in his pony cart,
and he waved to Dot quite as if he knew her.

"I guess he remembers me from this morning," she said with satisfaction.

More people kept coming in, and soon the tent was crowded. Then the
matinee began, with a grand parade all around the ring, horses
prancing, whips cracking, the monkeys shrieking shrilly. For three
hours the four little Blossoms were enthralled by the antics of the
clever beasts and the men and women performers, and they could hardly
believe it when Father Blossom said they must put on their hats, for
the performance was over.

"Won't there be any more?" begged Dot, putting on her hat backward in
her excitement. "Just a little more, Daddy?"

"Why, we've been here three hours," said Father Blossom, smiling. "The
circus has to have its supper and be ready for the evening crowd, you
know. You wouldn't want them to be too tired to go through their
tricks for Norah and Sam, would you?"

Of course Dot didn't want the circus to get completely tired out, so
she agreed that perhaps it was time to go home.

They brought Norah such glowing accounts of the things they had seen
that she was "all in a flutter," she said, and indeed she did serve
the potatoes in a soup dish. But as Father Blossom said, most anything
was likely to happen on circus day.

"You must all go to bed extra early to-night," he warned the children.
"If Meg and Bobby are late for school to-morrow, the circus will be
blamed. Dot looks as if she couldn't keep her eyes open another
minute."

Meg and Bobby went to bed when the twins' bedtime came, for they were
tired, and they fell asleep at once. But suddenly the loud ringing of
the telephone bell woke them.

CHAPTER XIII

A MONKEY HUNT

"Daddy! Daddy!" cried Meg, tumbling out of bed and running into the
hall. "There's the telephone."

Father Blossom came out of his room. He had been reading and was fully
dressed, for it was not late for grown-up people, only about ten
o'clock.

"I'm going, Daughter," he said. "Perhaps Mother has decided to come
out on the late train."

Meg leaned over the banisters to listen, and Bobby joined her there.
The twins did not wake up, for they were sound sleepers.

Father Blossom took down the receiver and said "Hello!" Then they
heard him ask a quick, low question or two, and then he laughed. How
he laughed! He threw back his head and fairly shouted. Meg and Bobby
had to laugh, too, though they had not the faintest idea