away. I can't blame him if I don't blame her, can
I?"

"They've got enough, I guess," chuckled Luke. "Two reformed pirates!
Goodness! aren't kids the greatest ever?"

The escapade of Sammy and Dot had carried its own punishment with it.
Ruth was right when she said that Dot would never yield to such a
temptation again. She had learned something about running away. As for
Sammy, he was more subdued than the Corner House girls had ever seen him
before.

That is, he was subdued until they were in what Mr. Sorber called "a
private box" at the ringside of the circus and things began to happen.
Then, what small boy could remain subdued with the joys and wonders of
a real circus evolving before his eyes?

If the tents were dusty and patched, and some of the costumes as frayed
and tarnished as they could be after two-thirds of a season's wear, all
the glamour of the famous entertainment was here--the smell of the
animals, the dancing dust in the lamplight, the flaring torches, the
blaring of the band, the distant roaring of the lions being fed for the
amusement of the spectators.

The grand entrance was a marvel to the children. The curveting horses,
the gaily decked chariots, the daring drivers in pink and blue tights
and the very pink-cheeked women in the wonderful, glittering
clothes--all these things delighted Sammy and Dot as well as Louise
Quigg, who had never in her cramped life seen such a show.

When Mr. Sorber entered in his fresh suit and cracked his whip, and the
band began to play, Louise became absorbed. When the clowns leaped into
the ring with a chorused: "Here we are again!" Dot and Sammy and Louise
clutched hands without knowing it, and just "held on" to themselves and
each other during most of the entertainment that followed.

But the greatest excitement for the smaller people in the private box
occurred toward the end of the evening when a squad of ponies came in to
do their tricks. There were black ponies and white, and dappled and red
ponies; but the prettiest of all (both Dot and the gasping Louise
declared it) was the brown and cream colored Scalawag, with the pink
nose and ears.

Sammy, feeling his superiority as a boy in most instances, even at the
circus, dropped every appearance of calm when Neale pointed out Scalawag
as the calico pony promised Tess and Dot by Uncle Bill Sorber.

"Oh, my granny!" gasped the youngster, his eyes fairly bulging, "you
don't mean that's the pony I thought was