Boy Life

PRETTY NEAR RUNNIN

ening; it was so hot nobody could stay in the house, and just as they were coming to the front steps Pony stole up behind them and tossed a snowball which he had got out of the garden at his mother

as a bat!" she said, and she broke out crying and ran into the house, and woul

ark and expecting that she would come to him, as she always did, to have him say that he was sorry when he had been wicked, or to tell him that she was sorry when she thought she had not been quite fair with him.

ce to touch me again!" For he had made up his mind to r

his bed a moment, went away without saying anything but "Don't forge

ther and mother and sisters in one of the lower seats. They would not know him, but he would know them, and he would send for them to come to the dressing-room, and would be very good to

AND STIFF WITH HER T

breakfast with unsalted butter, and tried to pet him up. That whole day she kept trying to do things for him, but he would scarce

twitched away from where she was sitting

st night, Pony?"

disgusted with her for being such a hypocrite, but he had to

your snowball hit me, I felt sure it was a bat, and I'm so afraid of bats, you know. I

ame back with the circus. But still he meant to run off with the circus. He did not see how he could do anything else, for he had told all the boys that day that he was going to do it; and when they just laughed,

as the greatest thing of all. It was a chariot drawn by twelve Shetland ponies, and it was shaped like a big shell, and around in the bottom of the shell there were little circus actors, boys and girls, dressed in their circus clothes, and they all looked exactly like fairies. They scarce seemed to see the fellows,

lows did not believe it, and wanted to know how he knew it; and he said he read it in a paper; after that nobody could deny it. But he said that if you went with the circus men of

s came. He asked Jim Leonard whether the circus men made all the children drink burnt brandy; and Archy Hawkins and Hen Billard heard him ask, and began to mock him. They took him up between them, one by his arms and the other by the legs, a

let him alone, unless you were going to whip him, and the fellows only wanted to have a little fun wit

him in, anyway; but Jim Leonard said it was the only way to get acquainted with the circus men. Still, Pony was afraid to speak to them, and he would not have said a word

id to Pony. "If you ever fell int

s; and all the fellows said he was the one who guarded the outside of the te

but Jim Leonard was just behind him with another bucket of wa

hem. "Wants to go with the circus, heigh? Let's have a look at you." He took Pony by the shoulders and

odded; perhaps he did not know what to say, eith

man looked at Pony, and Pon

at you could scarcely hear

e want to have his parents living, so that we

g way that Pony took courage to ask him whet

at

ep me

into the top of his hat before he put it on again. "No, I don't know as we will. We're rather short of giant

d then the circus man said perhaps he would rather go for an India-ru

ould make you do if you'd let us take you apart with a screw-driver and limber up the pieces with rattlesnake oil. Wouldn't like it,

going to leave us, and we want a new one right away. Now, there's more than one way of joining a circus, but the best way is to wait on your front

s did when he was ashamed, but he made out to

us man. "We'll be along," and he was going away

ked him wherea

ut looking around, "Oh, that's all right.

Leonard whispered to Po

RCUS M

the circus man, but Jim Leonard said, "Don't you tell, Pony Baker!" and he started to

e'll be watching out around the corner of your house, and when the procession comes along and he sees you're

s to feel him over, that way, and act so kind of pleasant and friendly, he would be too

n you; they'll be afraid to, on account of his dog. You'll see, he'll be the one to come for you

them came along he told them. They said it was splendid, and they said that if they could make their mothers let them, or if they could get

s coming for him, and he could not back out; he did not know what would happen if he did. It seemed to him as if his mother had done everything she could to make it harder for him. She had stewed chicken for dinner, with plenty of gravy, and hot biscuits to sop in, and peach preserves afterward; and she kept helping

ch out whether the circus man would say anything to him when he went in; and Jim Leonard rubbed against him, when the man passed with his dog and did not even look

er he would like to be a circus actor; and when the one came out who rode four horses bareback and stood on his head on the last horse, and drove with the reins in his teeth, Pony thought that he never could learn to do it; and if he

ony's father bought some for each of the

th you, Pony? Are you

at's all. I'm well," said Pon

his mother would ever want, and that he would tell her he had taken if she asked for it. He said it would be the very thing for Pony to carry his clothes in, for it was light and strong and would hold a lot. He helped Pony to choose his things out of his bureau draw

he should go to bed right away or pretty soon, so that nobody would think anything, and maybe he could get some sleep before he got up and went down to wait on the front steps for the circus to come along. He promised to be there with the other boys and keep the

he circus boys and he was afraid he might feel kind of lonesome. But Jim Leonard said he would soon get acquainted, and

just as well to rest a little while before the circus procession came along for him; and, anyway, he could not bear

ing, he heard his mother saying: "Where in the world is Pony? Has

, "Go out to the front steps, girls, and see if you can see him," and then he heard her coming up the stairs; and she came into

e me! Why didn't you answer me? Are you sick, Pony? Your father said you

poke very low, and his mother came up

d began to tumble his short black hair in the way she had, and she got one of his hands between her two, and kept rubbing it. "But you'v

t tired; and that was true; he felt a

lose down to his, and said very low: "Pony dear, you don't fe

threw his arms round her neck and cried; and she told him not to cry, and that she would neve

after that, "Now I lay me," just as when he was a very little fellow. After they had finished she stooped over and kissed him aga

d while down-stairs. His father came in from

p in bed. I wouldn't disturb him,

the boy. If he keeps on acting so strangely I

, and he would have given anything if he could have gone down to his father and

, and he had to button the lower buttons of his trousers to keep it on. He got his bundle and stole down to the front door without seeming to touch his feet to anything, and when he got out on the front steps he saw the circus magician coming along. By that time the music had stopped and Pony

magician should not find him, but when he felt for the door-knob there was no door there anywhere; nothing but a smooth wall. Then he sat down on the steps and tried to shrink up so littl

ncet, when Pony heard his mother calling: "Pony, Pony! What's the matter?

glad to think that by this time the circus was far away

ally going to be sick or not. When he went back most of the fellows had forgotten that he had been going to run off with

t a new tent to hold him; and that was the reason why they didn't take him. Archy Hawkins said: "How long did you have to wait on the front steps, Pony dear?" But a

it like a dream, and sometimes only part of it. Jim Leonard tried to help him make it out, but they could not. He said it was a pity he had oversl

'S HAIR-BRE

. The boys called it Jim Leonard's log-cabin, but it was really his mother's, and the stable was hers, too. It was a log stab

oldest boys had ever seen it like that, and you had to take Jim Leonard's word for it if you wanted to believe it. The little fellows nearly all did; but everybody said afterward it was a good thing for Jim Leonard that it was not that

t the old-fashioned roof would have been just like a raft, anyway, and he could have steered it right ac

u do it, with the ki

it if he could have got into the eddy that there was over by the island. If he could h

tore away pieces of orchard, and apple-trees in bloom came sailing along with logs and fence-rails and chicken-coops, and pretty soon dead cows and horses. There was a dog chained to a dog-kennel that went by, howling awfully; the boys would have given anything if they could have saved him, but the yellow river whirled him out of

per. After supper some of their mothers let them come back and stay till bedtime, if they would promise to keep a full yard back from the

r, and he had not been to school all day, which might have been the reason why he would rather stay with the men and watch the bridge than go home to supper; his mother would have been waiting for him with

t as soon as the bridge began to go, he was going to run out on it and go with it; and then they would see whether he was a liar or not! They mocked him and danced round h

, and even all the big boys had gone home except Hen Billard, when Pony left Ji

illard said: "Well, going

f their coffee, and that would keep him awake. But perhaps he thought this because he wanted some coffee so badly. He was awfully hungry, for he had not ha

he men saw Jim Leonard hanging about, and asked him what he wanted there at that time of night; and Jim could not say he wanted

some supper, or get to bed somehow with neither. He climbed softly over the back fence and crept up to the back door, but it was

of it before. The notion brightened him up so that he got the gourd that hung beside the well-curb and took it out to the

de. But he was in his bare feet, and he did not care; if he thought anything, he thought that his mother would not come out to m

n to milk her. She had been milked only a few hours before, and so he got only a gourdful from her. But it was all strippings, and rich as cream, and it was smokin

the old last year's fodder. The rich, warm milk made Jim Leonard awfully sleepy, and he dropped off almost as soon as his head touc

ight, although it was the daylight of early morning; and while he lay looking out of the stable-loft window and trying to make out what it all meant, he felt a wash of cold water along his back, and his bed of fodder melted away under him and around him, and some lo

showed him his mother's log-cabin safe on its rise of ground, and at the corner the old cow, that must have escaped through the stable door he

he company of a large gray rat, he set out on the strangest voyage a boy ever made. In a few moments the current swept him out

ir imprisoned in it above the window. But Jim Leonard was not satisfied, and so far from being proud of his adventure, he was frightened worse even than the rat which shared it. As soon as he could get his voice, he began to shout for help to the houses on the empty shores, which seeme

e were safe there on shore he should not be sleeping in bed while somebody was out i

d; or Pony Baker, that seemed to like a fellow so much? He began to call for them by name: "Hen Billa

d try to save him; and Jim Leonard began to yell: "O Mr. Baker! Look here, Mr. Baker! It's Jim Leonard, and I'm fl

hed through them. Jim Leonard was glad of anything that would stop the roof, and at first he thought he would get off on the tree. That was what the rat did. Perhaps the rat thought Jim Leonard really was crazy and he had better let him have the roof to himself; but the rat saw that he had made a mistake, and he jumped back again after he had

nightcap on, to see what the matter was. Jim Leonard caught sight of her, and he

Hen Billard, and you layin' there sleepin' and not helpin' a bit! Somebody's ou

n bareheaded over to the bank, and when Jim Leonard saw him coming he holloed ten times as

began to yell, too, and to say: "How did you get there? Fire, fire, fire! What are you on? Fire! Are

ouses. The river was almost up to the top of the bank, and it looked a mile wide.

" Then boys came out of their houses; and then men with no hats on; and then women and girls, with their hair half down. The fire-bells began to ring, and in

up his mind to save the rat, too, and pet it, and maybe go around and exhibit it. He would name it Bolivar; it was just the color of the elephant

ow back to land again without ever getting anywhere near him. At the same time, the tree-top where his roof was caught was pulled southward by a sudden rush of the torrent; it opened, and the

atch driftwood with and drag it ashore. When the people saw Blue Bob with that pole in his hand, they understood what he was up to. He was going to wait till the water brought the roof with Jim Leonard on it down to the bridge, and then catch the hook into the shingles and pull it up to the pier.

ust shaved his face looked perfectly blue. He knew all about the river and its ways, and if it had been of any use to go out with a boat, he would have gone. That was what al

d's roof slipped by Blue Bob's guard and passed under the bridge,

imes faster, just as it got into an eddy or into the current; once it seeme

ready to make a clutch at the roof, whichever side it took. Jim Leonard saw him there, but although he had been holloing

elt it quiver and stop, and then it gave a loud crack and went to pieces, and flung itself away upon the whirling and dancing flood. At first Jim Leonard thought he had gone with it

many people said there never was any rat on the roof w

eral days; he told Pony Baker that he did

ve been the kind of rat that people see when they have been drinking too much,

up a regular election cheer, and they would have believed anything Jim Leonard said. They all agreed that Blue Bob had a

the worst. She did not seem to understand exactly, and she kept round getting breakfast, with her old clay pipe in her mouth; but when she got it through he

and trying to make her believe that it was all for the best, when Blue Bob came up through

und there before her. She gave him a look that made him slip round behind Blue Bob, and she

w-barn when he's got a decent bed in the house!"