The Circus Comes to Town | Page 8

Jerry fished a cough drop out of his pocket and
gave it to Kathleen. She smiled in delight at sight of it and at once

popped it into her mouth, cooing at Jerry.
"Mother, why didn't you make Jerry help pick gooseberries?" asked
Danny, as soon as he entered and caught sight of Jerry.
"He can't have any pie, can he, Mother?" said Celia Jane.
"Why, he was out with you," replied Mrs. Mullarkey. "He just this
minute came in."
"He wasn't near the gooseberry patch," Danny informed her.
"He didn't pick a single gooseberry," Celia Jane interpolated.
"Nora," appealed their mother, "you always tell the truth. Didn't Jerry
help you?"
"I didn't see him, Mother. Ask Jerry."
"Did you help them, Jerry? Not that it makes any difference; you'll get
just as big a piece of pie as any of them."
"No'm, I didn't," replied Jerry. His lips parted again as though he
wanted to say more but closed without a word.
"You're such a willing worker, I thought Danny was just trying to get
even for something," said Mother 'Larkey.
"Where'd you go, Jerry?" asked Chris.
"Yah! Tell us that," demanded Danny.
"I just thought I'd run over to the drug store," replied Jerry.
"What did you want to go there for?"
Jerry said nothing.
"I bet he found a penny and bought himself some candy," cried Celia

Jane, falling into the habit that many older people have of judging
others by themselves.
"Tandy," said Kathleen, struck by that word, and she pulled the
remnant of the cough drop out of her mouth and displayed it proudly.
"Jerry, you ate all the rest yourself!" accused Celia Jane. "Greedy,
greedy, greedy!"
"Oh, did um buy some tandy for um's 'ittle Tatleen?" mocked Danny.
"I want some," said Celia Jane. "Mother, make Jerry give me some
candy."
"It was cough drops for Kathleen," said Jerry.
"Where'd you get the money?" Danny demanded sharply.
"Found it after you ran home first to ask for fifty cents to see the
circus," Jerry explained.
"Gee, I never find nothing!" ejaculated Danny. "How much was it?"
Jerry did not reply immediately and Celia Jane, watching him sharply,
was at once full cry right on his trail.
"I bet it was a whole lot more'n five cents an' he bought something for
himself. How much did you find, Jerry?"
"It was half a dollar," Jerry stated, thus brought to bay.
"Half a dollar!" exclaimed Danny and Chris.
"Why, that's fifty cents!" Celia Jane cried.
"Enough to buy a ticket to the circus!" Danny added. "Where is it? Let's
see it."
"It's all gone," Jerry told his tormentors.

"Fifty cents! And you spent all of it at once!" wailed Celia Jane.
"That must of bought a whole lot of candy," said Danny. "Fork out. No
fair holding any back."
Jerry produced the small paper bag of cough drops and gave it to
Mother 'Larkey.
"They're cough drops with honey in 'em for Kathleen," he said. "I ain't
eaten one of them."
"Give me one, Mother," pleaded Celia Jane.
"They're for Kathleen," replied her mother. "She needs them and you
don't."
"Jerry's Kathleen's pet! Jerry's Kathleen's little honey cough-drop boy!"
chanted Danny.
"Jerry's done more for Kathleen than her own brothers and sisters have
ever done, unless it's Nora," declared Mrs. Mullarkey. "It's no wonder
she loves him best."
"That's not fifty cents' worth of cough drops," Danny accused. "Where's
the rest of the money? Make him tell, Mother."
Kathleen saved him the necessity of replying.
"Toff meddy," she gurgled, looking up at the shelf where the bottle was
kept. "Tatleen want toff meddy."
"It's all gone, Kathleen," her mother said soothingly.
"No," said Kathleen, shaking her head and pointing up at the bottle.
"Mercy sakes! It's full!" cried Mrs. Mullarkey. "I could have sworn I
emptied it this morning."
Then she looked at Jerry, a sudden softening coming over her face and

into her eyes.
"Jerry, you went and spent every cent of that half-dollar on Kathleen,
didn't you?"
"You said there wasn't any money in the house," Jerry defended
himself, "and that Kathleen needed more medicine because summer
coughs are bad for babies."
"The Lord love you, Jerry, I'm not scolding you. It's more apt to be
crying I am at the big heart of you. It's as big as my Dan's was. You're
more like him in heart and disposition than any of his own children,
unless it's Nora. That's why I can't ever let them take you away, ever."
"Who wants to take Jerry away?" It was Nora's startled voice that
asked.
Jerry's heart stood still. Had the man with the red scar on his face found
him at last? He looked up at Mother 'Larkey, his lips starting to twist.
"Nobody's going to take him away!"