The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1902-02-15

cents.
There was no railroad in the town
Of Templeton, and the circus would
have to come in on its own wagons
from Rosevale. a railroad station
about fifteen miles away. Every boy
and some of the girls in Templeton had
planned to walk out on the Rosevale
going to walk as far as Blue River,
which was five miles from Temple
ton. There was very shaky and
poorly constructed bridge across the
river. and 1t was predicted by some
Of the boys that the elephants could
never be made to cross 1t. Some of
us had a narrowing fear that this
might be true. and that the elephants
would not get any nearer Templeton
than Blue River.
Lutte and l proposed to distinguish
ourselves by doing something that,
we felt sure, none Of the other boys
would do. We intended to walk all
the way to Rosevale. It was Lutte
who conceived this brilliant idea.
''We can do it as easy as not" he
said. Rosevale Is only fifteen miles
from here, and the moon viii be full
the night before the circus comes to
Templeton. Supposirg we start from
here about l o'clock in the morning.
We can easily walk three miles on
hour, and that will bring us to Rose
vale at 6 O'Clock. The train does not
get to Rosevale until 6, and it will
take them at least an hour to unload
and get ready to start for Temple
ton. We can sit around and rest that
hour and see them get the elephants
and camels off the cars. Then
wouldn't be bit surprised If the cir
Gus people allowed us to ride back
with them. I guess the other boys
would open their eyes if they should
see us riding into town with the cir
Gus. Don't you tell the boys. If you
did, q lot Of them would probably
want to tag along with us. Maybe
the circus men would let us ride back
on one of the elephants, seeing that we
had come so far to meet them"
Lutte was highly imaginative, and
was always inclined to look at things
through rose -colored glasses.
"They say that circus folks are aw-
fully good-natured," he continued. II
heard once Of q circus owner who had
the parade go out of its way so that
it could 60 by the house Of a little
sick boy. Maybe that If the owner Of
this circus found out that we had
walked all the way from Templeton
to Rosevale to meet the circus, he
would let us in for nothing. There's
no telling but he might do that very
thing. Or maybe we could get chance
to earn our way. helping to unload the
circus"
When we unfolded our plan to our
parents, they said we might carry 1t
out If we were "geese enough" to do
so.
Lutte came over to my house to stay
the night before the circus. We had q
small alarm clock, and we set the
alarm at l o'clock, but it was hardly
necessary to do this, for we were both
SO excited that, although we went to
bed early. we could not sleep. When
the alarm told the hour Of /, we
sprang out Of bed and were fully
dressed in fifteen minutes. The moon
was full and the sky cloudless when
we left the house. My mother had
left box of provisions for us on the
sitting room table, and I carried this
as we set forth on our walk Of fifteen
miles.
Our spirits were not very high as
we walked through the silent streets
Of the town, and we were both a lit
tie depressed when we had left them
behind us, and had entered a long
stretch of dense woods. We kept pref
ty close to each other, and did not talk
much as we went by the town ceme-
terry.
1t was still dark when we reached
the Blue River bridge, but as the
month was July and the days long,
it began to grow light in the east
before we had gone half the distance
we were to travel. We were tired and
hungry when daylight had fully
dawned, and we sat down by little
spring to rest and eat our breakfast
H.ute was delicate boy, and our long
walk was telling on him; 1. too. felt
footsore and weary. But we got up
and plodded on after resting about
half an hour. The day promised to be
unusually warm, and we began to feel
the heat even at that early hour. We
had gone about twelve miles. when
Lutte said:
"If we leave the main road here ana
take this old road to the left. 1t VIII
shorten the distance full mile and
bring us back to the main road IN
about half an hour. My father and l
went that way when we came over 70
Rosevale few weeks ago."
We left the main road and had gone
about half a mile when we came to q
clear and sparkling little stream IN O
delightfully."- cool and shady place IN
the woods. Some people had been
camping near the spring and had gone