SONNY BOY BECOMES A SCHOLAR
Polly was so lively on the way back to the city that Sonny Boy didn't dare
to take her into a passenger-car. The smoking-car happened to be almost
empty, and the conductor said he would better go in there.
Polly didn't like the empty smoking-car. She wished to be where there were
plenty of people to admire her, and she showed her displeasure by making a
dreadful noise. She barked and miaowed and cackled and crowed, and
squealed and lowed and whinneyed and brayed and squawked and roared and
growled, until one would have thought the smoking-car was nothing less
than Noah's Ark. A crowd of people came rushing into the car, and among
them was a man who looked like a sailor, who insisted upon taking the
covering from Polly's cage and holding her up to the light.
"Belong to you?" he said. "Don't want to sell her, do you?"
Sonny Boy's heart gave a great leap. He was himself so very tired of
Polly's voice, and he had so dreaded to take her back to Aunt Kate, that
it did not seem to him possible that any one could want her.
"She's a handsome bird," continued the man, "and hasn't she got a voice!
She isn't exactly the bird for a home pet, but at a show she'd draw. And I
belong to a show."
The man seated himself beside Sonny Boy and spoke in a low tone. "'The
Wonder of the World'--that's the name of the show that I belong to," he
said.
That was the very circus that had been at Poppleton the summer before, the
one that Tom had been so much interested in!
"Oh, then, perhaps you know all about the Wild Man of Borneo!" cried Sonny
Boy eagerly. "Have you ever seen him _near to_?"
The sailor looked confused, and there was a queer twinkle in his eye.
"I am some acquainted with the Wild Man," he said slowly.
"Did he really come from Borneo? And is he truly wild?" asked Sonny Boy
with eager curiosity.
"He is just about as wild as they make them," said the man, wagging his
head solemnly. And Sonny Boy's heart thrilled with fear and wonder.
"We tried to play Wild Man in our barn," he said to the man. "But none of
the fellows knew how to be wild. Tom wanted me to find out how."
The sailor drew near to Sonny Boy and lowered his voice to a whisper. "It
wouldn't do to let everybody know it, but if you and I are going to make a
bargain about that parrot I don't care if I tell you that I'm the Wild Man
of Borneo, and I'll show you just how I do it! I'll give you twenty
dollars for the parrot, and I'll throw in the Wild Man business! I'll do
more than that--I'll get you a chance to ride on the buffalo, in the
procession, when the show comes to Bolton, this summer!"
Bolton was the town where the hospital was--the town they had just left.
It would be easy to get to Bolton to the show.
[Illustration: "'I'LL GIVE YOU TWENTY DOLLARS FOR THE PARROT.'"]
Twenty dollars might be a small price for the parrot, but the secret of
being a Wild Man and the chance to ride on a buffalo were extras that a
boy could not easily resist! The parrot changed hands, and so did two
ten-dollar bills. And the man gave Sonny Boy his address so that he might
find him when the show came to Bolton.
"Aren't you stuck up? Scat!" screamed Polly after Sonny Boy, by way of
good-bye, when they parted at the city station.
Sonny Boy was very penitent when he found, on reaching home, that his
absence had made Aunt Kate very anxious. She said a dreadful thing; she
said that she never could trust Sonny Boy again!
But Sonny Boy knew she would find out that he wasn't the kind of a boy
that runs away. He thought it was enough to make any boy lose his mind to
change his white mice for that parrot!
Aunt Kate thought that twenty dollars was a plenty for the parrot! She
said she would see about the extras. She didn't seem to understand the
advantages of learning to be a Wild Man or of riding on a buffalo.
But she said she thought of taking a house at Bolton for the summer, while
her husband was away at the war; it was seashore, and it was also near the
city, where she could hear the war-news soon.
And then Sonny Boy felt sure that he should not miss his extra pay for the
parrot.
His sister Polly would not think that a boy ought to want to ride on a
buffalo; she would say that none of the Plummers had ever done such a
thing. But Aunt Kate was different.
"There are other things I want, Aunt Kate," said Sonny Boy suddenly, and
he stood as tall as he could before his aunt--so tall that his shoulders
scarcely stooped and his bow-legs were almost straight. "I've got to have
them!" Sonny Boy's red cheeks grew quite pale and his voice was gruff with
feeling.
"Why, Sonny Boy dear, what can the things be that you want so much!" said
Aunt Kate wonderingly.
"Spelling and fractions," said Sonny Boy firmly.
"You dear boy! I never heard of a boy who thought so much of his lessons
as that!" exclaimed Aunt Kate.
"It's to show another fellow--stupider than I am," said Sonny Boy. "And
crookeder. I've got to get straight and be a soldier, too, to show him
how." And he told her about Otto.
Aunt Kate hugged him and laughed a little and cried a little. And she said
it was a beautiful idea and he should have a tutor so that he could learn
spelling and fractions very fast. And he should go to a gymnasium and
straighten his shoulders and his legs. And his uncle would take him to
camp to see the soldiers drill.
And she would buy him some more white mice. But that last offer Sonny Boy
declined. He wanted no white mice but those! And he didn't want those,
because he liked better to have Otto and the poor invalid children have
them.
It was quite wonderful to see how Sonny Boy learned spelling and
fractions. The tutor was surprised, and what the Poppleton schoolmistress
would have thought no one can even guess! For Sonny Boy had been dull at
his lessons.
And presently he straightened himself out in the most surprising way, and
learned to drill soldiers like a major. He had a fine military company, in
the "almost well" room of the children's ward at the hospital. The
officers sent word to Aunt Kate that he was a very welcome visitor and did
the children great good.
He bought a drum and fife with the parrot money, and sent them to the
Poppleton Guards, the company to which "the fellows didn't want him to
belong." And he wrote a letter to the Guards, telling them about the
military tactics that he had learned at the camp, where his uncle had
taken him.
"How quickly you have learned!" said Aunt Kate one day. "You are the very
brightest one of the Plummers."
But Sonny Boy shook his head. "I never could learn until 'twas for another
fellow," he said.
"Anyway, you're the dearest one of the Plummers!" said Aunt Kate, with a
hug. By this time they were at Bolton for the summer, and they awoke one
morning to find the place gay with show-bills and huge placards.
The "Wonder of the World" was coming to town. Among the attractions were
the "Wild Man of Borneo," fresh from his native jungles, and "The Monster
Tuscarora," the greatest buffalo in the world.
[Illustration: "'HOW QUICKLY YOU HAVE LEARNED,' SAID AUNT KATE."]
That was the buffalo that he was to ride in the procession! Sonny Boy felt
that even Polly ought to understand that this was a very great honor to
come to one of the Plummers!
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WHO WAS CAPTAIN OF THE COMPANY?
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