more pictures. Look at the
monkeys!"

The board fence surrounding the corner lot was plastered with gorgeous
circus posters of prancing yellow lions, ladies in gauzy skirts riding
on pretty ponies, and mischievous monkeys climbing up ropes and doing
the most wonderful tricks.

"I wish we had a monkey," said Meg, who did her best to keep a
menagerie.

"What's that man doing?" demanded Twaddles, pulling at Bobby's sleeve
and pointing to a trapeze performer.

"He does things like that," answered Bobby. "You didn't go to the
circus when it was here two years ago, did you, Twaddles? You and
Dot were too little. But I guess maybe you can go this time."

The four little Blossoms talked of nothing but the circus after this,
and Norah said she knew that Meg dreamed of lions and tigers every
night. All but one of the Blossoms were going, the children with
Father Blossom in the afternoon, and Norah with Sam at night. Mother
Blossom had planned to spend the night with a friend in the city, and
as she didn't care much about circuses anyway, she thought she
wouldn't postpone her trip.

"What about school?" asked Father Blossom, coming home one evening to
find Twaddles wrapped up in the fur rug and playing he was a polar
bear, while Meg and Bobby, each under a chair, growled like panthers,
and Dot swung from the curtain pole pretending that she was a trapeze
performer. "What do you do about getting excused, Bobby? Really, Dot,
you'll have that curtain pole down in a minute."

Flushed and smiling, Dot dropped to the floor, and Twaddles came out
of his rug.

"School lets us out at eleven o'clock, so we can see the parade,"
announced Bobby. "Then there isn't any more after that. Some of the
school committee said it was nonsense to close the school for a
circus, but Mr. Carter said he wasn't going to give us a chance to
play hooky. Everybody's going, Daddy."

"Dot and Twaddles want to meet the children up town to see the parade.
So you think that is safe, Ralph?" asked Mother Blossom, coming into
the room to tell them that supper was ready. "There will be such a
crowd."

"They mustn't go alone," said Father Blossom quickly. "Let Sam take
them. They can all sit in Steve Broadwell's window. He asked me to-day
if they didn't want to come. And as soon as the parade is over, come
home to lunch. I'll meet you here and we'll get an early start."

The Wednesday morning, circus day, came at last. Very little work was
done in school