Under the Lilacs Read Online Free PDF Page A

we, Sancho?” he added, making a queer noise, which
     caused the poodle to growl and bang the floor irefully with his tail, as he lay close to his master’s feet, getting acquainted
     with the new shoes they wore.
    “How came you there?” asked Mrs. Moss, rather disturbed at the news.
    “Why, my father was the ‘Wild Hunter of the Plains.’ Didn’t you ever see or hear of him?” said Ben, as if surprised at her
     ignorance.
    “Bless your heart, child, I haven’t been to a circus this ten years, and I’m sure I don’t remember what or who I saw then,”
     answered Mrs. Moss, amused, yet touched by the son’s evident admiration for his father.
    “Didn’t
you
see him?” demanded Ben, turning to the little girls.
    “We saw Indians and tumbling men, and the Bounding Brothers of Borneo, and a clown and monkeys, and a little mite of a pony
     with blue eyes. Was he any of them?” answered Betty, innocently.
    “Pooh! he didn’t belong to that lot. He always rode two, four, six, eight horses to oncet, and I used to ride with him till
     I got too big.
My
father was A No. 1, and didn’t do anything but break horses and ride ’em,” said Ben, with as much pride as if his parent
     had been a President.
    “Is he dead?” asked Mrs. Moss.
    “I don’t know. Wish I did”— and poor Ben gave a gulp as if something rose in his throat and choked him.
    “Tell us all about it, dear, and maybe we can find out where he is,” said Mrs. Moss, leaning forward to pat the shiny dark
     head that was suddenly bent over the dog.
    “Yes, ma’am, I will, thank y’,” and with an effort the boy steadied his voice and plunged into the middle of his story.
    “Father was always good to me, and I liked bein’ with him after granny died. I lived with her till I was seven; then father
     took me, and I was trained for a rider. You jest oughter have seen me when I was a little feller all in white tights, and
     a gold belt, and pink riggin’, standin’ on father’s shoulder, or hangin’ on to old General’s tail, and him gallopin’ full
     pelt; or father ridin’ three horses with me on
his
head wavin’ flags, and everyone clappin’ like fun.”
    “Oh, weren’t you scared to pieces?” asked Betty, quaking at the mere thought.
    “Not a bit. I liked it.”
    “So should I!” cried Bab enthusiastically.
    “Then I drove the four ponies in the little chariot, when we paraded,” continued Ben, “and I sat on the great ball uptop of the grand car drawed by Hannibal and Nero. But I
didn’t
like that, ‘cause it was awful high and shaky, and the sun was hot, and the trees slapped my face, and my legs ached holdin’
     on.”
    “What’s hanny bells and neroes?” demanded Betty.
    “Big elephants. Father never let ’em put me up there, and they didn’t darst till he was gone; then I had to, else they’d ‘a’
     thrashed me.”
    “Didn’t anyone take your part?” asked Mrs. Moss.
    “Yes, ’m, ‘most all the ladies did; they were very good to me, ‘specially ‘Melia. She vowed she wouldn’t go on in the Tunnymunt
     act if they didn’t stop knockin’ me round when I wouldn’t help old Buck with the bears. So they had to stop it, ‘cause she
     led first-rate, and none of the other ladies rode half as well as ‘Melia.”
    “Bears! oh, do tell about them!” exclaimed Bab, in great excitement, for at the only circus she had seen the animals were
     her delight.
    “Buck had five of ’em, cross old fellers, and he showed ’em off. I played with ’em once, jest for fun, and he thought it would
     make a hit to have me show off instead of him. But they had a way of clawin’ and huggin’ that wasn’t nice, and you couldn’t
     never tell whether they were good-natured or ready to bite your head off. Buck was all over scars where they’d scratched and
     bit him, and I wasn’t going to do it; and I didn’t have to, owin’ to Miss St. John’s standin’ by me like a good one.”
    “Who
was
Miss St. John?”