he had concluded she waddled away toward her
tent.

"Great woman that," said the skeleton, as he saw her disappear within
the tent.

"Yes," said Toby, "she's the greatest I ever saw."

"I mean that she's got a great head. Now you'll see about how much she
cares for what Job says."

"If I was as big as her," said Toby, with just a shade of envy in his
voice, "I wouldn't be afraid of anybody."

"It hain't so much the size," said the skeleton, sagely--"it hain't so
much the size, my boy; for I can scare that woman almost to death when I
feel like it."

Toby looked for a moment at Mr. Treat's thin legs and arms, and then he
said, warningly, "I wouldn't feel like it very often if I was you, Mr.
Treat, 'cause she might break some of your bones if you didn't happen to
scare her enough."

"Don't fear for me, my boy--don't fear for me; you'll see how I manage
her if you stay with the circus long enough. Now, I often--"

If Mr. Treat was about to confide a family secret to Toby, it was fated
that he should not hear it then, for Mrs. Treat had just come out of her
tent, carrying in her hands a large tin plate piled high with a
miscellaneous assortment of pie, cake, bread, and meat.

She placed this in front of Toby, and as she did so she handed him two
pictures.

[Illustration: TOBY GETS HIS SUPPER.]

"There, little Toby Tyler," she said--"there's something for you to eat,
if Mr. Job Lord and his precious partner Jacobs did say you shouldn't
have any supper: an' I've brought you a picture of Samuel an' me. We
sell 'em for ten cents apiece, but I'm going to give them to you,
because I like the looks of you."

Toby was quite overcome with the presents, and seemed at a loss how to
thank her for them. He attempted to speak, but could not get the words
out at first; and then he said, as he put the two photographs in the
same pocket with his money, "You're awful good to me, an' when I get to
be a man I'll give you lots of things. I wasn't so very hungry, if I am
such a big eater, but I did want something."

"Bless your dear little heart, and you _shall_ have something to eat,"
said the Fat Woman, as she seized Toby, squeezed him close up to her,
and kissed his freckled face as kindly as if it had been as fair and
white as possible. "You shall eat all you want to; an' if you get the
stomach-ache, as Samuel does sometimes when he's been eatin' too much,
I'll give you some catnip-tea out of the same dipper that I give him