Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-17

| NJ WIN glee every tlme
he passed the starting
N>Apost. He climbed lad
ders and poles, holding on by his chubby
little hands, as soon as he could toddle
alone, and crept into risky places where, as
the whole troupe used to say, watching him
with joy and pride. he was obliged to chang
on by his eyelids.'
When he was years old he used to per-
form regularly with old Benny, the famous
bareback rider in the "wild Indian" act.
All the glitter, color, stir, life of the circus
| was the JOY Of the youngsters existence.
He was SO used to the sight of expert riders
and acrobats going through their parts he
had no thought of any possible danger at
| tending their exploits, and all that others
could do he felt he could do and longed to
do. His father had been the wonderful
rider, Llewellen, killed, unluckily, by a
kick from his favorite horses hoof just as
| he carelessly stopped to feel the fetlock
That was when Ted was but years old, and
Llewellen had been so much beloved that
the company adopted the boy, as it were and
| took pride in his cleverness and promise,
for there could be no doubt that nature
had given him the true eye, the steady
head, the indomitable nerve. and the quick
sense of the laws of balance which
are needed by a man whose pro-
fession it is to dangle twixt heaven and
earth. His mother was a farmers daugh-
ter, who had made a romantic match by
running away with the handsome Level
len. She had remained in the company
after her husbands early death as sort of
wardrobe woman" Old Benny looked
after Ted's training. Often when alone
with her boy Mrs. Llewellen would string
out stories about the old farm where she
had spent her happy, free girlhood. Ted
knew every flower which grew in the bor-
ders, and his mouth watered at the account
Of the apples, white and red, which ripened
on the hillside. 1t is a 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.
'rPity 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 she?"
'"Why not?" said Benny.
This new and startling idea dawning on
Ted's mind took his breath away.
Mother" he cried, running to her, s.why
and grandmother and the flowers and the
apples9"
"Ah, why not?" burst out the homesick
woman, with bitter cry. Because gave
all that up when 1 ran away with your
father. Because they wouldn't speak to
me; no, not if I went down on my knees to
them"
"why wouldn't they speak to your" said
Ted, aghast
Because belong to a circus" she re-
piled.
Ted comprebended the pain behind his
mothers words, although he did not under
stand the words themselves He was indeed
really amazed that anybody should not be
proud to know the distinguished 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 para
disc, and he began to sigh too. Perhaps 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 curious homesick-
ness 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
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 after
moons. The season was hot and on nights
when the animals were restless, when the
lions roared and lashed the bars with their
tails and the tigers snarling paced their
cages and the hyenas yelled and the ele-
plants 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 gardens with its |
beds of mignonette.
''Mother," he burst out over, "why don't |
they like the circus7"
"Who?" said his mother, startled. She !
sat late on her sewing as usual, but she had !
the boy was fast asleep.
"Why grandfather and grandmother and /
the rest Of them"
''Some people don't like circus, Ted,"
she said gently. 'Tt's just feeling"
"But it's the greatest show on earthP'
81 know it's great thing in its way"
said Mrs. Llewellen, ''but you see, Ted, my
family are quiet people and their way is
different. 1 suppose it is partly the tights
and the spangles, and the crowns, the
gaudy, make-believe, which made father
feel that nothing is modest and honest and !
real about anybody who belongs to 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
mad to work, to go over every part again
and again, he would see that no good per-
formers could be dissipated or lazy
1t was just at this time that Ted was
learning the ''ring trick" and certainly
here was plenty of hard work about that.
It was, as we have said, the first thing that
Ted did not take to by natural instinct, as a
luck to water. Never before had he shrunk
pack from what he was hidden to do, giving
way to fit of trembling. As old Benny
aid the new trick was no harder than the
rapeze, and Ted liked of all things to go
lying from rope to rope to the topmost ring,
owing the idea that the heart of the specta-
ors sometimes sank into their boots at the
conviction that he was in danger, now he
uttered nameless terrors; be ielt clumsy.
lie had lost faith in himself The truth was
hat up to the present he had gone on doing
that came in his way without
hought Of what might happen if he failed.
Sow be was like somnambulist who
wakens to find himself in a position of
anger. 1t was as if he had to learn his
ricks all over again, gaining again piece by
y hard trial and proof instead Of heretofore
Witty and unerringly by instinct. Old
'enny was patient and tender with the
title fellow. +