, and the teachers were as glad as the boys and girls
when the dismissal bell rang, for trying to keep the minds of restless
little mortals on geography and arithmetic when they are thinking only
of monkeys and bears and lions is not an easy task.

"Going to see the parade?" asked Palmer Davis, as Miss Mason's class
poured down the stairway.

"Going to see the parade?" the girls asked Meg.

"Sure," Bobby answered for both. "We're going to sit in Mr. Steve
Broadwell's window. You can see fine from there."

Stephen Broadwell was a druggist, and his window upstairs over his
drugstore was a coveted place for parades of all kinds in Oak Hill.
Everything paraded up the main street past the drugstore.

Meg and Bobby found Sam and the twins already waiting for them when
they hurried up the steep dark stairs that led to the storeroom over
the drugstore.

"Been here half an hour," grinned Sam. "Dot was so afraid she'd miss
the start that she wanted me to bring her in the car."

The four little Blossoms squeezed into the window and Sam looked over
their shoulders.

"Music!" cried Dot. "I hear it! They're coming!"

"I see 'em!" shouted Bobby, leaning out to look. "My, see the horses,
Meg!"

Sam pulled him in again, and in another minute the parade was marching
by in full swing. You know how wonderful a circus parade is; that is,
if you have ever seen one. And if you haven't, goodness! we couldn't
begin to do it justice. Of course the very largest circuses didn't
come to Oak Hill; but still this one had many things to see. There
were cream-colored horses and black ones, with girls dressed in pink
and blue and white fluffy dresses and gorgeous long red coats, riding
them. There were cages of animals, some of them sleeping and some
switching their tails angrily and showing their teeth. There was a
whole wagon load of monkeys, two bands, and even an elephant and a
camel.

"Wouldn't it be awful if we couldn't go to the circus?" said Bobby
solemnly, as the last of the procession, the clown driving his own
cunning pony and cart, went up the street. "After seeing that parade
I never could be happy 'less I saw them at the circus."

"Well, we are going," Meg reminded him practically.

"Let's hurry," urged Twaddles. "Maybe all the seats will be gone."

"Daddy bought tickets," said Dot dreamily. "Wasn't the first pony
pretty? And did you see the little dog riding on him? Do you suppose
Philip could ride a pony, Meg?"

Meg w