MORE ABOUT THE CIRCUS
“I hain’t never ben to a circus,” said the little old woman, after the
splendor of the grand procession had swept around the ring, and she
caught her breath.
“We have never been to one,” said Mrs. Pepper, looking down the length
of her row of absorbed faces.
“Is that so? Why, I thought ev’rybody had had a chance at one, ’xcept
me-- An’ I says, ‘Now, next time it comes to Cherryville, I’ll go.’ I’d
ben a-savin’ up for it, for circuses don’t wait for folks to turn back
an’ grow young. Look at them ponies--did you ever see sech mites!”
She leaned forward, her withered face suddenly looking as if she had
indeed “turned back to grow young.”
“You’re pokin’ me in the back somethin’ dreadful,” said a woman
in front, with an indignant face over her shoulder. The head was
surmounted with a hat topped off with a big pink bow wound around a
higher bunch of yellow roses.
“I s’pose so,” said the little old woman, “but I have to poke, to get
the best of that contraption on your head--I’ve got to see; that’s what
I come for.”
The woman with the hat flounced back and threw her head up higher yet.
“I guess I’ll have to stand up,” said the little old woman, tired of
twisting first one side and then the other.
Mrs. Pepper, her mind down the line where Phronsie in absorbed delight
over the ponies, was sitting between Polly and David, had no eyes for
her neighbor’s distress. Now she laid her hand on the rusty black
shawl. “I’m so much taller,” she said, and before anybody quite knew
it, the little old woman was in the seat next to Joel, and Mother
Pepper’s black eyes were gazing over the “contraption” of a hat.
And, then, after the ponies, came the elephants--the big one and the
little one. Phronsie shivered when the old one marched ponderously
into the ring, and threw herself over into Polly’s lap.
“He won’t hurt you,” whispered Polly, her arms about her.
“And he isn’t half as bad as Polly’s rhododendron,” said Ben, leaning
forward to talk across.
Polly turned a cold shoulder to Ben. “See the little elephant,
Phronsie--see him!”
“Is there a little one?” said Phronsie, uncovering one blue eye
fearfully.
“Yes, indeed,” said Polly, “and he’s such a dear little elephant,
Phronsie. Do look!”
“He’s a dear little el’phunt,” cooed Phronsie, bringing both eyes into
view. But she sighed after the ponies, now careering on the other side
of the big ring, drawing the little chariot gay with ribbons and flags,
and a small boy and a smaller girl riding in state.
“I wish they’d come again,” she said, pulling Polly’s head down to
whisper in her ear.
“Perhaps they will,” said Polly encouragingly, “and if they don’t,
there’ll be something else just as splendid.”
Phronsie folded her hands in her lap and sat quite still. Could
anything be as splendid as those sweet little ponies? And she sighed
again. But Polly had said so, and it must be true.
Meantime David, who had scarcely dared to breathe through the whole
show, screamed right out.
Everybody turned and stared, and a nervous woman down in the front
said, “Gracious! somebody’s sick--get th’ doctor.” And one of the funny
men in a white coat with red spots all over it, and a hat with holes
where his eyes came, looked up as he was walking down beneath the seats
saying things to make people laugh.
“Toss me that boy,” he roared, snapping a little whip he carried under
his arm, “and I’ll eat him up.”
And at that, Joel screamed, “You sha’n’t eat my brother--I’ll smash
you!” And everything was in a commotion. And a man in a red coat, with
a good many brass buttons on it, rushed up and said: “You’re disturbing
the show--I’ll put you out if you make any more trouble.”
And Mrs. Pepper leaned over past the little old woman. Polly caught one
glimpse of Mamsie’s distressed face, and she swept Phronsie over into
Ben’s lap.
“Oh, Davie--what is it?” she cried, huddling him up against her, as he
buried his face in her neck.
“The bears! Joel has always wanted to see some--they’re coming!”
Joel, with no heart for bears or anything else, was still shaking his
little brown fists and declaring that he wouldn’t let any one eat up
his brother, while Big Bruin and Mrs. Bruin and two small Bruins were
doing their best down in the ring to make the parade lively.
“Oh, Davie!” cried Polly, so mortified that she forgot herself, “you
shouldn’t have screamed. We’re so ashamed!” While Mother Pepper said,
quietly, “Joel,” and down went his little fists, and he stopped right
in the middle of a word.
David was so still that Polly bent her hot cheek over him. “Why, Davie,
are you sick?” she cried in sudden fright.
Davie tried to say “No,” but the word wouldn’t come. And before he had
time to begin again, Mrs. Pepper had quietly worked her way past the
little old woman and Joel, and there he was in her lap.
“There, it’s all right, Davie,” she said, “Mother knows all about it.”
“I’ve made--I’ve made--you all--ashamed,” said Davie in little shivery
gasps, throwing his arms around her neck.
“You will make us very much ashamed,” said Mrs. Pepper, “unless you sit
up now, and be Mother’s good boy.”
“Will I?” David raised a little face that was quite white. The soft
waves of light hair tumbled over his forehead.
“Yes, indeed,” Mother Pepper brushed them back soothingly.
“I will be your good boy, Mamsie,” said David, sitting up in her lap,
his miserable little face brightening a bit.
“He better take some o’ this med’cine.” The little old woman tried to
pass the small bottle she picked out of her black silk bag. “I always
carry it everywhere’s I go, ef I sh’d be sick.”
But Mrs. Pepper shook her head. And Joel being now absorbed in the
bears that somehow were determined not to march with the others, but
to get up a show all by themselves, till the trainer with his little
whip had to get them into line, everything became quiet once more.
Well, after the grand parade, there was the big show when the animals
did the most surprising things, and the men and the women in spangles
and satin and velvet jumped from horses going at top speed--or through
hoops, or swung in the air like big birds.
And then there was a great to-do, everybody clambering down from the
seats--all trying to get out of the tent at once.
In and out of the crowd Miss Parrott’s coachman worked his way, with
the big lunch-basket.
“I thought you would like to have it now,” he said. And he didn’t
forget to touch his hat to Mrs. Pepper.
“I think it is time,” said Mrs. Pepper, “for I believe everybody is
hungry,” with a smile that included the little old woman next to Joel.
“I’ll show you a place where you can sit and eat, and not have many
people around,” said Simmons, going off with the big basket, and all
the Peppers hurried down from their seats to follow. But not before
Mrs. Pepper took hold of Joel’s little calico sleeve. “Help her down,
Joey,” she said, nodding her head toward the little old woman.
“I want to go with Dave,” grumbled Joel.
“Help her down, Joel,” said Mother Pepper distinctly.
“And I’ll help her, too,” cried Davie, turning back.
“So you shall,” Mrs. Pepper beamed at him, so that he forgot for the
first time how he had made them all ashamed.
And Joel on one side and Davie on the other, made the little old woman
say when she was safely down from her seat on the middle row, “My
sakes, I never had no gret likin’ for boys before. What’s your name,
anyhow?”
Joel, who was frantic to hurry along, as the others and Miss Parrott’s
coachman were well ahead, had no time to answer questions. So Davie
said, “He’s Joel Pepper, and I--”
“Pepper? What a name!” interrupted the little old woman with a snort.
Davie’s face got very red.
Luckily Joel didn’t hear; all his mind was bent on getting along
faster as he beat his hands together aching to pull the little old
woman on by her rusty shawl.
“Joel is a good-enough name,” said the little old woman. “My husband’s
father was Joel, but Pepper is a perfectly dreadful name.”
“Pepper is just a perfectly splendid name!” David stopped short by her
side, and looked at her out of flashing blue eyes.
“My sakes alive!” exclaimed the little old woman, stopping aghast,
“I sh’d as soon ’xpect a hummin’ bird to dare me, as you. Now ef
it had ’a’ ben him,” she shook her black silk bag at Joel, who was
marching on. Joel looked back and screamed, “Come on!” which they did,
redoubling their speed.
“Now, my name is a sensible one,” said the little old woman, “Jones.
But Pepper--I sh’d as soon think of salt and mustard.”
David, finding it harder and harder to escort a person determined to
find fault with his name, had all he could do to keep himself from
deserting altogether. But knowing that Mamsie would feel badly if he
did, and remembering how he had made them all ashamed, he marched on,
by her side; but his head was tossed up, and his cheeks were very red.
But in the excitement of getting into the corner of the field around
the big lunch-basket that Simmons put in their midst, no one noticed
him but Mother Pepper.
“Tell Mother,” whispered Mrs. Pepper, under cover of getting the good
things unpacked.
“Mamsie,” said David desperately, “that lady is a bad old lady. Don’t
make me sit next to her,” he begged.
“Why, Davie boy!” exclaimed Mrs. Pepper in surprise. “I think she is
quite a nice little woman.”
“Oh, no,” Davie shook his head. “She’s been saying awful things. She
doesn’t like us to be called Pepper.”
Mrs. Pepper burst into a cheery laugh. “Well, that’s not being bad,”
she said. “Now perhaps I shouldn’t like her name, if I knew what it
was.”
“I know it,” said Davie, “she told me--it’s Jones.”
“Well, I don’t like it. I never did like it,” said Mrs. Pepper, “so
you see, Davie, it isn’t so much matter if people’s names don’t suit
other folks. But the people themselves have got to be just right. Now
run along and be nice to her. She is poor and old. Remember that, Davie
boy.”
There was everything in that fine big lunch-basket. First came a
table-cloth and napkins as fresh and sweet as if they had been packed
away in lavender, as indeed was the case. Then seven little cups--and a
big jar of lemonade, piles of bread and butter and cold chicken, cake,
and biscuits. Was ever such a feast spread out for hungry people at a
circus!
Jimmy, who hadn’t said a word all through the show, but had absorbed it
with all his eyes and ears, now hung back from the group and leaned up
against the wall of a shed a little distance away. He was watching the
merry party with longing.
Ben, helping Polly to spread the table-cloth on the grass, looked off
and saw him.
“Give us a hand, Jimmy,” he said.
Jimmy started, then stopped, hanging back.
“Come on,” said Polly, “and take hold of this other corner, please.”
So there Jimmy was, and the table-cloth being spread, the articles
from the basket were soon in place, everybody being handy at getting
them out, Joel and David especially so, while Phronsie got in between,
laughing and crowing happily under the impression that she was helping
very much.
“I think I will visit with you,” said Mother Pepper, sitting down on
the grass next to the little old woman. There was a happy look in her
black eyes, and a soft color began to come on her cheek, “and let the
children take care of things.”
The little old woman raised her withered face and regarded her
curiously. “You ain’t a bit of a fussbudget,” she said.
“No?” replied Mother Pepper. Then she laughed and said, “Why should I
be?”
“La! you shouldn’t be. But a woman who’s got a raft o’ young ones most
generally is.”
“They are my _children_,” said Mrs. Pepper softly, and her happy eyes
roved over the little bunch of Peppers. Bursts of laughter came from
the group, in which Jimmy’s voice could now and then be heard.
“Who’s that boy?” abruptly demanded the little old woman.
“That’s Jimmy Skinner, a Badgertown boy,” said Mrs. Pepper.
“Oh, then he ain’t a Pepper?”
“No. Well, children,” Mrs. Pepper got up to her feet, “you are all
ready now, aren’t you? We better begin, for we want as much time as we
can spare to see the animals, you know.”
At mention of the “animals” there was great excitement, Joel beating
his hands together and shouting, “Let’s begin--let’s begin!”
“Oh, Mamsie, please sit here,” cried Polly, patting one end of the
table-cloth, “and Mrs.--”
“Jones,” said Davie, coming to the rescue, “that’s Mrs. Jones,” and he
held out a hand to help the little old woman up from the grass.
“Jones I am--but I ain’t no Missis,” said the little old woman, getting
up stiffly to her feet. “My! but I feel like a wooden-jointed doll!
I’m Susannah Jones--that’s th’ handle to my name. Well, where’ll I set?”
“Right next to Mamsie,” said Polly.
Miss Susannah Jones let her pale eyes rove all around the circle.
“What?” she said in a puzzled way. “Where?”
“Why, here,” said Polly, with a little laugh, and leading her to Mrs.
Pepper. “This is Mamsie,” and she laughed again.
Miss Susannah opened her thin lips. She was just about to say, “Well,
of all the queer names, _that_ is!” when, glancing at Davie’s face, she
thought better of it. And besides it was no worse than Pepper. So she
sat down and the feast began.
Mrs. Pepper, glancing across the table-cloth at Jimmy, saw something
that made her say, “Come here a minute,” and as he shuffled around to
her side, she whispered to him, “What is it that makes you afraid to
save your cake?”
Jimmy’s freckled face got very red. He scrubbed his rusty shoes back
and forth in the grass. Then he said, “I didn’t want you folks to see.”
“You want to give it to somebody?”
Jimmy nodded his tow head, glad enough that he didn’t have to speak any
more.
“You may,” said Mrs. Pepper kindly, “do just as you like with it.”
“May I?”
“Indeed you may,” declared Mother Pepper. “So don’t hide your cake
under the table-cloth--but keep it on your plate, and you shall have a
paper to do it up in when we all get through.”
“I don’t want no paper,” said Jimmy bluntly.
“Oh, Jimmy, you can’t carry it home in your hand.”
“I ain’t going to carry it home--and the boy won’t mind.”
“The boy?” Mrs. Pepper looked very puzzled.
“There’s a boy over there,” Jimmy pointed off in the direction of the
big red cart standing in the field, “and he keeps looking and looking
at us--and I guess he’s hungry.”
Mrs. Pepper turned a swift eye in that direction. “Jimmy,” she said, “I
think you are right. Wouldn’t you like to carry your cake to him now?”
“Wouldn’t I just!” exclaimed Jimmy, finding a ready tongue, and
springing off on just as ready feet.
“Oh!” screamed Joel, “look at Jimmy--running off with his cake! See,
Mamsie, Jimmy is--”
“Joel!” Mother Pepper didn’t need to say more, as everybody whirled
around to see the Badgertown boy skim over the grass clutching his
slices of cake that he had been tucking under the table-cloth.
Joel ducked, and everybody else was quiet except Miss Susannah.
“That Badgertown boy is jest as bad as th’ rest o’ you,” she said,
between the bites on her own piece of cake, as Jimmy slipped back and
into his seat, but not to eat any cake.
“Well, now,” said Mrs. Pepper, when everything was cleaned up neatly,
and the big basket had been handed to Simmons, who appeared at the
right time, “we’ll start to see the animals.”
Joel screamed, “The bears--the _bears_! Oh, let’s see the bears first.”
“We will take them all in order, Joey. If the bears are at the
beginning of the line, why we will see them first.”
“The monkeys,” cried Phronsie, pulling at her mother’s hand. “Oh, I
want to see the dear sweet little monkeys, Mamsie!”
“We are going to see the monkeys, Phronsie, and all the rest of them,”
said Mrs. Pepper in a happy voice.
Polly couldn’t help jumping up and down and clapping her hands in joy,
her two brown braids flying out.
“I think we ought to visit your rhododendron, Polly,” said Ben,
catching hold of her to stop her and say it over her shoulder. But
Polly pretending not to hear, the words were lost in the babel of
delight that ensued. And Mrs. Pepper was asking the little old woman if
she would like to go with them to see the animals.
“Indeed I would,” cried Miss Susannah. “My! I was wonderin’ how in th’
world I’d ever get around amongst those anim_iles_ an’ rep_tiles_. Say,
do you Peppers family always go about th’ world lookin’ out for other
folks?”
“We don’t go about the world,” said Mrs. Pepper, with a little laugh.
“Well, now, we must start.”
As it happened the bears were first in the line, so Joel had his wish,
and he crowded up plastering his face close to their cage, in which the
beasts had been put on their return from the parade in the ring.
“That boy will get his nose clawed off,” said a man in the crowd. Mrs.
Pepper turned, “_Joel!_” she cried, just in time! Out came old Father
Bear’s paw with its five cruel claws as sharp as knives,--and a sudden
scratch went _sizz_ on the iron bars just where Joel’s face had been.
“He didn’t get me,” said Joel vindictively, staring into the wicked
little eyes of the bear snapping angrily at him.
“Now look here, Joe,” Ben broke through the crowd to him, “you’ll keep
away from the cages, or I’ll hold you every single minute.”
“Oh, I don’t want to be held,” howled Joel, squirming to get free,
“don’t hold me, Ben; I’ll be good.”
“I shall hold you,” said Ben firmly, “unless you’ll promise not to
touch the cages. Aren’t you ashamed, Joel?” he said in a lower voice.
“Everybody is looking at you.”
“I want to see the bears,” roared Joel. All the world might be looking
at him. He was in such an anguish that he didn’t care. He _must_ see
the bears!
“Well, promise,” said Ben, “and I’ll let you go.”
“I can’t see ’em,” fretted Joel, “unless I go close.”
“Yes, you can; nobody else touches the cages.”
Joel swept the crowd with his black eyes, disdainfully.
“Just look at Mamsie,” Ben leaned over and whispered this into Joel’s
ear. Mrs. Pepper, holding Phronsie’s hand, was looking at him. Her face
was white, but she smiled.
“I won’t go near those bears,” said Joel. “O dear!” He tried not to
cry, but it was no use. The tears dripped down through the fingers
clapped up to his face, and trailed all down his calico blouse.
“Now that’s all nonsense, Joe,” said Ben, releasing his hold. “You can
go just as near as I do, and all the other folks. I’ll trust you,” and
Ben slipped away to prove his words.
Joel felt somebody tugging at one of the hands over his wet little
face. “There’s a good place over there,” said Davie, pointing to a
little space where two men who hadn’t been able to forget that they
had once been boys, were holding it open for him. They spread it out a
little further so that Davie could slip in, too.
It was some time before Joel was willing to leave the bears. Father
Bear, who couldn’t forgive the boy who made him miss such a well-aimed
scratch, kept pacing up and down, growling and showing his teeth
at him--and altogether being so very fascinating, that a crowd was
continually in front of the cage, staring with open mouths and eyes. At
last Mrs. Pepper gave the word to move on.
They had the big snakes, and a lion who was old and tired out, and half
asleep in the corner of his cage, so that he wasn’t at all interesting,
and almost everything else in the animal line that the circus had
afforded, before they came to the monkeys. Phronsie saw them first.
“There they are, Mamsie!” she gave a joyful little cry.
Mrs. Pepper hurried to keep up with her, and the others followed in
close ranks, being kept in line by Ben, who brought up the rear.
A small boy who was just as anxious to see monkeys as Phronsie, rushed
in between, knocking off the pink sunbonnet. It had been so hot in the
crowd that Phronsie had untied it, and now away it went, and a big
clumsy man set his foot right on it. Jimmy saw it and tried to rescue
it, pulling at one string; but the people pushed about so that he was
knocked down and the string came off in his hand. Then the big clumsy
man saw what he was stepping on, and he got off.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Jimmy’s face was full of distress, as somebody
picked up the poor little sunbonnet, and he held out the string.
“It couldn’t be helped,” said Mrs. Pepper, only glad that Phronsie was
so absorbed in delight over the monkeys that she wouldn’t know that she
had lost her sunbonnet.
And the monkeys seemed to think that something special was expected of
them, for they at once set to on so many antics that there was nothing
but crowding and pushing as everybody came up to see, and stopped to
laugh. At last a great hulking boy came up suddenly, back of David and
pushed him against the cage.
This was apparently just what one of the monkeys had been watching
for. He swung himself down from his perch, reached out a long arm, and
grabbed off David’s little cap. Then up he leaped back again, squatted
down to bite and tear it to his heart’s content.
David clapped his hands to his head, and turned very white, as a cry
went up from the crowd.
“Oh, that’s too bad!” “He’s got the little feller’s cap.” “Oh, what a
shame!” And one mother elbowed her way in through the crowd to Mrs.
Pepper, who had her arms around her boy trying to comfort him. And she
herself needed sympathy, for how could she scrape together the money
for another cap? “I know who the boy is that pushed him, and I’ll tell
his father--he’ll give him a good beating.”
“Oh, no,” said Mrs. Pepper, “don’t do that. Davie doesn’t want you to.
Do you, Davie dear?”
“No, I don’t,” said Davie, through his sobs. Then when he saw his
mother’s face, he wiped away the tears and managed to smile through
them. “I can go without a cap,” he said.