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TOBY TYLER
or
Ten Weeks with a Circus
by
JAMES OTIS
Illustrated
[Illustration: BREAKFAST IN THE WOODS. _See p. 235._]
[Illustration]
New York and London
Harper & Brothers Publishers
* * * * * *
HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE SERIES
EACH, SIXTY CENTS
_FRANCONIA STORIES_
BY JACOB ABBOTT
Malleville
Mary Bell
Ellen Linn
Wallace
Beechnut
Stuyvesant
Agnes
Mary Erskine
Rodolphus
Caroline
BY W. L. ALDEN
The Moral Pirates
The Cruise of the "Ghost"
The Cruise of the Canoe Club
The Adventures of Jimmy Brown
Jimmy Brown Trying to Find Europe
A New Robinson Crusoe
BY JAMES BARNES
The Blockaders
BY WILLIAM BLACK
The Four Macnicols
BY LEWIS CARROLL
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Through the Looking-Glass
The Hunting of the Snark
BY COL. W. F. CODY
The Adventures of Buffalo Bill
BY GEORGE C. EGGLESTON
Strange Stories from History
BY JOHN HABBERTON
Who Was Paul Grayson?
BY MRS. W. J. HAYS
Prince Lazybones
The Princess Idleways
BY GEORGE A. HENTY
In the Hands of the Cave-Dwellers
BY W. J. HENDERSON
Sea Yarns for Boys
BY ERNEST INGERSOLL
The Ice Queen
BY DAVID KER
The Lost City
Into Unknown Seas
BY LUCY C. LILLIE
Mildred's Bargain
Nan
Jo's Opportunity
Phil and the Baby
False Witness
Rolf House
Music and Musicians
The Colonel's Money
The Household of Glen Holly
BY LIVINGSTON B. MORSE
The Road to Nowhere
BY MISS MULOCK
The Little Lame Prince
The Adventures of a Brownie
Little Sunshine's Holiday
The Cousin from India
Twenty Years Ago
Is It True?
Miss Moore
An Only Sister
BY KIRK MUNROE
Wakulla
The Flamingo Feather
Derrick Sterling
Chrystal Jack & Co. etc.
BY JAMES OTIS
Mr. Stubbs's Brother
Tim and Tip
Toby Tyler, or, Ten Weeks with a Circus
Raising the "Pearl"
Silent Pete, or, the Stowaways
Left Behind, or, Ten Days a Newsboy
BY G. B. PERRY
Uncle Peter's Trust
BY L. C. PYRNELLE
Diddie, Dumps, and Tot
BY MARGARET E. SANGSTER
Little Knights and Ladies--Poems
BY W. O. STODDARD
Two Arrows
The Red Mustang
The Talking Leaves
BY SOPHIE SWETT
Captain Polly
_STRANGE STORIES FROM AMERICAN HISTORY_
Strange Stories of Colonial Days
Strange Stories of the Revolution
Strange Stories of 1812
Strange Stories of the Civil War
_ADVENTURE SERIES_
Adventures of Uncle Sam's Sailors
Adventures of Uncle Sam's Soldiers
Adventures with Indians
Adventures of Pirates and Sea-Rovers
_Illustrated. Price, per volume, 60 cents_
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
COPYRIGHT, 1880, 1881, 1909, BY HARPER & BROTHERS
COPYRIGHT, 1908, 1909, BY JAMES OTIS KALER
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
* * * * * *
CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
I. TOBY'S INTRODUCTION TO THE CIRCUS 9
II. TOBY RUNS AWAY FROM HOME 20
III. THE NIGHT RIDE 31
IV. THE FIRST DAY WITH THE CIRCUS 42
V. THE COUNTERFEIT TEN-CENT PIECE 54
VI. A TENDER-HEARTED SKELETON 66
VII. AN ACCIDENT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES 82
VIII. CAPTURE OF THE MONKEYS 93
IX. THE DINNER-PARTY 102
X. MR. STUBBS AT A PARTY 118
XI. A STORMY NIGHT 131
XII. TOBY'S GREAT MISFORTUNE 143
XIII. TOBY ATTEMPTS TO RESIGN HIS SITUATION 156
XIV. MR. CASTLE TEACHES TOBY TO RIDE 169
XV. TOBY'S FRIENDS PRESENT HIM WITH A COSTUME 184
XVI. TOBY'S FIRST APPEARANCE IN THE RING 197
XVII. OFF FOR HOME! 211
XVIII. A DAY OF FREEDOM 229
XIX. MR. STUBBS'S MISCHIEF, AND HIS SAD FATE 239
XX. HOME AND UNCLE DANIEL 252
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
BREAKFAST IN THE WOODS _Frontispiece_
TOBY STRIKES A BARGAIN 11
TOBY AND HIS NEW FRIEND 27
TOBY'S FIRST NIGHT RIDE 33
OLD BEN COMES TO THE RESCUE 47
"WON'T YOU PLEASE GIVE ME THE MONEY BACK?" 59
TOBY GETS HIS SUPPER 73
JOB LORD LEARNS A LESSON 79
THE BREAK-DOWN, AND ESCAPE OF THE MONKEYS 89
BRINGING BACK THE RUNAWAYS 97
TOBY IS INTRODUCED TO THE ALBINOS 111
TOBY SITS DOWN ON MR. STUBBS 127
TOBY IN THE "WOMEN'S WAGON" 135
MR. STUBBS AND TOBY'S MONEY 151
TOBY AND THE LITTLE BOY CUSTOMERS 165
THE FIRST LESSON 173
ELLA AND TOBY 187
MADEMOISELLE JEANNETTE AND MONSIEUR AJAX 205
THE RUNAWAYS 225
"HOW I LOVE YOU, MR. STUBBS!" 249
UNCLE DANIEL'S BLESSING 263
TOBY TYLER;
OR,
TEN WEEKS WITH A CIRCUS.
CHAPTER I.
TOBY'S INTRODUCTION TO THE CIRCUS.
"Couldn't you give more'n six pea-nuts for a cent?" was a question asked
by a very small boy, with big, staring eyes, of a candy vender at a
circus booth. And as he spoke he looked wistfully at the quantity of
nuts piled high up on the basket, and then at the six, each of which now
looked so small as he held them in his hand.
"Couldn't do it," was the reply of the proprietor of the booth, as he
put the boy's penny carefully away in the drawer.
The little fellow looked for another moment at his purchase, and then
carefully cracked the largest one.
A shade--and a very deep shade it was--of disappointment passed over his
face, and then, looking up anxiously, he asked, "Don't you swap 'em when
they're bad?"
The man's face looked as if a smile had been a stranger to it for a long
time; but one did pay it a visit just then, and he tossed the boy two
nuts, and asked him a question at the same time. "What is your name?"
The big brown eyes looked up for an instant, as if to learn whether the
question was asked in good faith, and then their owner said, as he
carefully picked apart another nut, "Toby Tyler."
"Well, that's a queer name."
"Yes, I s'pose so, myself; but, you see, I don't expect that's the name
that belongs to me. But the fellers call me so, an' so does Uncle
Dan'l."
"Who is Uncle Daniel?" was the next question. In the absence of other
customers the man seemed disposed to get as much amusement out of the
boy as possible.
"He hain't my uncle at all; I only call him so because all the boys do,
an' I live with him."
"Where's your father and mother?"
"I don't know," said Toby, rather carelessly. "I don't know much about
'em, an' Uncle Dan'l says they don't know much about me. Here's another
bad nut; goin' to give me two more?"
[Illustration: TOBY STRIKES A BARGAIN.]
The two nuts were given him, and he said, as he put them in his pocket,
and turned over and over again those which he held in his hand, "I
shouldn't wonder if all of these was bad. Sposen you give me two for
each one of 'em before I crack 'em, an' then they won't be spoiled so
you can't sell 'em again."
As this offer of barter was made, the man looked amused, and he asked,
as he counted out the number which Toby desired, "If I give you these, I
suppose you'll want me to give you two more for each one, and you'll
keep that kind of a trade going until you get my whole stock?"
"I won't open my head if every one of 'em's bad."
"All right; you can keep what you've got, and I'll give you these
besides; but I don't want you to buy any more, for I don't want to do
that kind of business."
Toby took the nuts offered, not in the least abashed, and seated himself
on a convenient stone to eat them, and at the same time to see all that
was going on around him. The coming of a circus to the little town of
Guilford was an event, and Toby had hardly thought of anything else
since the highly colored posters had first been put up. It was yet quite
early in the morning, and the tents were just being erected by the men.
Toby had followed, with eager eyes, everything that looked as if it
belonged to the circus, from the time the first wagon had entered the
town until the street parade had been made, and everything was being
prepared for the afternoon's performance.
The man who had made the losing trade in pea-nuts seemed disposed to
question the boy still further, probably owing to the fact that he had
nothing better to do.
"Who is this Uncle Daniel you say you live with--is he a farmer?"
"No; he's a deacon, an' he raps me over the head with the hymn-book
whenever I go to sleep in meetin', an' he says I eat four times as much
as I earn. I blame him for hittin' so hard when I go to sleep, but I
s'pose he's right about my eatin'. You see," and here his tone grew both
confidential and mournful, "I am an awful eater, an' I can't seem to
help it. Somehow I'm hungry all the time. I don't seem ever to get
enough till carrot-time comes, an' then I can get all I want without
troubling anybody."
"Didn't you ever have enough to eat?"
"I s'pose I did; but you see Uncle Dan'l he found me one mornin' on his
hay, an' he says I was cryin' for something to eat then, an' I've kept
it up ever since. I tried to get him go give me money enough to go into
the circus with; but he said a cent was all he could spare these hard
times, an' I'd better take that an' buy something to eat with it, for
the show wasn't very good anyway. I wish pea-nuts wasn't but a cent a
bushel."
"Then you would make yourself sick eating them."
"Yes, I s'pose I should; Uncle Dan'l says I'd eat till I was sick, if I
got the chance; but I'd like to try it once."
He was a very small boy, with a round head covered with short,
red hair a face as speckled as any turkey's egg, but thoroughly
good-natured-looking; and as he sat there on the rather sharp point of
the rock, swaying his body to and fro as he hugged his knees with his
hands, and kept his eyes fastened on the tempting display of good things
before him, it would have been a very hard-hearted man who would not
have given him something. But Mr. Job Lord, the proprietor of the booth,
was a hard-hearted man, and he did not make the slightest advance toward
offering the little fellow anything.
Toby rocked himself silently for a moment, and then he said,
hesitatingly, "I don't suppose you'd like to sell me some things, an'
let me pay you when I get older, would you?"
Mr. Lord shook his head decidedly at this proposition.
"I didn't s'pose you would," said Toby, quickly; "but you didn't seem to
be selling anything, an' I thought I'd just see what you'd say about
it." And then he appeared suddenly to see something wonderfully
interesting behind him, which served as an excuse to turn his reddening
face away.
"I suppose your uncle Daniel makes you work for your living, don't he?"
asked Mr. Lord, after he had rearranged his stock of candy, and had
added a couple of slices of lemon-peel to what was popularly supposed to
be lemonade.
"That's what I think; but he says that all the work I do wouldn't pay
for the meal that one chicken would eat, an' I s'pose it's so, for I
don't like to work as well as a feller without any father and mother
ought to. I don't know why it is, but I guess it's because I take up so
much time eatin' that it kinder tires me out. I s'pose you go into the
circus whenever you want to, don't you?"
"Oh yes; I'm there at every performance, for I keep the stand under the
big canvas as well as this one out here."
There was a great big sigh from out Toby's little round stomach, as he
thought what bliss it must be to own all those good things, and to see
the circus wherever it went. "It must be nice," he said, as he faced the
booth and its hard-visaged proprietor once more.
"How would you like it?" asked Mr. Lord, patronizingly, as he looked
Toby over in a business way, very much as if he contemplated purchasing
him.
"Like it!" echoed Toby; "why, I'd grow fat on it."
"I don't know as that would be any advantage," continued Mr. Lord,
reflectively, "for it strikes me that you're about as fat now as a boy
of your age ought to be. But I've a great mind to give you a chance."
"What!" cried Toby, in amazement, and his eyes opened to their widest
extent, as this possible opportunity of leading a delightful life
presented itself.
"Yes, I've a great mind to give you the chance. You see," and now it was
Mr. Lord's turn to grow confidential, "I've had a boy with me this
season, but he cleared out at the last town, and I'm running the
business alone now."
Toby's face expressed all the contempt he felt for the boy who would run
away from such a glorious life as Mr. Lord's assistant must lead; but he
said not a word, waiting in breathless expectation for the offer which
he now felt certain would be made him.
"Now I ain't hard on a boy," continued Mr. Lord, still confidentially,
"and yet that one seemed to think that he was treated worse and made to
work harder than any boy in the world."
"He ought to live with Uncle Dan'l a week," said Toby, eagerly.
"Here I was just like a father to him," said Mr. Lord, paying no
attention to the interruption, "and I gave him his board and lodging,
and a dollar a week besides."
"Could he do what he wanted to with the dollar?"
"Of course he could. I never checked him, no matter how extravagant he
was, an' yet I've seen him spend his whole week's wages at this very
stand in one afternoon. And even after his money had all gone that way,
I've paid for peppermint and ginger out of my own pocket just to cure
his stomach-ache."
Toby shook his head mournfully, as if deploring that depravity which
could cause a boy to run away from such a tender-hearted employer, and
from such a desirable position. But even as he shook his head so sadly
he looked wistfully at the pea-nuts, and Mr. Lord observed the look.
It may have been that Mr. Job Lord was the tender-hearted man he prided
himself upon being, or it may have been that he wished to purchase
Toby's sympathy; but, at all events, he gave him a large handful of
nuts, and Toby never bothered his little round head as to what motive
prompted the gift. Now he could listen to the story of the boy's
treachery and eat at the same time; therefore he was an attentive
listener.
"All in the world that boy had to do," continued Mr. Lord, in the same
injured tone he had previously used, "was to help me set things to
rights when we struck a town in the morning, and then tend to the
counter till we left the town at night, and all the rest of the time he
had to himself. Yet that boy was ungrateful enough to run away."
Mr. Lord paused, as if expecting some expression of sympathy from his
listener; but Toby was so busily engaged with his unexpected feast, and
his mouth was so full, that it did not seem even possible for him to
shake his head.
"Now what should you say if I told you that you looked to me like a boy
that was made especially to help run a candy counter at a circus, and if
I offered the place to you?"
Toby made one frantic effort to swallow the very large mouthful, and in
a choking voice he answered, quickly, "I should say I'd go with you, an'
be mighty glad of the chance."
"Then it's a bargain, my boy, and you shall leave town with me
to-night."