Toby Tyler | Page 5

that cent I give ye, eh, an' got so much that it made ye
sick?"
Toby thought of the six peanuts which he had bought with the penny
Uncle Daniel had given him; and, amid all his homesickness, he could
not help wondering if Uncle Daniel ever made himself sick with only
six peanuts when he was a boy.
As no one paid any further attention to Toby, he pushed back his plate,
arose from the table, and went with a heavy heart to attend to his
regular evening chores. The cow, the hens, and even the pigs came in
for a share of his unusually kind attention; and as he fed them all the
big tears rolled down his cheeks as he thought that perhaps never again
would he see any of them. These dumb animals had all been Toby's
confidants; he had poured out his griefs in their ears, and fancied, when
the world or Uncle Daniel had used him unusually hard, that they
sympathized with him. Now he was leaving them forever, and as he
locked the stable door he could hear the sounds of music coming from
the direction of the circus grounds, and he was angry at it, because it
represented that which was taking him away from his home, even
though it was not as pleasant as it might have been.
Still, he had no thought of breaking the engagement which he had made.
He went to his room, made a bundle of his worldly possessions, and
crept out of the back door, down the road to the circus.
Mr. Lord saw him as soon as he arrived on the grounds, and as he
passed another ticket to Toby he took his bundle from him, saying, as
he did so: "I'll pack up your bundle with my things, and then you'll be
sure not to lose it. Don't you want some candy?"
Toby shook his head; he had just discovered that there was possibly
some connection between his heart and his stomach, for his grief at
leaving home had taken from him all desire for good things. It is also
more than possible that Mr. Lord had had experience enough with boys
to know that they might be homesick on the eve of starting to travel
with a circus; and in order to make sure that Toby would keep to his
engagement he was unusually kind.

That evening was the longest Toby ever knew. He wandered from one
cage of animals to another; then to see the performance in the ring, and
back again to the animals, in the vain hope of passing the time
pleasantly.
But it was of no use; that lump in his throat would remain there, and the
thoughts of what he was about to do would trouble him severely. The
performance failed to interest him, and the animals did not attract until
he had visited the monkey cage for the third or fourth time. Then he
fancied that the same venerable monkey who had looked so knowing in
the afternoon was gazing at him with a sadness which could only have
come from a thorough knowledge of all the grief and doubt that was in
his heart.
There was no one around the cages, and Toby got just as near to the
iron bars as possible. No sooner had he flattened his little pug nose
against the iron than the aged monkey came down from the ring in
which he had been swinging, and, seating himself directly in front of
Toby's face, looked at him most compassionately.
It would not have surprised the boy just then if the animal had spoken;
but as he did not, Toby did the next best thing and spoke to him.
"I s'pose you remember that you saw me this afternoon, an' somebody
told you that I was goin' to join the circus, didn't they?"
The monkey made no reply, though Toby fancied that he winked an
affirmative answer; and he looked so sympathetic that he continued,
confidentially:
"Well, I'm the same feller, an' I don't mind telling you that I'm awfully
sorry that I promised that candy man I'd go with him. Do you know that
I came near crying at the supper table tonight; an' Uncle Dan'l looked
real good an' nice, though I never thought so before. I wish I wasn't
goin', after all, 'cause it don't seem a bit like a good time now; but I
s'pose I must, 'cause I promised to, an' 'cause the candy man has got all
my things."

The big tears had begun to roll down Toby's cheeks, and as he ceased
speaking the monkey reached out one little paw, which Toby took as
earnestly as if it had been done purposely to console him.
"You're real