"Good place to show off." "You have a much better one." "Where?""In the ring.Anybody can ride a horse in a parade, but not everyone can perform on the flying rings and leap over elephants to boot."Teddy instinctively threw out his chest."You're right, at that.Hark!""Yes; they are coming.I can hear Billy English blow the big bass horn.You could hear him over three counties, I really believe."Laughing and chatting, the boys settled themselves on Mrs.Cahill's hospitable doorstep to await the arrival of the parade which could be heard far off on the other side of the village.
Now and then the high, metallic notes of the calliope rose above all the rest, bringing a glint of pride to the eyes of Teddy Tucker.
"I just love that steam music machine."
"Well, I must say that I do not admire your taste," laughed Phil."It's the most hideous discord of noises I ever heard.I never did like the steam piano, but a circus wouldn't be a circus without it.""Nope," agreed Teddy with emphasis.
Down the street a gorgeously colored rainbow slowly reached around a bend and began straightening away toward the Cahill home.The parade was approaching.
As the gay procession drew nearer the boys began to evince some of the enthusiasm that they had known before they themselves had become a part of the big show.
"Remember the parade two years ago, Phil?" asked Mrs.Cahill.
"I could not very well forget it.That was a red letter day in my life, the day when I fell into the show business.""And that wasn't all you fell in either," added Teddy."What else did I fall in?""In a ditch when you stopped the runaway pony." Phil did not laugh.He was thinking.
"That was a lucky fall, too."
"Why?"
"Because it was the means of giving you and me our start in the circus business.""Hurrah! Here they come.Now see me make faces at them when they go by," said Teddy.
The Cahill home was near the outskirts of the village, and as the golden chariot of the band, glistening in the bright morning sunlight, approached, the lads could not repress an exclamation of delight.
"I used to think the band wagon was solid gold," breathed Teddy."When did you find out differently?""That day, two years ago, when I scraped off some of the gold with my knife and found it was nothing but wood," grunted Teddy in a disgusted tone.
"What is that band wagon trying to do?" demanded Phil suddenly."Guess they are going to turn around," said Teddy.
The six white horses attached to the band wagon slowly drew out of the line just before reaching the Cahill home, and pointed toward the roadside fence.The boys could not understand what the move meant.An instant later the leaders straightened out and began moving along the side of the road close to the fence.
They slowly drew up to the door yard, coming to a stop at the far end of it.
"Wha--wha--" stammered Teddy.
"They are going to serenade us," cried Phil."That's Mr.Sparling all over.What do you think of that, Mrs.Cahill? You never were serenaded by a circus band before, were you?""N-n-no," answered the widow, a little tremulously.
The band wagon drew up a few feet further, coming to a stop again just to the left of the dooryard gate, so as not to interfere with the party's view of the parade.
"There's Mr.Sparling," shouted Phil, as the owner in his handsome carriage drawn by four black horses, came abreast of the yard.
Both boys sprang up and cheered him in their enthusiasm, to which the showman responded by taking off his hat, while the band struck up"Yankee Doodle."
It was a glorious moment for the Circus Boys, and they were even more surprised and gratified by what followed a few moments later.
