e demanded, sternly.

"Don't be angry," she pleaded. "Wish me luck."

She held out one small hand; he did not take it. She wavered, then she
felt the eyes of the deacons upon her. Courage returned and she spoke in
a firm, clear voice: "I am going to run away."

Douglas stepped before her and studied her keenly.

"Run away?" he exclaimed incredulously.

"Yes, to the circus with Jim."

"You couldn't DO such a thing," he answered, excitedly. "Why, only a
moment ago you told me you would never leave me."

"Oh, but that was a moment ago," she cried, in a strained, high voice.
"That was before Jim came. You see, I didn't know HOW I felt until I saw
Jim and heard all about my old friends, how Barker is keeping my place
for me, and how they all want to see me. And I want to see them, and
to hear the music and the laughter and the clown songs--Oh, the clown
songs!" She waltzed about, humming the snatch of melody that Mandy had
heard the morning that Polly first woke in the parsonage.

"Ting, ling.
That's how the bells ring,
Ting, ling, pretty young thing."

She paused, her hands clasped behind her head, and gazed at them with a
brave, little smile. "Oh, it's going to be fine! Fine!"

"You don't know what you're doing," said Douglas. He seized her roughly
by the arm. Pain was making him brutal. "I won't LET you go! Do you hear
me? I won't--not until you've thought it over."

"I have thought it over," Polly answered, meeting his eyes and trying
to speak lightly. Her lips trembled. She could not bear for him to
think her so ungrateful. She remembered his great kindness; the many
thoughtful acts that had made the past year so precious to her.

"You've been awfully good to me, Mr. John." She tried to choke back a
sob. "I'll never forget it--never! I'll always feel the same toward you.
But you mustn't ask me to stay. I want to get back to them that knew me
first--to my OWN! Circus folks aren't cut out for parsons' homes, and
I was born in the circus. I love it--I love it!" She felt her strength
going, and cried out wildly: "I want Bingo! I want to go round and round
the ring! I want the lights and the music and the hoops! I want the
shrieks of the animals, and the rumble of the wheels in the plains at
night! I want to ride in the big parade! I want to live and die--just
die--as circus folks die! I want to go back! I want to go back!"

She put out one trembling hand to Jim and rushed quickly throu