The Circus Comes to Town Part 5

"Enough to buy a ticket to the circus!" Danny added. "Where is it? Let's see it."

"It's all gone," Jerry told his tormentors.

"Fifty cents! And you spent all of it at once!" wailed Celia Jane.

"That must of bought a whole lot of candy," said Danny. "Fork out. No fair holding any back."

Jerry produced the small paper bag of cough drops and gave it to Mother 'Larkey.

"They're cough drops with honey in 'em for Kathleen," he said. "I ain't eaten one of them."

"Give me one, Mother," pleaded Celia Jane.

"They're for Kathleen," replied her mother. "She needs them and you don't."

"Jerry's Kathleen's pet! Jerry's Kathleen's little honey cough-drop boy!" chanted Danny.

"Jerry's done more for Kathleen than her own brothers and sisters have ever done, unless it's Nora," declared Mrs. Mullarkey. "It's no wonder she loves him best."

"That's not fifty cents' worth of cough drops," Danny accused. "Where's the rest of the money? Make him tell, Mother."

Kathleen saved him the necessity of replying.

"Toff meddy," she gurgled, looking up at the shelf where the bottle was kept. "Tatleen want toff meddy."

"It's all gone, Kathleen," her mother said soothingly.

"No," said Kathleen, shaking her head and pointing up at the bottle.

"Mercy sakes! It's full!" cried Mrs. Mullarkey. "I could have sworn I emptied it this morning."

Then she looked at Jerry, a sudden softening coming over her face and into her eyes.

"Jerry, you went and spent every cent of that half-dollar on Kathleen, didn't you?"

"You said there wasn't any money in the house," Jerry defended himself, "and that Kathleen needed more medicine because summer coughs are bad for babies."

"The Lord love you, Jerry, I'm not scolding you. It's more apt to be crying I am at the big heart of you. It's as big as my Dan's was. You're more like him in heart and disposition than any of his own children, unless it's Nora. That's why I can't ever let them take you away, ever."

"Who wants to take Jerry away?" It was Nora's startled voice that asked.

Jerry's heart stood still. Had the man with the red scar on his face found him at last? He looked up at Mother 'Larkey, his lips starting to twist.

"n.o.body's going to take him away!" said Mrs. Mullarkey almost fiercely.

"Just let anybody try it!"

"Why didn't you tell us you had fifty cents?" asked Danny. "I bet you was going to spend it all for yourself for a ticket to the circus."

"Mr. Barton told me not to tell," replied Jerry. "He said you'd get it away from me if you knew I had found it and for me to go to the circus all by myself."

"And you gave that up just for Kathleen?" queried Mrs. Mullarkey.

"I guess Kathleen's cough is much more important than any old circus,"

said Jerry.

Mother 'Larkey thereupon gathered Jerry up in her arms and kissed him.

CHAPTER III

THE WIDTH OF AN ELEPHANT'S TAIL

Jerry tried all the next day and the next to think what it was that the picture of the elephant jumping the fence almost made him remember, but it just wouldn't come and finally he gave up trying. After playing with Kathleen until Mother 'Larkey put her in the crib for her afternoon nap, he wandered out towards the woodshed from behind which he heard the voices of Danny and Celia Jane.

On the way an idea popped all of a sudden into his mind. The dazzling splendor of it first brought him to a dead halt and then set him running breathlessly to join the Mullarkey children. He found them all gathered about Danny, hungrily watching him eat a green apple.

"Couldn't we play circus!" he exclaimed, in eager excitement at the idea that had come to him.

"We could if we wanted to," replied Danny, in that superior, ardor-dampening way of his.

Jerry felt his enthusiasm for the idea oozing out of his bare toes.

"I--Don't we want to, Danny?"

"Oh, yes, let's!" cried Nora eagerly. "I'm tired of ante-over and run-sheep-run and pump-pump-pull-away--"

"And hidin'-go-seek and tree-tag," interrupted Celia Jane. She turned to Jerry. "How do you play circus?"

"You just--just _play_ it," he answered. "'Maginary you're an el'funt jumpin' a fence and all."

"I'll be the el'funt!" cried Danny.

"I want to be the el'funt," objected Chris.

"The el'funt's mine," Jerry a.s.serted and he closed his lips tightly.

Danny didn't have any right to that elephant. "I saw it first," he added.

"I said 'I'll be the el'funt' first, didn't I?" asked Danny.

"Jerry orter have first choice," said Nora, the conciliator, "seein' it was him thought of playin' circus."

"I guess I can jump the highest, can't I?" Danny asked in a tone that said as plain as day that that settled the matter.

"It's my el'funt!" insisted Jerry.

"You always take first choice," Chris complained.