A Little Circus Rider
As the circus procession swept into the main tent, the Brownies caught
their breath. Never before had they seen anything so elegant!
At the head of the parade rode a lady on a milk-white horse. Wearing a
white silk gown and a hat with a long plume, she carried an American
flag.
Behind came many of the performers dressed in sparkling costumes.
Six elephants followed in single file. A man who rode the lead animal
used a long rod to guide his mount.
Next came the horses, ridden by circus performers.
Suddenly Veve pinched Rosemary’s arm and cried: “Look!”
A large white steed with a red brocaded saddlecloth had entered the
arena. Eva Leitsall rode gracefully on the animal’s broad back. The
little girl wore tights and looked like a princess, so proudly did she
carry herself.
“Oh, Rosemary, don’t you wish you could ride like that?” sighed Veve.
At that moment Eva gazed into the stands, directly at the Brownies. She
noticed the Brownies, because with exception of Veve, they all wore
their brown checked uniforms.
Eva had not forgotten the girls, for she smiled and waved her hand.
Following the bareback riders came the Queen, riding in a beautiful
golden coach drawn by four white horses with purple plumes. At the very
tail of the parade were the clowns, who rode in an old flivver that
made crazy noises.
Suddenly the old car exploded with a loud bang. As it fell apart, the
clowns ran in every direction, pretending to be frightened.
The arena cleared and then skilled performers came into the rings. So
many interesting things went on at one time that the Brownies could not
watch half of them.
Thrilling indeed were the trapeze performers. Even better, the
Brownies liked the butterfly act. Girls with large colored wings on
their backs were raised high into the air and whirled around.
The Brownies clapped hard when Mr. Carsdale did his animal act. With
ease he made his tigers roll a large red ball and jump through a paper
hoop. One of the large cats kept snarling and trying to strike the whip
with its paw.
“Mr. Carsdale must be the bravest man in the circus,” declared Veve.
Soon the riding acts came on. Eagerly the Brownies watched for a
glimpse of Eva Leitsall.
“There she is!” cried Veve, standing up in the bleacher seat. Rosemary
had to pull her down so that other spectators could see.
Eva Leitsall turned a somersault from one horse to another. At the very
end of the act, she made her steed jump through a paper hoop.
“Such beautiful riding,” sighed Connie. “It must be wonderful to travel
with a circus.”
“And never have to do any school work,” added Belinda. Examinations
were due the next week and already she was dreading them.
Soon a man came through the audience selling pop and lemonade, peanuts
and popcorn. Just to watch him made the Brownie Scouts very hungry and
thirsty.
“Here you are, folks,” called the white-coated salesman. “Get your hot
roasted peanuts! Twenty cents a bag. Peanuts! Popcorn! Cracker Jack!”
The man passed so close the Brownies could smell the good things he
carried.
“I’ll have a box of Cracker Jack,” announced Jane, who had brought a
quarter spending money. “I should get a prize.”
All the girls except Veve and Connie bought something. Veve had no
money, while Connie felt it would be impolite to make a purchase when
Miss Gordon and her little friend were without funds.
Rosemary and Belinda offered some of their popcorn to the two girls,
but eating a little only made them hungrier.
The circus was only half over when a man in the seat ahead moved
directly in front of Veve. Unable to see, she stood up to watch the
trained seals balance red balls on the tips of their noses.
Now Veve, who had worn a hat, had been holding it on her lap. Before
she could catch it, down it tumbled between the gap in the board seats.
She saw it drop to the ground beneath the stand.
“Oops! There goes my hat!” she exclaimed.
“Oh, Veve!” groaned Jane, annoyed by the interruption, “why weren’t you
more careful?”
“I was as careful as I could be,” Veve insisted in a hurt voice. “The
hat slipped before I could catch it.”
“I’ll go with you to get it,” offered Connie, who knew Veve would not
want to go alone.
“Are you certain you can find your way back?” Miss Gordon asked the
girls.
“That’s easy,” Connie said. “We’re five rows from the top of the tent.”
“In Section C,” added Miss Gordon. “Well, run along before someone
picks up Veve’s hat.”
The two girls had a difficult time getting out of the long row of seats
because people seemed unwilling to move. One fat man took up so much
space Veve barely could squeeze past his knees.
Taking care not to slip on the plank steps, the girls went down beneath
the stand. Veve’s straw hat lay in the dust, but it had not been
damaged.
Gazing upward into the stand, the girls could see hundreds of shoes
above them. They wondered which ones belonged to Miss Gordon and the
Brownies. Of course they could not tell.
Lying on the ground beneath the stand was a strange assortment of
articles--pop bottles, scraps of paper, empty boxes and a lady’s belt.
Bending down to pick up the belt, Veve saw a round, shiny object half
covered by a piece of colored candy paper. For an instant she thought
it might be a cap to a pop bottle. But as she kicked the paper away,
she saw that it was a fifty cent piece.
Never before had Veve found so much money. She knew it had fallen from
the pocket of someone in the stand above. But in the crowd she never
could hope to find the owner.
Tying the coin into her handkerchief, Veve searched for other money.
However, she could not find any, so finally she and Connie returned to
their seats.
“You missed the best part of the circus,” Rosemary whispered as they
sat down.
“Who cares?” answered Veve, displaying the belt and the fifty cent
piece. “See what I found.”
Miss Gordon suggested that the belt be turned in at the circus office
at the conclusion of the show.
“And the money?” Veve inquired anxiously. “Must I give that up too?”
“No,” replied the teacher. “The person who lost it couldn’t possibly
identify a fifty cent piece.”
“Then it’s mine to spend?”
“Yes, Veve.”
“I know what I want,” declared the little girl. “Peanuts.”
When the salesman came around again, Veve signaled for him to stop. She
bought a bag of peanuts for herself and one for Miss Gordon. Connie had
her own money and would not let Veve buy any for her.
The Brownies enjoyed every minute of the circus but toward the end
began to grow a bit tired. Just before the last act, a number of
cowboys and cowgirls galloped into the ring, swinging their ropes.
Then a man announced that immediately after the circus there would be a
Wild West show.
“Will we stay for it?” Eileen asked eagerly.
Miss Gordon explained that one had to buy another ticket in order to
see the show.
“Anyway, we’ve had quite a day already,” she added.
“We’re to meet Mr. Carsdale and the detective too,” Connie reminded the
Brownies. “They’ll be expecting us.”
“That’s right,” agreed Miss Gordon.
Soon the circus came to an end. When they stood up, the Brownies felt
stiff and tired, for the bleacher seats had been very hard.
“Let’s wait until the crowd has left the tent,” suggested Miss Gordon.
“It will be much easier than trying to push our way through.”
Soon the circus tent was fairly clear of spectators. Miss Gordon and
the Brownies then were able to climb down over the board seats with
ease.
Once at the exit, Miss Gordon glanced about for the animal trainer. Mr.
Carsdale was nowhere to be seen.
“He seems to have forgotten about us,” the Brownie troop leader
remarked.
For ten minutes they patiently waited, but the animal man did not come.
Miss Gordon said she thought it would be useless to remain any longer.
“No, wait!” cried Sunny. “I see him now.”
Mr. Carsdale walked briskly toward the Brownies, accompanied by a tall,
thin man. The girls were quite certain he must be the circus detective.
However, they were a little disappointed, because the man did not look
in the least as they had expected. He wore a gray business suit and did
not show a badge.
“Sorry to have kept you waiting,” apologized Mr. Carsdale. “This is
Clem Gregg, the company detective. You might tell him about losing your
billfold and the watch.”
“Carsdale says you saw the man who stole it,” commented the detective,
addressing Miss Gordon.
“I thought perhaps I did,” replied the Brownie leader. “At least I
recall a man who pressed close to me in the crowd near one of the side
shows.”
The circus detective asked Miss Gordon for a description of the
pickpocket.
“To tell you the truth, I scarcely noticed him,” the teacher admitted.
“The girls’ observations were much better than mine.”
“He had a mole on his cheek,” volunteered Connie. “And he wore a brown
suit.”
“A man may change his suit,” remarked the detective. “He cannot so
easily rid himself of a telltale mole. Would you say he was short or
tall?”
“Fairly short,” declared Sunny before Connie could speak.
“And did he have a pointed nose?”
“Yes, he did!” exclaimed Veve in astonishment. She wondered how the
detective could know so much about the pickpocket.
“Your description fits Joe Potassick,” declared the detective. “‘Joe
the Pick’ we call him. I thought I saw him in the crowd today. But he
slipped away from me again.”
“Then you know of the man?” inquired Miss Gordon in surprise.
“Every circus detective knows Pickpocket Joe. He’s given us plenty of
trouble.”
“Does he steal from the circus people?” inquired Jane curiously.
“No,” replied the detective, smiling down at the Brownie with the
shining braids. “Joe the Pick follows the circus from town to town. He
mingles with the crowd and takes pocketbooks and jewelry.”
“Just as he stole Miss Gordon’s billfold and the Brownie money,”
supplied Jane.
“That’s right,” agreed the detective. “As a rule we have little trouble
rounding up the average pickpocket. But Joe is a slippery fellow. So
far he has managed to elude me.”
“What do you do with pickpockets if you catch them?” Belinda asked
curiously.
“Sometimes we merely run them out of town,” the detective replied. “But
if ever we catch Joe in the act, we’ll have him arrested and sent up.”
“I realize there is little chance to recover the money taken from
my billfold,” said Miss Gordon. “I plan to make up the loss to the
Brownies. The watch, however, was a prized keepsake.”
The detective asked the teacher for a description of it, as well as her
name and address. Carefully he wrote the information in a little red
booklet.
“If the watch ever turns up, I’ll notify you,” he promised. “The
chances are though, that Pickpocket Joe will pawn it.”
While Miss Gordon and the detective talked, Mr. Carsdale chatted with
Veve, asking her if she had enjoyed the show.
“Oh, yes, especially your act,” she replied politely. “Was it hard to
make the tiger jump through the hoop?”
“Not when you know how,” laughed the animal man. “What else did you
like?”
“Oh, the beautiful golden coach. And the little circus girl rider.”
“Eva Leitsall? She’s standing over there now.”
Mr. Carsdale nodded toward the entrance of the big tent. The circus
child stood there, watching the Brownies. But when the little girl saw
them looking at her, she slipped back out of sight behind the flap of
the canvas.
“Bashful, I guess,” chuckled Mr. Carsdale.
A few minutes later, Mr. Carsdale went away to talk to one of the
circus workmen who was driving a stake. Again Eva peeped out at the
Brownies. This time she did not appear in the least shy.
“H--ist!” she whispered, looking directly at Veve and Connie.
The two Brownies scarcely could believe their eyes. Plainly, Eva was
motioning to them, signaling for them to come over to the entranceway
of the tent.