dventure would have been the
same as the plunder of a city, or the capture of a vessel belonging to
him on the high seas. In the same way, if one of the boys had seen a
circus-man drop a quarter, he would have hurried to give it back to him,
but he would only have been proud to hook into the circus-man's show,
and the other fellows would have been proud of his exploit, too, as
something that did honor to them all. As a person who enclosed bounds
and forbade trespass, the circus-man constituted himself the enemy of
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 bare-back 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
gentlema