Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-04-03
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"That depends upon what for,
Harry"
"Well, mother, now just listen. Last
circus day Jimmy Styles got a situation
at a peanut stand, aud he earned a dol
lar. A whole dollar, MOTHER little
fellow like Jimmy Styles! And l want
to go to the circus-ground tomorrow
and see # I could make a dollar,
mother"
Dollars were held in great respect in
the Wayne family by reason of their
scarcity, but Harry's mother did. not
seem charmed with his charming plan
of securing one.
"No, dear: it will be very nice for
you to earn money when the proper
time comes, but just now your place is
at school,"
':But 1 would only be out one day,
and that wouldn't be any HARM"
"Not much, but that is not the great
est objection. I think a c~ircus-ground
a very poor place for a little boy to 90
to to make money-or, indeed, for any
one else"
''Jimmy Styles says it's the jolliest
kind of a place."
II dare say, but Harry Wayne can't
go there"
Harry Wayne knew that when mother
said a thing she meant it, so he said no
more; but he set out for school next
morning with a strong feeling that it
was very hard on a boy not to be
allowed to go to the circus-ground. 1t
would be so fine to make a little money.
Money was wanted so badly at home
that it really seemed almost wrong in
mother to stand in his way; and then
it was such a jolly place.
Borne from q long distance on the
morning breeze came the sound of the
band as the circus wagons paraded
through the streets of the small town.
Harry lived q little way out of it and
had quite Il long walk to school. at
which he sometimes complained. But
just now he thought little of the dis
lance as he hurriedly hid his dinner
pail in some bushes at the roadside,
and sped like the wind Cor a boy) until
he had joined the crowd of little loun-
gers who were following the gilded
'chariots and mysterious looking cages.
He gazed open-mouthed like the rest,
becoming greatly excited at the mon
strous serpents visible through the
bars of an open cage, awe-struck at
sound of snort or roar of some hidden
animal, or listening in wonder to the
hideous toot-toot-toot of the calliope.
He had not really intended disobedi-
ence to his mothers command, but as
the parade ended at the circus-ground
he remembered that he would now be
too late for school, and a half-hour
later would not make much difference.
He found SO many things to look at
that two or three half-hours passed
away very quickly. Then he assured
himself that. having lost so much time,
the best thing he could do would be to
carry out his fine plan of getting some
thing to do whereby he could make a
little money. He looked around among
the busy workers, and finally went up
to a ma who was building a small
stand.
"Can l help you?" he asked, a little
bashfllly, for he was not used to being
among strangers.
"Yaw," said the man, "you can
shust hold up desc shticks viles l nails
dem on."
Harry did so, and then brought water
from a long distance by pailfuIls until u
barrel was filled, into which the man
poured a small bottle full of some kind
of liquid, afterwards stirring in several
pounds of sugar.
"Ach" he said, tasting, "dot's goot
lemonade. Now you goes and you
buys two lemons; folks will egspect to
see some lemons in it, but volts de
use?"
Still grumbling s if he thought folks
very unreasonable in expecting lemons
in lemonade, he gave Harry five cents,
shmal leedle ones"
When they were brought he sliced
them into the barrel in very thin slices.
Thin as they were, though, Harry
thought his friend had not calculated
web, for there would be far from being
one show slice for every glass in that
great barrel When all was ready he
was allowed to stand behind the table
and shout, "Here's your ice-cold lem
onade, only ten cents a g!ass!" He
called with right good will, proud
enough at having got into business so
readily. He soon found out that his
employer had guessed we'll in the mat
ter of the slices of lemon, for he was
carefully instructed to throw back into
the barrel the pieces which were left in
the glasses, so that there was a fair rea-
son to believe they would last all day.
The sun was hot and he became
after a while hoarse and headachey rs
dinner-time drew near, and he grew
hungry, greatly longing for the lunch
he had hidden in the bushes. He kept
hard at work, though, anxious to be in
the stir which the afternoon would
bring on, and full of the hope that he
might be sent into the tent to sell lem
onade, Which delightful thing really
came to pass, but did not prove quite so
delightful as he had hoped. The dull
ache in his head grew aud increased
almost beyond bearing in the close, hot
air of the tent. He was dizzy with
climbing the seats, and found little