Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1892-02-27

nuts battered down in the autumn and
squirrels whisked their tails aud chat
tered in defiance of the intruders who
poaehed on their winter stores. The
garden and the orchard, too, were some
thing to hear about Ted knew every
flower which grew in the borders, and his
mouth watered at the account OF the APP
piles, white and red, which ripened on
the hillside. 1t is great deal to know
as much about the world as Ted did, so
he used to tell old Benny about the farm
which was to him such wonderful
! fairy tale.
: ''Pity now your mother couldn't go
home and take you to see her folks, >
said Benny.
$50 home and take me, said Ted.
"Why, could she2''
"Why notg" said Benny.
| This new aud startling idea dlwniug
on Ted's mind took his breath away.
"Mother," he cried, running to her,
"why don't you take me down to see
grandfather and grandmother and the
flowers and the apples2'
"Ah, why not7" burst out the home
sick woman with bitter cry. "Be-
cause gave all that up when ran away
with your father Because they wouldn t
speak to me; no, not if went down on
my knees to them"
''Why wouldn't they speak to yol2"
said Ted, aghast.
"Because 1 belong to circus she
replied.
Ted compreheude1 the pain behind
his mothers words, although he did not
understand the words themselves. He
was indeed really amazed that anybody
should not be proud to know the distin-
guished people he was used to. But he
realized now that the reason that his
mother sighed sometimes was that she
felt shut out from the old paradise, and
he began to sigh, too. Perhaps he was
tired; perhaps he had in his young
energy gone little beyond his childish
strength, but he began to feel fretted by
the noise of the circus, and curious
homesickness grew in him for the
whispers of the forest, the early morning
rush of the birds, and the sight of
animals not trained and kept in cages, but
playing about the fields. He longed
to climb the hill tnd meet the
wind, ready to buffet him when he
reached the top, and to dabble his feet
in the cool stream where his mothers
brothers used to swim on summer af-
ternoons. The season was hot, and on
nights when the animals were restless,
when the lions roared and lashed the
bars with their tails, aud the tiger snarl-
ing paced their cages, and the hyenas
yelled and the elephant trumpeted, and
the horses frightened, snorte1 and
stamped in their stalls, Ted could not
sleep. There was no air to breathe, aud
the many scents made him long for the
fields of clover and the garden with its
beds of mignonette.
Mother" he burst out over, "why
don't they like the circus?"
"Who" said his mother, startled.
She sat late on her sewing as usual, but
she had supposed the boy was fast
asleep.
"Why, grandfather and grandmother
aud the rest of them"
"Some people don't like circus,
Ted, she said gently. ats just a feel
ing"
"But it's the greatest show on earth!'
az know it's great thing in its way"
said Mrs. Llewellen, "but you see, Ted,
my family are quiet people aad their way
is different. Isuppose it is partly the
spangles, and the crowds, the gaudy,
make believe, which made father feel
that nothing is modest and honest and
real about anybody who belongs to "a
circus. But if father knew old Benny,
if he knew him as you and do, he
would say he was "a good man. And if
he knew how everybody had to work, to
so over every part again and again he
would see that no good performer
could be dssipated or lazy"
1t was Just at this time that Ted was
learning the ''ring trick" and certainly
there was plenty of hard work about that.
1t was, as we have said, the first thing
that Ted did not take to by natural in
stinct, as duck to water. Never be-
fore had he shruuk back from what he
was hidden to do, giving way to fit Of
trembling. AS old Benny said the new
trick was no harder than the trapeze, and
Ted liked of all things to go flying from
rope to rope to the topmost ring, loving
the idea that the heart Of the spectators
sometimes sank into their boots at the
conviction that he was in danger Now
he suffered nameless terrors; he felt
clumsy, he had lost faith in himself The
truth was up to the present he had gone
on doing everything chat came In his way
without thought of what might happen
if he failed. Now he was like a SOM
nambulist who awakens to find himself
in a position of danger. 1t was as if he
had to learn his tricks all over again,
gaining again piece by piece by hard trial
and proof instead of heretofore swiftly
and incrringly by instinct. Old Benny
was patient and tender with the little
fellow.
GAN you have to do is to catch hold
of the ring and turn round on it." said
he. "You know all the while there is a
cushion underneath you, and that if you
were to fall you would not be hurt"
81 shan't fall" said Tom, "Dut 1
don't like it,"
"You have not got used to it, and It's
there that the fun comes in, )" said Benny,
'You never had a stumble yet, not even
a balk; you're like bird"
Ted hung his head and confessed to
himself that he no longer felt like
bird. He was so weary. There was
gray haze over all this narrow world of
his, and each day it settled closer aud
closer He felt dull, inert, as il he
lonyed to sleep; at least to sit down
aimlessly aud dream wide awake about
the hill and the river and the cool, quiet
nights in the old place. al myself have
hated to do things that l grew mighty
proud of when l had got at the knlck of
them, said Benny. "Come, now try
again. Ted. "
Ted braced himself up and went
through the rehearsal, but when it was
all over he burst out crying aud sat
down all in a tremble.
ats safe sign to be little afraid, y
said Mrs. Bill. at isn't the tricks one
is afraid of that one trips in, but those
one feels sure of.
They all tlattered and encouraged
him, and Ted felt ashamed of his faint
heartedness. A regular salary was