The Adventures of a Boy Reporter | Page 3

from long experience in the kitchen with his mother.
Some potatoes were fried in the grease remaining in the skillet after the
eggs were cooked, and then the feast began. The eggs may have been
rather black with grease, and the potatoes were certainly not done, but
the boys all pronounced it the finest meal of their lives, notwithstanding
the bitter coffee, and the dirty bread, which had been allowed to fall
into the gutter beside the railway track. They were eating in their own
house, and they had cooked in the open air, "just like tramps," Harry
Rafe said, and it was little wonder that they enjoyed the novel
experience.
The only trouble came when the meal was finished. No one wanted to
wash the dishes, and, finally, it was decided to return them to their
respective kitchens just as they were, and to let them be washed with
the rest of the dinner dishes at home. And this decision came near
putting an end to Hut Club dinners, for both Mrs. Dunn and the Widow
Sullivan were determined not to wash any more dirty dishes from the
hut.
When the meal was over, the boys lounged about the hut, and Dan
Sullivan brought a lot of things from his sister's playhouse with which
to furnish it more suitably. Archie Dunn brought a lot of hay from the
loft in his mother's barn, and when a piece of old carpet was spread

upon it it made an acceptable couch. A piece of old carpet was laid in
front of the hut, too, where the boys could sit and watch the trains
switching back and forth on the railway, and the tramps who were
heating coffee in cans over by the cattle-pen.
Finally, some cattle arrived in the pen to be loaded into cars for the city,
and the boys had just decided to go and watch the men loading them,
when an engine came up the side-track with the most beautiful car they
had ever seen, behind it. The car was painted in all colours of the
rainbow, and in giant letters was printed the magic name of "The
World's Greatest Show."
The boys lost no time in getting down from the cattle-pen fence, and
the car had barely stopped when they were aboard. "Hooray," shouted
Charlie Huffman, "we'll all get jobs of passin' bills." And it was with
this end in view that they sought the advertising manager in the car,
who promised to give them all jobs when the circus came in two weeks.
The boys deluged him with questions of every sort. "Will there be any
elephants?" "Is there goin' to be a parade?" and "Will there be any
trapeze performances?" The poor man was finally obliged to lock the
door to keep them out, and the boys stood about the car until nearly six
o'clock, admiring the paintings, and speculating as to whether they
would be able to work their way into the circus or not, when it finally
came. Their speculations were interrupted by the appearance on the
scene of the Widow Sullivan with a good-sized maple switch, which
she used to good effect in getting the two Sullivans and Archie Dunn
home for supper. For Mrs. Dunn had given Mrs. Sullivan instructions
before she started, so that when Archie complained that he had been
whipped by "that woman next door," he received no sympathy
whatever.
And when he went to bed at nine o'clock, he could hardly sleep for
thinking of the wonderful things which had happened this day. The
coming circus and the great Hut Club kept him awake until far after ten,
so that he got up too late for Sunday school the next morning, and was
punished accordingly.
The next week was a hard one at school, and the boys had but little
time to devote to the club. But after four o'clock in the afternoon they
sometimes got together and did various things which improved their
club-house. Some very fair chairs were constructed from empty soap

boxes, and various contrivances were put together to guard against the
intrusion of any East Siders or tramps while they were away at school.
There was no padlock used, and any one coming up to the hut would
imagine it a simple thing to enter-- until he tried. But the boys had
fixed a secret cord which, when pulled, shifted the bar inside, and every
boy was sworn not to betray the existence of the cord.
The day set for the circus came nearer and nearer, and the boys began
to be anxious for fear the schools would not close, so that they could
attend. But the superintendent finally announced that they would; so
early on the eventful day the entire club was on the