CHAPTER ITHE CIRCUS PARADE
“When will it be time to go, Mother?” asked Janet Martin, as she swung to and fro on the front gate.
“Pretty soon,” was the answer from Mrs. Martin, who was sitting on the shady porch.
“How long is pretty soon?” Ted Martin wanted to know. He was throwing stones at the fence, trying to send them through a knot hole. And it wasn’t easy, he found. Though he had tossed many pebbles, not one had Ted sent through the hole.
“Pretty soon isn’t very long,” replied Mrs. Martin, with a smile. “As soon as Daddy comes we shall start.”
“I’m going out in the street to see if he’s coming,” announced Janet, bouncing down from the gate.
“No, dear! I’d rather you wouldn’t,” called Mrs. Martin. “There are so many autos in the street now, going to the circus parade, you might get hurt. Stay here, Jan!”
“Oh, I’ll not go into the street!” answered the little girl. “I’ll just go on the sidewalk so I can look down and see if Daddy is coming! I’ll be careful!”
“I’ll go with her,” offered Teddy, who was a year older than his sister. “I’ll take care of her,” he added, looking toward his mother.
“That’s a good boy, Ted,” she told him.
But Janet did not seem much impressed.
“Pooh!” she exclaimed. “Youdon’t need to take care of me, Teddy Martin! I can take care of myself!”
“Oh, Janet! That wasn’t kind, when Teddy offered to watch you,” chided her mother. “You shouldn’t have said that.”
“Well, Teddy can look after himself,” said Janet, with a little shake of her head which sent her ringlets of hair flying into and out of her eyes. “And I’ll look after myself,” she added. “Course, I didn’t want to be impolite,” she continued. “But——”
“I’m older’n you are, and I have a right to watch out so you don’t get hit by an auto!” declared Teddy.
“Pooh! You can’t even watch out for yourself!” giggled Janet. “You fell into the brook last week; that’s what you did!”
“Well, my foot slipped,” explained Teddy. “And if I hadn’t fallen in first you would, ’cause you were walking along the same path. Only when you saw me go in, you jumped back.”
“Oh, all right! I don’t care!” and Janet gave herself a little fling as she went out of the gate. “I’m going to look for Daddy. You can come if you want to,” she added to her brother.
“Huh! She thinks she’s smart,” mumbled Teddy, as he ran his hand through the mass of tangled, golden curls on his head, to get some of them out of his eyes so he could see better.
Janet and Teddy each had beautiful curly hair, and that is how they came to be given the name of “Curlytops,” by which they were called more often than by their real names.
“Now, children, be pleasant and kind to each other,” begged Mrs. Martin, as the two went out on the sidewalk. “This is a holiday, and you don’t want to spoil it by being cross.”
However, the little quarrels, or “spats,” between Ted and Janet never lasted very long, and they were soon on good terms again, looking down the street for a sight of their father. They saw many persons walking past, and there was a large number of automobiles in the street—in fact, the streets of Cresco, an Eastern town where the Martin family lived, were unusually crowded on this day.
While Ted and Janet were eagerly looking for a sight of their father, a little boy, several years younger than the Curlytops, came out of the house. He did not have their clustering ringlets, though he was a fine-looking little chap.
“Here’s Baby William, Mrs. Martin,” announced Norah Jones, who was both cook and nursemaid in the household. “I’ve got him nice and clean again, and I hope he stays so!”
“I join with you in that hope, Norah,” laughed Mrs. Martin. “But I’m afraid it will not last very long.”
“Oh, well, sure, he’s a dear little chap; aren’t you?” And Norah gave the youngest member of the Martin family a kiss before she led him over to his mother.
“I’m goin’ to see a nellifunt, I am!” announced William.
“Are you, William?” asked his mother.
“An’ I’m goin’ to feed peanuts to a nellifunt, I am!” went on the little fellow.
“Well, maybe, if Daddy will hold you up,” replied Mrs. Martin. “But you must be very careful, Trouble, dear!”
“I’m not scairt of a nellifunt!” declared Trouble.
This nickname had been given to William because he was so often in trouble of one kind or another. Sometimes it was his fault and sometimes it wasn’t. But “Trouble” he was called, and trouble he was very often in, though he generally managed to get out again. Or, if he didn’t, Janet or Teddy would help him.
“Oh, here comes Daddy! Here comes Daddy!” cried Janet, jumping up and down on the sidewalk in front of the house. “I’m going to meet him!” she added.
“Don’t go past the corner!” warned her mother, as the little girl darted off on a run.
“I won’t let her,” announced Teddy, rapidly following his sister.
“I want to go! I want to go! Wait for me! I want to see a nellifunt!” wailed William, from the porch, as he saw his brother and sister darting away.
“They aren’t going to the circus parade now, Trouble, dear,” said his mother, catching him just in time to keep him from rolling down the steps. “They’ll come back for you.”
Trouble, who had started to cry, thought better of it. His lower lip, which had begun to stick out, was drawn in, and there was only just one little tear in each eye. But these soon dried away and he smiled again.
He smiled more happily a little later when he saw, skipping toward the house, on either side of a jolly, pleasant-faced man, Ted and Janet. They had met their father at the corner and were escorting him back to the house.
“Hello, Curlytops!” Mr. Martin had greeted his boy and girl.
“Hello, Daddy!” they had answered.
And now, from the porch, William shouted:
“I’m goin’ to see a nellifunt, I am! An’ I’m goin’ to feed a nellifunt peanuts!”
“Well, don’t let the elephant step on you; that’s all I ask,” laughed Mr. Martin, as he entered the gate. “Are you all ready?” he asked his wife. “I’m a bit late, but I couldn’t get away from the store any sooner.”
“The children have been a little impatient,” replied Mrs. Martin. “But we are all ready to start now.”
“Then come on,” invited Mr. Martin to his family. “I thought we’d walk down, instead of going in the auto,” he added. “There’s so much traffic it’s hard to drive, and there won’t be any room to park, I think.”
Then the Curlytops made ready to go downtown to view the circus parade. It was an annual affair in Cresco, and the schools always closed on that day—happy Cresco!
“Isn’t Norah going?” asked Mr. Martin, for he wanted all in his household to share in whatever joy there was.
“Oh, yes. She and Patrick and Mary, the girl from next door, are all going together,” said Mrs. Martin. “Norah has the rear door key so she can get in if she is back before we are.”
“And I suppose she will be, if we have to stay as long as we usually do,” chuckled Daddy Martin, as he motioned toward the children. “We’ll be lucky if we don’t have to stay to see the procession twice,” he went on in a low voice.
“Oh, I think, as long as you are going to take them to the circus this afternoon, they won’t want to stay too long at the parade,” murmured his wife. “They’ll be anxious to get home to eat so they can hurry off to the big tent.”
“Maybe so,” assented her husband. “You never can tell, though. But let’s get started,” he added to the children.
Out of the front gate trooped the Curlytops, their father, mother and little brother—the whole family. The streets were becoming more and more crowded each minute, for the time for the start of the circus parade was drawing near.
As Mr. Martin had said, it was almost impossible to drive an auto, and those who had tried it were beginning to wish they hadn’t. Many were so hemmed about by the crowd that they just had to wait for the traffic to pass by.
Taking a short cut through some back streets, Mr. Martin finally led his family out on one of the main highways of Cresco. It was along here that the circus parade would pass, and already most of the best places were taken, along the curb, on the doorsteps of houses, in the upper windows of residences, and elsewhere.
Mr. Martin seemed to have some special place in view, for he hurried along, not trying to push into the crowd and gain a spot on the edge of the curb. At last he announced:
“Here we are!”
He swung in toward a house with a high stoop which was not as crowded as were all the other residences. A gentleman on the steps was keeping intruders away.
“Mr. Harrison has saved a place for us,” said Mr. Martin. “We shall have a fine view of the parade.”
“Oh, this is great!” cried Ted, as he saw the vantage point.
“Beautiful,” agreed Janet.
“You are very kind, Mr. Harrison,” said Mrs. Martin, as she took a chair which her husband’s friend brought out. “This is seeing the parade in comfort.”
“Having no children of my own, I like to see those of my friends made happy,” said Mr. Harrison. “Here, William,” he added to the little boy, “you may stand on this stool, and then you can see over the heads of the crowd.”
“It’s nice,” was Trouble’s way of thanking Mr. Harrison. “But how am I goin’ to feed a nellifunt peanuts away up here?” and he seemed quite worried about it.
“Save your peanuts until this afternoon, dear, and feed them to the elephant in the circus animal tent,” advised his mother.
“But I want to feed peanuts to a nellifunt rightnow!” wailed Trouble, and it is hard to tell to what lengths he might have gone had not some voices cried:
“Here it comes! Here comes the parade! I see the camels! I see the elephants!”
That was enough for William. He ceased to cry out about his peanuts, and almost trembled with excitement as he stood on the stool Mr. Harrison had provided for him.
At last the circus procession was in sight—happy time!
There were troops of horsemen on their prancing steeds, gay in trappings of gold, silver, crimson and green. There were cowboys and cowgirls, riding their western ponies. Swinging their lassos and waving their broad-brimmed hats, these riders of the plains kept up a constant yelling of:
“Hi! Yi! Yippi! Yi! Wow! Whoopee!”
“There’s the nellifunts! There’s the nellifunts!” cried Trouble, as the big beasts slowly shuffled past. “Oh, there’s the nellifunts!”
There was a goodly number of elephants with this circus—more than usual, it seemed. For after the first herd had passed, Ted, looking down the street, announced:
“And camels, too!” added Janet. “I see some with two humps!”
“Look at the man in the lions’ cage!” shouted Teddy.
“I should think he’d be afraid,” murmured Janet.
“Pooh, he’s got ’em trained so they eat out of his hand,” said her brother. “And he’s got about two pistols in his pockets so he could shoot ’em if they bit him.”
“S’posin’ they bit him first—then he couldn’t shoot,” declared Janet.
“Yes he could,” Teddy declared. “Oh, look!” he added. “He’s making a lion do tricks!”
Just as the lions’ cage came opposite the stoop where the Curlytops were perched, the man in the iron-barred wagon held up a hoop and one of the kingly beasts leaped through it.
Much excited, Teddy and Janet paid little attention to William, whom, up to this time, Janet had had her arm around so he would not topple off the stool. But as the lions’ cage passed, and other, less showy, beasts succeeded, the little girl’s attention went back to her brother. But William wasn’t on his stool.
“Where’s Trouble?” cried Janet.
“Don’t tell me he has gone!” gasped her mother.
But it was so. Trouble was not on the porch.
“He must have gone down on the sidewalk,” announced Mr. Martin. “I’ll get him!” he added, just as the second herd of elephants came shuffling along.
Mr. Martin began to worm his way through the dense crowd. Suddenly a voice cried:
“Look out! Look out! That elephant’s coming right this way! Oh, look out for the little boy! The elephant will step on him!”
There were screams from girls and women and shouts from the men. The crowd broke and scattered at one point. Mr. Martin had a glimpse of a big elephant, refusing to be guided by the man sitting on his huge head, swinging into the crowd. Then Mr. Martin saw baby William holding out a bag of peanuts to the big beast that, stretching out its trunk, seemed about to step on the little lad.