lia Jane. "I thought it
cost only fifty cents to see the circus."

"That's just to get in and set on an ole board without any back to it,"
Darn informed her. "We're goin' to have reserved seats in the boxes,
with chairs to sit on."

"A fifty-cent seat would suit me all right," observed Danny.

"An' me, too," echoed Chris and Nora and Celia Jane and Jerry.

"Are you kids goin' to see the circus unload?" asked Darn.

"Will they let you get close enough to see?" questioned Danny in turn.

"Of course. They can't keep you from lookin', I guess."

"No, I guess not." Danny answered his own question as though it had been
asked by Chris. "Anybody knows he could look."

"Could you see the el'funt?" Jerry asked timidly.

"You could if you had eyes," replied Darn loftily.

"Where're they goin' to unload?" Danny queried.

"On the sidetrack by Smith's house, just back of the depot, at five
o'clock in the morning. I'm goin' to see them unload."

"So'm I!" cried Danny.

"An' me, too!" asserted Chris.

"An' me, too!" Jerry hurried to make that statement so that Danny could
not say he couldn't go because he had not chosen to go when there was a
chance.

"No, you're not," Darn asserted with a sudden frown.

"I am, too!" cried Jerry. Then after a moment he asked plaintively, "Why
ain't I?"

"I guess you ain't got nothin' to say about whether Jerry goes or not,"
Danny interposed quickly. "He can go if he wants to."

"No, he can't," contradicted Darn.

"Why can't he?" Nora asked.

"They don't let anybody in the poor farm go to the circus," was Darn's
unexpected reply.

"That's not got nothin' to do with Jerry!" cried Danny hotly. "I guess
he ain't in no poor farm."

"He's goin' to be, though," pursued Darn calmly, in that restrained,
superior, informative manner which sometimes can be so maddening.

"I ain't either, am I, Danny?" Jerry appealed dolefully.

"No, you ain't," Danny assured him. "Darn's jest tryin' to make you cry.
Don't you let him scare you."

"Jerry Elbow's goin' to the poor farm before the circus gets here,"
stated Darn.

"I ain't!" cried Jerry in a shaky voice. "I won't go! So there!"

"They'll take you," Darn informed him, "and you won't have anything to
say about it."

"Mother 'Larkey won't let them take me, will she, Danny?" asked Jerry in
a voice that was becoming shrill and high from fear.

"No, she won't," asserted Danny. "Darn Darner, you jest let Jerry be.
You ain't got no right