is dog Sandy, and marched off with a light step and a light
heart; but his hands remained at home, that is to say, his hands were
nowhere so much at home as in his trousers pockets, and there they
reposed, while Benny paced along, whistling "Not for Joseph, not if I
knows it," and Sandy nosing it all the way. His mother watched him with
pride as usual; the neighbors saw him go by and said, "There goes Benny
Briggs; he hain't broken his neck yet, but I presume to say that'll be
the next thing he does."

Uncle John's and uncle Calvin's boys from New Haven, arrived early at
grandmother Potter's, a place which seemed to them to contain all the
pleasures of all the spheres, for grandmother's weakness was for boys,
and nothing suited her better than getting all her grandsons together
and giving them "full swing," as Abijah called it, and Abijah was made
by nature to help grandmother out in her benevolent plans. He instituted
jolly measures, and contrived possibilities of riot and revel that no
mortal ever thought of before. As circuses were the fashion in urchin
society, on that particular day, Abijah, like a wizard, had called up
out of the farm resources, and out of certain mysterious resources of
his own, that were so plainly of unearthly origin that it was of no use
in the world to try to look into or understand them, such a circus as
would have made not only P. T. Barnum, but the ancient Romans themselves
perfectly miserable with envy. There was the trapeze, the tight rope,
the--well, alas, I don't know the names of them all, having had a
limited education in such matters, but there they all were, whatever
they are called--those things that make a perfect, finished,
spal-_en_-did, be-_yeu_-ti-ful circus. There were hoops with tissue
paper pasted over them, to be jumped through by the most wonderful
bareback riders on earth, and old Tom, grandmother's own horse, was
perfectly safe as a trained Arabian steed, when 'Bijah was there to see
how the thing was managed. Everything was safe and sure and delightful
when 'Bijah had charge of it. Nothing ever went wrong, or upset, or came
to a sorry end with him or his plans. He knew what he was about, and
ends with him were even more brilliant and satisfactory than beginnings
and means. I shouldn't dare to fully tell you what good times the boys
had at grandmother Potter's, especially on Fourth of Julys,
Thanksgivings, Christmases and birthdays, for fear of making all the
boys who