any tail), and, oh, my! the
_splendidest_ livin' skeleton you ever saw! I want you to be
man'ger--come on! It's easy enough. You poke us with a stick, an' we
perform. I dance, an' the four-legged girl walks, an' the rooster
crows, an' the skeleton skel-- Oh, well, you needn't poke the
skeleton."

The Little Blue Overalls paused for breath. Miss Salome laid aside
her work. Where was Anne?--but the stable could be reached without
passing the kitchen windows. Saturdays Anne was very busy, anyway.

"I'm ready," laughed Miss Salome. She had never been a
circus-manager, but she could learn. It was easier than whittling.
Together they hurried away to the stable. At the door Miss Salome
came to an abrupt stop. An astonished exclamation escaped her.

The living skeleton sat on an empty barrel, lean and grave and
patient. The living skeleton also uttered an exclamation. She and the
circus-manager gazed at each other in a remarkable way, as if under a
spell.

"Come on!" shouted the grizzled bear.

After that, Miss Salome and Anne were not so reserved. What was the
use? And it was much easier, after all, to be found out. Things ran
along smoothly and pleasantly after that.

Late in the autumn, Elizabeth, looking over John's shoulder one day,
laughed, then cried out, sharply. "Oh!" she said; "oh, I am sorry!"
And John echoed her an instant later.

"Dear John," the letter said, "when you were little were you ever
very sick, and did you _die?_ Oh, I see, but don't laugh. I think I
am a little out of my head to-day. One is when one is anxious. And
Little Blue Overalls is very sick. I found Anne crying a little while
ago, and just now she came in and found me. She didn't mind; I don't.

"He did not come yesterday or the day before. Yesterday I went to see
why. Anne was just coming away from the door. 'He's sick,' she said,
in her crisp, sharp way,--you know it, John,--but she was white in
the face. The little mother came to the door. Queer I had never seen
her before,--Little Blue Overalls has her blue eyes.

"There were two or three small persons clinging to her, and the very
smallest one I ever saw was in her arms. She looked fright--" The
letter broke off abruptly here. Another slip was enclosed that began
as abruptly. "Anne says it is scarlet-fever. The doctor has been
there just now. I am going to have him brought over here--you _know_
I don't mean the doctor. And you would not smile, either of you--not
Elizabeth, anyw