The Circus Comes to Town | Page 4

only name that he was
known by outside of the classroom and his own home.
He had fights innumerable trying to stop the boys calling him by that
name, but it persisted until at length he came to accept it. You could
call him "Darn" or shout "Oh, Darn!" and nothing would happen, but if,
in your excitement, you grew too emphatic and said "Darn!" or "Oh,
Darn!" you might have to run for the nearest refuge, or take a
pummeling from his fists.
So now Jerry answered very politely. "It looks good," he said.
"Is the circus coming?" asked Danny.
"Of course it is. What do you suppose they've put up the posters for?"
"It don't say so here," said Nora. "All it says is--"
Darn interrupted. "Where've you kids been? That old poster has been
up for a week. Two new ones were pasted up to-day--one at Jenkins'
corner and the other on Jeffreys' barn. It's Burrows and Fairchild's
mammoth circus and menagerie and it's coming a week from
Thursday."
"Are you going, Darn?" asked Danny.
"Am I going?" repeated that youth. "I should say I am going--in a box
seat."
"Is it a big circus?" asked Chris.
"It's one of the biggest there is," replied Darn, "with elephants and
clowns and a bearded lady and everything. I'll tell you all about it the
next day."
Without more ado, he began to whistle and continued on his way.
When he was out of sight, Jerry turned back to the billboard, and the

Mullarkey children lined up at his side and stood in silent
contemplation of the delights forecast in the picture. They felt a new
respect for that elephant.
"I don't suppose we can go," said Chris at length in a voice that invited
contradiction. His remark was met by silence and they continued to
stare at the elephant.
Jerry was puzzled. "What does it want you to ask your mother for fifty
cents for?" he asked Danny.
"To buy a ticket for the circus, of course."
"Will she give you fifty cents?"
Danny seemed struck by some sudden thought; whether or not his
question had inspired it Jerry was unable to tell. After pondering for a
time, Danny set out towards home on a run without having answered
the question.
"Where're you goin'?" asked Chris, with a tinge of suspicion in his
voice.
"I'm goin' to ask mother and see."
"That's no fair!" cried Chris. "You can run the fastest and 'll get to ask
her first."
"She can't give fifty cents to all of us," replied Danny and kept on
running.
"Danny Mullarkey! You're a mean old thing!" called Nora.
Already Chris was racing after Danny; the contagion soon spread and
first Nora and then Celia Jane were running with all their might after
their brothers.
Jerry started to run after them, but it was a half-hearted run and he
brought up a very laggard rear. He never tried to get anything for

himself that the clannish Mullarkey brood had in their possession, or to
which they could with any shred of justice lay claim. If he did, he knew
by experience that they would all unite against him--all except Mother
'Larkey, who, trying to earn money to support them all, could not
always know what was going on under her tired, kindly eyes, much less
the things that took place behind her back. And baby Kathleen, who
was too little to feel the claims of the Mullarkey blood and who loved
everybody.
But Jerry was sure he had never seen a circus and he did want to go to
this one and see the elephant jump the fence. He felt very friendly to
that elephant and well acquainted with it. The roguish look in its eyes,
in the picture, made it seem a very nice sort of elephant and he knew he
would like it.
But he also knew that Mother 'Larkey found it very hard to make both
ends meet since her husband died--he had often heard her say so--but
there might be a possible chance that she would have several fifty-cent
pieces, so he started again to run after the other children, keeping close
enough to be in time if Mrs. Mullarkey should happen to be distributing
fifty-cent pieces among her brood and there should happen to be an
extra one for him. Even though she were not his mother, she might give
it to him, she had already done so many things for him.
CHAPTER II
THE BLACK HALF-DOLLAR
Jerry's progress was brought to a sudden halt and he was sent sprawling
to the ground by running full tilt into a man who tried to turn the same
corner at the same time Jerry did, but from the opposite direction. The
impact was so