Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1892-04-29


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.
"Go home and take me-" said Ted.
"Why, could she2"
"Why not9" said Benny.
This new and startling idea dawning
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 not2" burst out the home
sick woman with bitter cry. "Bc-
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 you2"
said Ted, n2hast.
"Because belong to circus" she
replied.
Ted comprchended 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-
guishcd 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
CIR Int hn hono, To f..o1 Il L.,
the noise of the circus, and u curious
homesickncss 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 and 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-
tcrnoons. The season was hot, aud on
nights when the animals were restless,
when the lions roared and lashed the
bars with their tails, and the tiger snarl-
lpg paced their cages, aud the hyenas
yelled and the elephant trumpeted, and
the horses frightened, snorted aud
stamped in their stalls, Ted could not
sleep. Thorc was no air to breathe, and
the many. scents made him long for the
fields of clover and the garden with its
beds Of mignonette, .s
Mother lie burst out over, "why
don't they like the circus2"
# nWho2s said his; mother, startled.
She sat late GU hsr sewing as usual, but
she had supposed the boy was fast
asleep. 80
"Why, grandfather and grandmother
aud the rest of them.
"Somc people don't like q circus,
Ted" she said gently. cts just feel
Ing" So
f"But it's the greatest show on earth |"
81 know it's Il great thing in its way"
said Mrs. LlcwcIlen, .Fbut you see, Ted,
my family are quiet people and their way
is different. suppose it is partly the
'spangies. aud the crowds, the gaudy,
make-belicye, which made father feel
that nothing is modest aud honest and
real about Anybody who belongs to a
circus. But if father knew old Benny,
if he knew him rs you and do, he
would shy hcwas u good man. And II.
he knew how everybody had to work, to
SO over every part again and again he
would sec that no good performer
could be dissipated or lazy"
1t was just at this time that Ted was
learning the firing trick" and. certainly
there was plenty OF hard work about that.
1t was, rs we have said, the first thing
that Ted didnot, take TO BY natural in.
stinct, as duck to water. Never be-
fore had he shrunk back from what he
was hidden to do, giving way to lit of
trembling. As old Benny said the new
trick was no harder than the trapeze, and
Ted, liked ofjall things to golflying from
rope toropeto 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 namcless .terrors; he felt
clumsy, he had lost faith in himself. The
truth was up to the present he had gono
on doing everything that came In his way.
without thought of what might happen
If he failed. Now he was like q som.
nambulist who ayakens to find himself
in q position of danger. It was as if he
had to learn his tricks oil over again,
gaining again piece by piece by hard trial
and proof instead of heretofore swiftly
and iuerringly BY instinct. Old Benny
was patient and tender with the little
fellow
"All you have to do is to catch hold
of the ring and turnround on it," said
he, ttYou know all the while there is a
cushion underneath you, and that if yeu
were to fall you would not be hurt. y
Isl shan't falI,' said Tom, HbuE I
don't like it" ~
tss.You have not, got used to it, and it's
there that the fun comes in" said Benny.
"You never had stumble yet, not even
q balk; you're likeSn bird. -"
Ted hung his head and confessed to
himself that he no longer felt like a
bird. He was SO weary !, There was
grny haze over ali this narrow world OF
lis, and each day it settled closer and
closer. He felt dull, inert. as If he
logged to sleep; at least to sit down
aimlessly and dream wide awake about