must
have belonged to the little clown.

Jimmy looked at the dress again and again. There were long things like
socks, of a dirty white colour, with a kind of flowery pattern in red
along the sides. Then he saw what looked like a very short and baggy
pair of light red and blue knickerbockers, and also the jacket of light
red and blue too, with curious loose sleeves.

He would very much have liked to put them all on just to see how he
looked in them, only that he felt afraid that Nan or her father might
return before he had time to take them off again.

No sooner did they come back than they began to prepare for the evening
performance, and still everybody seemed too busy to give many thoughts
to Jimmy.

'Whose is that little clown's suit?' he asked, while Nan was busy about
the van.

'Ah,' she answered, 'that was my little brother's,' and she spoke so
unhappily that he did not like to say any more about it.

But Jimmy wanted more and more to try the suit on himself only just for
a few moments, and he thought it could not possibly do any harm.
Presently Nan, who had taken off Britannia's dress, put on her green
velvet riding-habit, and Jimmy could hear the band playing close by, and
he guessed that the performance was soon going to begin.

'You can go to bed whenever you like,' said Nan, before she left the
van.

'Thank you,' he answered, and when she had gone he stood at the door
looking out into the darkness. He could see the flaming naphtha lamps,
and hear the music and a loud clapping inside the great tent, and now
they seemed all so busy that it might be a good time to put on the
little clown's dress.

First of all Jimmy shut the upper part of the door, so that nobody who
happened to look that way could see inside the van. He took down the
clothes from the peg, and removed his own jacket and waistcoat and
knickerbockers as quickly as possible. Then he found that he must take
off his boots and stockings, and he sat down on the floor of the van to
draw on those with the pattern on each side. They did not go on very
easily, but he managed it at last, and then it was a simple matter to
put on the loose knickerbockers and the jacket.

As his feet felt cold, he put on his own boots again, and then he stood
on a chair without a back to take down the piece of broken looking-glass
which he had seen Nan use that day. He could not get a very good view of
himself, but he could see that his face was much dirtier th