are the little girl who saved my precious grandchildren from the dreadful bear?” said grandmother kindly, holding out her hand to Letty.
”I am very glad to see you at last, to thank you for your brave act.”
”Oh,” replied Letty, with a catch in her voice, ”it seems like another life when I did that. It happened so long ago and so much else has happened since. I was very happy then,” and the tears she could not control filled her sad brown eyes.
Jane looked at her in distress.
”Don't cry, Letty,” she whispered, drawing her aside. ”You never used to cry. Aren't they kind to you?”
”Oh, yes,” exclaimed Letty, drying her eyes quickly, as she saw Mrs.
Drake approaching, ”they are very kind to me. But I-I don't like being in a circus.”
”Poor little girl,” murmured grandmother sympathetically.
Then Mrs. Drake joined them and grandfather went away with the manager to buy tickets for the performance and then to look at a group of work horses tied to stakes at the back of one of the smaller tents.
”May we see Punch and Judy?” asked Jane.
”Would I have time before dinner?” Letty inquired wistfully of Mrs.
Drake.
Mrs. Drake saw how eager Letty was to go with the children and good-naturedly gave her consent, taking the heavy, unwilling baby again into her own arms. The children ran off, leaving the two women standing talking together.
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