The Circus Comes to Town Part 26

"Yes," laughed Mr. Burrows, "it is when it's got the name of Edward J.

Burrows on it. Just tell her to show that to the ticket seller and he'll give her the seats."

Then Whiteface, still sitting on top of the elephant's head, told the keeper he was ready and Sultana started. It took Jerry and Danny and Chris quite a while to become accustomed to the manner in which the palanquin joggled about on Sultana's back, but they were getting used to it when the elephant reached the street close to the entrance of the main tent where the people were streaming out from the performance.

There was a shout from the small boys in the crowd who immediately swarmed about Sultana and tagged on in the rear as she ambled patiently down the street. They looked enviously at Jerry and Danny and Chris and raised such a hubbub that every child they pa.s.sed and many of the grown persons, too, fell in line. The story of how the elephant had recognized the lost boy and picked him right up out of the audience pa.s.sed rapidly from mouth to mouth, with the result that no one left the ever lengthening procession that followed the elephant.

Jerry took turns with Danny and Chris in directing the elephant keeper how to get to Mrs. Mullarkey's. Jerry would not have missed one joggle or sway of that ride for worlds. He saw Darn Darner in the crowd following them, and he was glad that such a stuck-up boy should see what a high place in the world Jerry Elbow had reached and be envious of him.

He even waved to Darn to make sure that Darn knew that he saw him.

"h.e.l.lo, Jerry!" cried Darn in a loud voice, so that everybody would know he knew Jerry, and swaggered up close to the elephant. "How does it seem to be ridin' on an el'funt?"

"Fine!" Jerry exclaimed ecstatically.

"Don't you wish you was up here?" Danny asked in a voice that was not nearly so friendly as Jerry's had been.

"Anybody would, I guess," was Darn's reply.

"Well, you ain't," said Danny. "You're down there breathing the dust we make."

"There's the house!" cried Jerry.

"Which one?" asked Whiteface from his seat on the elephant's head.

"The one with the paint all wore off," Danny explained.

"There's Nora and Celia Jane!" cried Chris.

"I see them!" Jerry exclaimed and called his mother's attention to them.

They were standing by the gate, watching the strange procession approach.

"h.e.l.lo, Celia Jane! I'm ridin' on a el'funt!" Jerry cried shrilly to make her hear.

Celia Jane both heard and saw and she seemed glued to the gate-post with surprise. Her mouth opened as though she were going to speak and remained open, without a word coming out. Nora turned and fled into the house crying:

"Mother! Mother! Jerry's ridin' by on a el'funt from the circus!"

A moment later the keeper halted Sultana in front of the gate, and that fact unglued Celia Jane from the gate-post and caused words at last to flow from her opened mouth.

"Mother! They're stoppin' here!" she cried, in turn running to the house. She kept her eyes turned back on the elephant and ran into Nora, who was pulling Mrs. Mullarkey, with Kathleen in her arms, out through the door.

Whiteface now commanded Sultana to help him down, and she raised her trunk, wrapped it around his body and lowered him to the ground. The crowd of boys and girls who had pushed up as close as they could made way for him, while Jerry and his mother climbed down the ladder the elephant trainer placed for them, followed by Danny and Chris.

"Mother!" called Celia Jane. "There's Danny on the el'funt and Chris too!"

"For land sakes!" cried Mrs. Mullarkey. "Nothing has happened to any of the children, has there?"

"We're all right, Mother 'Larkey!" Jerry a.s.sured her.

"Nothing at all, madam," said Whiteface approaching her, "except that Jerry Elbow has found his parents."

Mrs. Mullarkey stared at Whiteface, too astounded to speak.

"An' his name ain't Jerry Elbow," cried Danny. "It's Gary L. Bowe."

"An' the el'funt knew him in a whole crowd of people," Chris added, "an'

picked him up with its trunk."

"The people thought the elephant was mad at first," said Darn Darner, who had approached as close as he could get to the clown.

"The el'funt picked him up in its trunk?" gasped Celia Jane, her eyes growing bigger and bigger.

"An' we're all goin' to the circus to-night!" Danny informed them.

"All of us!" Celia Jane got breath enough to utter.

"Me, too?" Nora asked.

"Yes, all of you!" laughed Jerry. "And Kathleen, too."

"I wanta see serka," cried the baby.

"And so you shall," said Whiteface, so close that Kathleen drew whimpering away from his white, chalky features. "It's all true, Mrs.

Mullarkey."

"Don't be afraid of Whiteface, Kathleen," called Jerry. "He's father."

At last Mrs. Mullarkey found her voice, but at the queer, choking sound she made, Jerry looked up and saw tears running down her face.

"I can't tell you how _glad_ I am that you have found your father and mother, Jerry," she said. "Mr. Darner is here now and, after all, he was going to take you away--this very day. And Celia Jane--" She couldn't finish, but put Kathleen down and covered her face with her ap.r.o.n, rocking her body back and forth.

Jerry looked towards the house and saw at the living-room window the face of a man,--a large, heavy face that seemed to scowl out at the crowd.

CHAPTER XIII

"--AND ELEPHANTS TO RIDE UPON"

Jerry's new-found mother went quickly to Mother 'Larkey and placed a comforting arm about her shoulder.

"_I_ am Mrs. Bowe, Gary's mother," she said, "and oh, how can I ever thank you for loving him and giving him a home? I never can repay you."

"That we can't, Mrs. Mullarkey," Whiteface interposed. "But what is this about taking Gary away? And Celia Jane?"

"Let's go into the house first," suggested Mrs. Bowe. "We have too big an audience here."

She led the way, her arm still about Mrs. Mullarkey's shoulder. Jerry and his father followed, though Jerry turned at the door to have another look at Sultana and the admiring throng of children gathered about her.