There's going to be a circus here, and I'm going to it; that is, if
father will let me. Some people think it's wrong to go to a circus, but
I don't. Mr. Travers says that the mind of man and boy requires circuses
in moderation, and that the wicked boys in Sunday-school books who steal
their employers' money to buy circus tickets wouldn't steal it if their
employers, or their fathers or uncles, would give them circus tickets
once in a while. I'm sure I wouldn't want to go to a circus every night
in the week. All I should want would be to go two or three evenings, and
Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. There was once a boy who was awfully
fond of going to the circus, and his employer, who was a very good man,
said he'd cure him. So he said to the boy, "Thomas, my son, I'm going to
hire you to go to the circus every night. I'll pay you three dollars a
week, and give you your board and lodging, if you'll go every night
except Sunday; but if you don't go, then you won't get any board and
lodging or any money." And the boy said, "Oh, you can just bet I'll go!"
and he thought everything was lovely; but after two weeks he got so
sick of the circus that he would have given anything to be let to stay
away. Finally he got so wretched that he deceived his good employer, and
stole money from him to buy school-books with, and ran away and went to
school. The older he grew the more he looked back with horror upon that
awful period when he went to the circus every night. Mr. Travers says it
finally had such an effect upon him that he worked hard all day and read
books all night just to keep it out of his mind. The result was that
before he knew it he became a very learned and a very rich man. Of
course it was very wrong for the boy to steal money to stay away from
the circus with, but the story teaches us that if we go to the circus
too much, we shall get tired of it, which is a very solemn thing.
We had a private circus at our house last night--at least that's what
father called it, and he seemed to enjoy it. It happened in this way. I
went into the back parlor one evening, because I wanted to see Mr.
Travers. He and Sue always sit there. It was growing quite dark when I
went in, and going towards the sofa, I happened to walk against a
rocking-chair that was rocking all by itself, which, come to think of
it, was an awfully curious thing, and I'm going to ask somebody about
it. I didn't mind walking into the chair, for it didn't hurt me much,
only I knocked it over, and it hit Sue, and she said, "Oh my get me
something quick!" and then fainted away. Mr. Travers was dreadfully
frightened, and said, "Run, Jimmy, and get the cologne, or the bay-rum,
or something." So I ran up to Sue's room, and felt round in the dark for
her bottle of cologne that she always keeps on her bureau. I found a
bottle after a minute or two, and ran down and gave it to Mr. Travers,
and he bathed Sue's face as well as he could in the dark, and she came
to and said, "Goodness gracious do you want to put my eyes out?"
[Illustration: "OH, MY!"]
Just then the front-door bell rang, and Mr. Bradford (our new minister)
and his wife and three daughters and his son came in. Sue jumped up and
ran into the front parlor to light the gas, and Mr. Travers came to help
her. They just got it lit when the visitors came in, and father and
mother came down-stairs to meet them. Mr. Bradford looked as if he had
seen a ghost, and his wife and daughters said, "Oh my!" and father said,
"What on earth!" and mother just burst out laughing, and said, "Susan,
you and Mr. Travers seem to have had an accident with the ink-stand."
You never saw such a sight as those poor young people were. I had made a
mistake, and brought down a bottle of liquid blacking. Mr. Travers had
put it all over Sue's face, so that she was jet black, all but a little
of one cheek and the end of her nose; and then he had rubbed his
hands on his own face until he was like an Ethiopian leopard, only he
could change his spots if he used soap enough.
You couldn't have any idea how angry Sue was with me--just as if it was
my fault, when all I did was to go up-stairs for her, and get a bottle
to bring her to with; and it would have been all right if she hadn't
left the blacking-bottle on her bureau; and I don't call that tidy, if
she is a girl. Mr. Travers wasn't a bit angry; but he came up to my room
and washed his face, and laughed all the time. And Sue got awfully angry
with him, and said she would never speak to him again after disgracing
her in that heartless way. So he went home, and I could hear him
laughing all the way down the street, and Mr. Bradford and his folks
thought that he and Sue had been having a minstrel show, and mother
thinks they'll never come to the house again.
As for father, he was almost as much amused as Mr. Travers, and he said
it served Sue right, and he wasn't going to punish the boy to please
her. I'm going to try to have another circus some day, though this one
was all an accident, and of course I was dreadfully sorry about it.