every boy who respected
himself, and challenged him to practise any sort of strategy. There was
not a boy in the crowd that my boy went with who would have been allowed
to hook into a circus by his parents; yet hooking in was an ideal that
was cherished among them, that was talked of, and that was even
sometimes attempted, though not often. Once, when a fellow really hooked
in, and joined the crowd that had ignobly paid, one of the fellows could
not stand it. He asked him just how and where he got in, and then he
went to the door, and got back his money from the doorkeeper upon the
plea that he did not feel well; and in five or ten minutes he was back
among the boys, a hero of such moral grandeur as would be hard to
describe. Not one of the fellows saw him as he really was--a little
lying, thievish scoundrel. Not even my boy saw him so, though he had on
some other point of personal honesty the most fantastic scruples.

The boys liked to be at the circus early so as to make sure of the grand
entry of the performers into the ring, where they caracoled round on
horseback, and gave a delicious foretaste of the wonders to come. The
fellows were united in this, but upon other matters feeling
varied--some liked tumbling best; some the slack-rope; some
bareback-riding; some the feats of tossing knives and balls and catching
them. There never was more than one ring in those days; and you were not
tempted to break your neck and set your eyes forever askew, by trying to
watch all the things that went on at once in two or three rings.

The boys did not miss the smallest feats of any performance, and they
enjoyed them every one, not equally, but fully. They had their
preferences, of course, as I have hinted; and one of the most popular
acts was that where a horse has been trained to misbehave, so that
nobody can mount him; and after the actors have tried him, the
ring-master turns to the audience, and asks if some gentleman among them
wants to try it. Nobody stirs, till at last a tipsy country-jake is seen
making his way down from one of the top seats toward the ring. He can
hardly walk, he is so drunk, and the clown has to help him across the
ring-board, and even then he trips and rolls over on the saw-dust, and
has to be pulled to his feet. When they bring him up to the horse, he
falls against it; and the little fellows think he will certainly get
killed. But the big boys tell the little fellows to shut up and watch
out. The rin