--oh, well,
no matter."

"Go on, tell me," Helen urged.

Joe shook his head.

"No. There isn't any use now," he said. "I--I can't do what I intended
to, that's all. Poor Benny."

"Yes; poor Benny," echoed Helen.

The sad news concerning the "human fish" soon spread among the circus
folk, and much sympathy was expressed for Benny Turton. A movement was
started to get up a purse for him, and a small sum was raised. Circus
performers do not get the big salaries which theatrical stars are
credited with, and, in addition, most of those with the Sampson
Brothers' Show had families to support. Then, too, the circus was not
one of the big ones. So, all told, not much was done for the youth in
the hospital.

Helen and Joe each wrote him a letter, encouraging him as much as they
could, but they both knew that the first sudden shock of hearing the
bad news must wear off from Benny's mind before he could begin to be
reconciled to it.

"Well, it isn't as bad as going blind," remarked Helen with a sigh.
"That would be too terrible! Benny can still have the pleasure of
reading and seeing things."

"Yes, his case might be worse," admitted Joe. He seemed in a thoughtful
mood, and more than once that evening Helen surprised him in a deep
study.

"What are you thinking of, Joe?" she finally asked.

"Oh, nothing--that is, nothing that seems to get me anywhere," he
answered.

But if the news from Benny was saddening, Joe had plenty of other
matters to make him rejoice, and the principal one was that the trained
seal was such a success in the tank act. For Lizzie certainly shared
the honors with Joe, and the boy fish was contemplating elaborating the
act. He thought of having the seal do a series of juggling and other
tricks on a platform near the tank, either before or after the
under-water work.

"But I guess we'd better wait until next season for that," said Jim
Tracy when Joe spoke of it. "You see every act is timed now to occupy
just so much of the programme. If I should give you more than twice the
time you now have I'd have to cut some one else, and no one would like
that."

"Oh, no, I wouldn't want that," Joe declared. As it was, there was
plenty of professional jealousy directed toward him, and he did not
want to arouse more by encroaching on the time of some other performer.

"I could cut out all of your trapeze work," went on the ring-master,
"but I don't want to do that. We haven't any too many good trapezist