of snow in the sun, an' driv' the crowd back on all sides
in a big ring. I reckon everybody thar thought Alf surely would balk at
a thing like that, but it looked like the fun folks was pokin' at him
had got his dander up. Jim Cahews had closed the store an' come down,
an' I seed 'im nudge Alf an' heard 'im say, 'I believe I'd let that item
slide, Alf, the cloth has been cut on the bias, an' the seams are so
stout that it never could be sold by the yard.'

"'Shet up, I know what I'm about,' I heard Alf whisper, an' then he
yelled out to the sheriff, 'Put up the pile o' planks along with it;
nobody wants a' old rag as big as that.'

"The sheriff agreed, an' both lots went in as one. It was a sharp trick
of Alf's, for he had found out that a photographer was thar from Carlton
to go his limit on the tent, but lumpin' it in with the planks sorter
upset the chap's calculations, an' he didn't have the look of a man that
could figure quick. He shuck all over as he bid ten dollars, an' while
the sheriff was yellin' 'Goin'! goin'!' Alf stooped down an' felt of the
canvas. He found a clean hole that looked like it had been cut, an' run
his finger through it an' laffed an' said, 'It wouldn't do to hang it up
to dry, the wind 'ud blow it to pieces, but I kin use the planks, an'
I'll resk a dollar more.' The photographer got scared, an', while he was
stoopin' down tryin' to feel o' the tent, Alf ketched the sheriff's eye
an' said, 'I'll withdraw my bid if you don't hurry. I'm wastin' time.'
The sheriff yelled out an' told the photographer it was agin 'im, but he
look scared wuss 'n ever an' shuck his head, an' that ended it. Alf
wasn't in as big a hurry to git away as he had let on, neither. He set a
couple o' niggers to work stackin' up the planks in neat piles an'
rollin' up the tent. He sent the hosses to the pasture back o' the
store, an' told Pomp to give 'em a good rubbin' down, an' to put some o'
his famous hoss-tonic in the'r feed."

"A circus!" Mrs. Henley said, with a sniff. "A circus, and me the
daughter of a Baptist preacher."

"Well, he ain't raily goin' to put the thing on the road," Wrinkle said,
seriously. "He counts on sellin' it off piece by piece. I went back to
the store when he did. I was afeard, at the start, that he was cracked
in the upper story, but I've sorter switched around. Old Welborne come
in an' had his say about the snag Alf had at last struck in his
overeagerness to have some'n to do now that he