nd see the elephant jump the fence. He felt very friendly to
that elephant and well acquainted with it. The roguish look in its
eyes, in the picture, made it seem a very nice sort of elephant and he
knew he would like it.

But he also knew that Mother 'Larkey found it very hard to make both
ends meet since her husband died--he had often heard her say so--but
there might be a possible chance that she would have several fifty-cent
pieces, so he started again to run after the other children, keeping
close enough to be in time if Mrs. Mullarkey _should_ happen to be
distributing fifty-cent pieces among her brood and there _should_ happen
to be an extra one for him. Even though she were not his mother, she
_might_ give it to him, she had already done so many things for him.

CHAPTER II

THE BLACK HALF-DOLLAR

Jerry's progress was brought to a sudden halt and he was sent sprawling
to the ground by running full tilt into a man who tried to turn the same
corner at the same time Jerry did, but from the opposite direction. The
impact was so swift and so hard that Jerry was whirled clear around and
fell on his face, striking two small pieces of board lying near the
sidewalk and loosening a plank in the sidewalk itself.

"Oh!" gasped the man's voice.

Before Jerry could stir he heard a clink as of metal falling on board.
He half turned on his back and looked dazedly up at the man, who was
pressing both hands into the pit of his stomach. His face was very red.
He spoke to Jerry hesitatingly, as though he could not get his breath.

'Are you--hurt--much?"

"N-no, I guess not," Jerry replied, sitting up and feeling of a bruised
place on his arm.

"You just about knocked the breath out of me," said the man in a more
natural voice and one which Jerry now recognized as belonging to Harry
Barton, the clerk at the corner drug store.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Barton. If I'd of seen you--"

"You wouldn't have run into me," finished Mr. Barton. "Of course not.
There are a lot of things we wouldn't do if we could see what the
results were going to be. Why, bless me, it's Jerry Elbow! Well, I guess
there wasn't much harm done this time. You seemed to be in quite a
hurry. Have I delayed you?"

"Yes, sir, I was in a hurry," Jerry answered. "Danny was running to ask
Mother 'Larkey for fifty cents to see the circus."

"And what were you running for?"

Jerry started to get up as he replied.

"To see if she had fifty cents for Da--"