se be
widout 'em and their pranks?" cried poor Norah, laughing and frowning
together, when called upon for the third time that morning to change
the youngsters' clothes; the last necessity arising from the fact that
they had filled the bathtub and taken a glorious dip without the
formality of removing their garments. "You're the plague of my life,
so you are; but poor motherless darlin's, I can't but love you! And
sorra the day, when him 't you belongs to comes for you again!"

When that morning's meal was over, the Master planned their day as had
become his habit. Said he:

"A circus day and the first day of the county fair, as this is, will
crowd the streets of the city with all sorts of teams and people. I've
decided not to risk Mrs. Calvert's horses in Newburgh to-day. We can
all go up by train and have no anxiety about anything. It's but a
down-hill walk, if a rather long one, from here to our own station,
and in town there'll be plenty of stages to carry us to the grounds.
Jim has consented to ride over on horseback early and secure our
places on the front row of seats, if this is possible. I've seen no
reserved seats advertised, but I don't like those insecure upper
benches--or boards--of the tiers of scaffolding, where a fellow has to
swing his feet in space or jab his toes into the back of the spectator
below. Besides, I always did like to be close to the 'ring' when I go
to the circus."

"O, Teacher! As if you ever went!" cried Alfaretta, giggling.

"Go? Of course I go every chance I get--to a real country
circus--which isn't often. There's nothing so convinces me that I am
still a little boy as the smell of tanbark and sawdust, and the sound
of the clown's squeaking voice!"

They laughed. It was so easy and so natural to laugh that morning.
Even Helena, who had enjoyed many superior entertainments, felt her
pulses thrill in anticipation of that day's amusement; and she meant
to let herself "go" for all the fun there might be, with as full--if
not as noisy an abandon--as any "mountain girl" among them.

Continued Mr. Seth, closely observing Dorothy who, alone of all the
company, was not smiling: "Now, for the morning. I suggest that you
pass it quietly at home; tennis, reading, lounging in hammocks--any
way to leave yourselves free from fatigue for the afternoon. Dinah
says 'Y'arly dinnah'; because all the 'help' want to go to the circus
and I want to have them. So we must get the dishes washed betimes,