Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1892-03-12

disc, and he began to sigh too. Per
hars he was tired; perhaps he had, in
his young energy, gone a little beyond
his childish strength, but he began to
feel fretted by the noise of the circus
and a curious Inconsistencies grew in
him for the whisper of the forest, the
early morning rush of the birds, and
sight of animals not trained and kept
in cages, but playing about the fields.
He lorged 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 afternoons. The season was
hot, and on nights when the animals
were restless, when the lions roared
and dashed the bars with their tails
and the tigers, snarling, paced their
cages, and the hyenas yelled, and the
elephants trumpeted, and the horses,
frightened, snorted and stamped in
their stalls, Ted could not sleep. There
was no air to breathe and the many
scents made him long for the fields OF
clover and the garden with its bed Of
mignonette.
Mother" he burst out, "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
and the rest of them"
Some people don't like a circus,
Ted" she said, gently. ITS Just a
feeling"
But it's the greatest show on earth"
81 know it's a great thing in its
way" said Mrs. Llewellen, but you
see, Ted, my family are quiet people
and their way is different. | suppose
it is partly the tights and the spangles
and the crowns, the gaudy make-be.
lieve, which made father feel that moth
ing 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 I do, he would say he
was a good man. And If he knew how
everybody had to work, to go over
every part again and again, he would
see that no good performers could be
dissipated or lazy"
1t WIS just at this time that Ted was
learning the ring trick" and certain
ly 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 instinct, as a duck to water.
Never before had he shrunk back from
what he was hidden to do, giving way
to a 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
hearts of the spectators sank into their
boots at the conviction that he was in
danger. Now he suffered nameless ter.
rors; he felt clumsy, he had lost faith
in himself. The truth was, up to the
present he had gone on doing every
thing that anne in his way without q
thought of what might have happened
if he failed. Now he was like a som
nambulist who awakens to find himself
in a position Of danger. 1t was as il
he had to learn his tricks all oven again,
gaining again piece by piece by hard
trial and proof instead of heretofore
swiftly and nnerringly by instinct. Old
Benny was patient and tender with the
little fellow.
"All you have to do is to catch hole
of the ring and turn round on it." said
he. You know all the while there is
a cushion underneath you and that il
you c to fall you would not be
hurt"
II shan't fall" said Ted, "but | dom,
liss It."
you have not got used to 1t, and it's
there the fun comes in" said Benny,
"You never had a stumble yet, no,
even a balk; you're like a bird"
Ted hung his head and confessed tc
himself that he no longer felt like q
bird, He was SO weary. There was q
gray haze over all this narrow little
world of his, and each day 1t settled
closer and closer. lie felt dull, inert, as
If he longed to sleep; at least to sit dowr
aimlessly and dream wide.awake abou,
the hill and the river, and the cool
quiet nights in the old place.
II myself have hated to do things
that | grew mighty proud of when
got at the knack of Them" said Benny.
Come now, try again, Ted"
Ted braced himself up and wen,
through the rehearsal, but when it wa.
over he burst out crying and sat dowr
all in a tremble.
ITS q safe sign to be a little afraid
said Mrs. Bill. ut isn't the tricks one
Is afraid of that one trips in, but thos,
one feels too sure Of"
They all flattered and encouraged
him, and Ted felt ashamed of his faint
heartedness. A regular salary wa,
promised him by the manager as soor
as he made a success Of the ring trick
and this was what he and his mothe,
had been looking forward to ever sine,
he was ten years old.
II was odd how he disllked the rins
trick, when 1t was simply a matter O
swinging himself up to the top of /,
high, tall framework on rings which
hung on horizontal bars. The sun
ports below were twelve feet apart
but met with another transom bean
and ring on the apex. The way was t.
catch the lower ring, swing round on
7 then with the impetus gained TO Leaf
the gap. seize the opposite ring 4
little higher up, and so on from RICH,
and left and left and right to the tor
ring and down again. II was q PRETTY
feat and, perhaps, no harder than any
owner OF the flying tricks, but il needed
9 clear head. and TIT trouble was thai
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