were the broad stalls for the cattle--the
horses' intelligent heads looking over the mangers at the brilliantly
lighted scene, from one side, while the mild-eyed cows and oxen chewed
their cud on the other side of the barn floor.

All the farm machinery and wagons had been removed, and the open space
thoroughly swept. Rows of Chinese lanterns, carefully stayed so that the
candles should not set them afire, were strung from end to end of the
barn. Overhead the beams of three great lanterns were reflected downward
upon the dancing-floor.

When the boys first began to crowd out to the barn, all the decorating
was not quite finished, and the workmen had left a rope hanging from a
beam above. Some of the boys began swinging on that rope.

"Here's Neale! Here's Neale O'Neil!" cried one of the sixth grade boys
when Neale appeared. "Come on, Neale. Show us what you did on the rope
in the school gym."

Most boys can easily be tempted to "show off" a little when it comes to
gymnastic exercises. Neale seized the rope and began to mount it,
stiff-legged and "hand over hand." It was a feat that a professional
acrobat would have found easy, but that very few but professionals could
have accomplished.

It was when he reached the beam that the boy surprised his mates. He got
his legs over the beam and rested for a moment; then he commenced the
descent.

In some way he wrapped his legs around the rope and, head down, suddenly
shot toward the floor at a fear-exciting pace.

Several of the girls, with Mr. Poole, were just entering the barn. The
girls shrieked, for they thought Neale was falling.

But the boy halted in midflight, swung up his body quickly, seized the
rope again with both hands, and dropped lightly to the floor.

"Bravo!" cried Mr. Poole, leading the applause. "I declare, that was
well done. I saw a boy at Twomley & Sorber's Circus this last summer do
that very thing--and he did it no better."

"Oh, but that couldn't have been Neale, Mr. Poole," Agnes Kenway
hastened to say, "for Neale tells us that he never went to a circus in
his life."

"He might easily be the junior member of an acrobatic troupe, just the
same," said Mr. Poole; but Neale had slipped away from them for the time
being and the farmer got no chance to interview the boy.

A large-sized talking machine was wheeled into place and the farmer put
in the dance records himself. The simple dances--such as they had
learned at school or in the juvenil