r! What would I do without
mother?"

Jerry was very much distressed at Celia Jane's misery and he looked
pleadingly up at his clown-father; that extraordinary man knew without a
word having been spoken that Jerry expected him to fix things so that
Celia Jane could stay with her mother. Whiteface spoke at once.

"Don't cry, Celia Jane. Nobody is going to take you away. Both ends are
going to meet now. You're all going to stay here with your mother."

"You talk big," grumbled Mr. Darner. "Now to come down to brass tacks.
Who's--"

"As long as I have any money, Mr. County Overseer," said Whiteface, "or
as long as I have the power to make any, the Mullarkey household will
not be broken up."

"Of course it won't, Robert," chimed in Jerry's mother in a crisp voice,
as she raised Celia Jane from the floor and comforted her. "You always
know just what to do."

Jerry's father continued:

"We are going to take Gary with us now, but we are going to try to repay
Mrs. Mullarkey a little for all she has done and suffered for our boy. I
have some money saved up and make a good salary. I want you to go to
Mr. Burrows, one of the proprietors of the circus, and satisfy yourself
on that point and that I am a man of my word. While you are doing that
we can arrange with Mrs. Mullarkey. We want to be alone with her. I'll
see you again before to-night's performance."

Mr. Darner stood up.

"I do not doubt your desire or ability in the matter," he said, "and, as
you wish it, I will consult Mr. Burrows. Nobody can be gladder than I am
that things have turned out this way. I don't like breaking up families
and taking children out to the farm, though some people say that I do. I
have to do a lot of things that go against the grain. I've wanted to do
what was best for you, Mrs. Mullarkey."

"We are sure you meant things for the best, Mr. Darner," said Jerry's
mother. "Good-by."

Mrs. Mullarkey was looking so hard at Jerry's parents that she did not
return Mr. Darner's "Good afternoon" as he left the house or seem even
to have heard it.

"It can't be true, what you just said," she at length articulated in a
choked voice. "Such things don't happen to us."

"It is true," Jerry's mother assured her.

"We shall not forget what you have done for Gary," said Whiteface. "I
calculate that I owe you at the least one thousand dollars for taking
care of him--"

"A thousand dollars!" gasped Danny. "Why, that's as much as father's
insurance