WHO WAS CAPTAIN OF THE COMPANY?
The great show, the "Wonder of the World," had come to town. It came in
the night and packed itself away in the big tents on Lawton's field.
A "monster street procession" was announced for the next morning, and the
Bolton boys and girls lay awake as if it were the Fourth of July.
Sonny Boy had received a large square ticket, marked "Season," and
"Complimentary," and in the same envelope was a slip of paper on which was
written, "_Ask for J. Simpkins at the door._"
J. Simpkins was, of course, Sonny Boy's friend, the Wild Man.
Aunt Kate said she felt doubtful about "that Wild Man business," and she
wrote to her husband about it.
"It won't do him any harm to learn to be a Wild Man." That was Uncle
William's answer; and Sonny Boy thought he was a very sensible man.
Aunt Kate also wrote to Mamma Plummer about the Wild Man and the buffalo,
although she didn't tell Sonny Boy of that. And Mamma Plummer answered,
"Sonny Boy could never learn to be a wild man; the dear boy is so quiet.
And he would be scared to death at the sight of a buffalo."
Mamma Plummer did not quite understand her Sonny Boy.
[Illustration: "OTTO HAD HIS ONE GOOD TIME."]
Sonny Boy asked for J. Simpkins at the tent door, showing his bit of
paper, and he was told to follow a porter straight to the cage of the most
ferocious-looking Wild Man that ever was seen!
He had horns, and he had tusks, and a mane like a horse, and yet when he
laughed, Sonny Boy could see, as plainly as could be, that he was only the
sailor who had bought the parrot!
If one could only be a Wild Man like that, in their barn at Poppleton,
thought Sonny Boy, what fun it would be!
But there was no time to take a lesson in being a Wild Man this morning,
as the procession was to start soon. And it happened that the boy who rode
the buffalo was ill with the mumps, so they really needed another boy.
And the buffalo boy's scarlet and gold-laced tunic and trousers were an
exact fit for Sonny Boy, who looked quite straight and handsome in them!
That buffalo was such a huge beast that Sonny Boy had to mount him by
means of a step-ladder. He was bigger than any geography buffalo you ever
saw. And he tossed his horned head and pawed the ground with his great
hoofs in a way that made Sonny Boy's heart go pit-a-pat.
But there was no outward sign that Sonny Boy's heart was going pit-a-pat.
He was not going to miss the proudest moment of his life because he was
afraid! When he rode out into the crowded street, the huge buffalo
following after the troops of tiny Shetland ponies, the better to show his
size, and the crowd shouted and cheered, if Sonny Boy did for a little
while forget even Otto it was not strange!
But Otto did not allow himself to be forgotten. He wanted to see that
procession with his own eyes. He had lain awake all night thinking about
it. When the hospital supply-wagon was at the gate in the morning he
watched his chance to slip out unobserved, and climbed into the back of
the wagon!
It hurt him so that his white face grew whiter and there were drops on his
forehead. He broke one of his crutches, too, and the other fell out of the
wagon. But he was not found out! The driver was in a hurry, perhaps
because he wished to see the procession himself. He jumped into the front
of the wagon, without a glance at the back, and off down the hill rattled
the wagon, with Otto in the back, in his dressing-gown, with a hospital
blanket pinned over his shoulders.
Just as the hospital wagon reached the procession the band struck up and
the horse was frightened and jumped. It gave the wagon just enough of a
jerk to throw Otto out. He was tossed into the little space between the
ponies and the buffalo. The beast's great hoofs were almost upon him!
There was a wild cry from the crowd, but it was Sonny Boy who slipped from
his high perch and, not an instant too soon, drew his friend out of the
danger.
Sonny Boy lost his own footing; the buffalo's hoof grazed his arm and tore
the gold lace of his tunic.
Friendly hands were ready to lift him again to his seat, while the crowd
cheered him until it was hoarse.
"Otto first! Lift him up here and I will hold him on. It's his first good
time." The marshal of the procession made no objection, since it was
something that pleased the crowd.
Up went Otto, in his blanket, to the front place, frightened, but not
hurt, and Sonny Boy held him securely, and the crowd went wild!
Above all its noise a shrill voice suddenly came to Sonny Boy's ears.
"Cock-a-doodle-doo! Aren't you stuck up?"
And if there wasn't Polly, in a great gilt cage, swinging high above the
Fat Lady's chariot!
Polly had been calling out the names of all the wonders in the show, as
she had been taught, but when she saw Sonny Boy she remembered old times.
She shouted out all the patriotism she knew, and the band played Yankee
Doodle, and the people said that the best was what was not down in the
bills.
Otto had his one good time! One would scarcely have known him, his face
was so bright and rosy.
It was almost a miracle that he had not been killed under the buffalo's
hoofs, but the ride did not hurt him in the least. And he is still telling
the hospital children, over and over again, all the wonders of that
procession in which he rode to the end of the route on the buffalo, and
then back to the tent in the Fat Lady's chariot! For Sonny Boy found the
Wild Man both a kind and influential friend.
He has learned to be a Wild Man himself; there was a show in the Plummers'
barn, at Poppleton, in the fall, that many people thought equal to a
grown-up circus, and the Wild Man was the chief attraction.
[Illustration: "CAPTAIN SONNY BOY PLUMMER."]
But none of the Plummers were so much surprised that Sonny Boy had learned
to be a Wild Man as they were that he had learned spelling and fractions
and straightened out his stooping shoulders and his bow-legs!
Sonny Boy explained that he had done it to help a slower and a crookeder
boy than himself. And when Otto came down to Poppleton to pay Sonny Boy a
visit they understood a little better.
Lena came, too, and they brought the white mice, and those skillful
performers took part in the barn show.
Sonny Boy and Otto still think there was nothing in the "Wonder of the
World" to beat those white mice.
Within a week after he returned to Poppleton, Tom told Sonny Boy that if
he would only join the Guards as the fellows wanted him to he would surely
be chosen captain!
"It would sound well--'Captain Sonny Boy Plummer, of the Poppleton
Guards,'" said Tom. And when I last heard from Poppleton that was what
Sonny Boy was called--Captain Sonny Boy Plummer, of the Poppleton Guards!
And every one of the Plummers was wishing to be the one that Aunt Kate
would borrow next.
And in a little while none of them remembered that they had ever thought
it queer that Aunt Kate wanted to borrow Sonny Boy!
[THE END]