s
appetite for what was to come, while to Jerry and the rest of the
Mullarkey children it was a substantial part of the feast itself.

The free show seemed to Jerry not to have much more than started when
the raucous voice of the ballyhoo announced:

"This, ladies and gents, concludes the free show. The main show will not
begin for half an hour, thirty minutes--just time enough to see the side
show, the world's greatest congress of freaks and monstrosities. See the
sword-swallower from India to whom a steel sword is no more than a
string of spaghetti to an Italian. Kelilah, the famous dancer of the
Nile, whose graceful contortions have delighted the eyes and moved the
hearts of kings. See Major Wee-Wee, the smallest man in the world, no
bigger than a two-year-old baby, and Tom Morgan, the giant who stands
seven feet three inches in his stocking feet. They are all there--every
kind of human freak from the living skeleton to the fat woman who weighs
four hundred pounds. The price is the same to one and all--twenty-five
cents, only a quarter of a dollar. This way and get your tickets for the
side show. There is just time to take in all its wonders before the big
show in the main tent begins."

The promise of all these delights proved irresistible to Jerry and Chris
and they left the children and were almost first in line, but the ticket
taker refused them admittance.

"Those tickets are not good to the side show," he said. "They admit you
to the main tent."

Stunned at this disaster, Jerry and Chris slunk under the ropes at the
entrance and rejoined Danny and Nora and Celia Jane. They stood in
silence as the crowd surged around the ticket seller for the side show
and watched the people stream through the door. Never had the lack of
"twenty-five cents, only a quarter of a dollar", meant so much to any
small boy as it meant to Jerry and Chris. Some of the people were
already going into the main tent, passing up the glories of the side
show. Jerry wondered if they, too, didn't have the necessary quarter of
a dollar.

"It would be just grand to see all them freaks," sighed Celia Jane. "If
I could only see just half the circus."

Jerry, his ticket still in his hand, looked up and saw Danny glancing
covetously at it.

"What'll you take for your ticket?" he asked eagerly. "I'll give you
anything of mine you want."

"I won't trade," replied Jerry, stuffing the ticket into his blouse
pocket. "I'm a-goin' to see the circ