“Oh, he does, eh?” replied Ted. “We’ll see about that.”
But he did not go to Mr. Paine, for which Jack was grateful, for the
boy thought perhaps, in spite of Sam Kyle being his friend, the manager
might discharge him.
“Don’t mind Ted,” said the head clown as he took Jack aside and showed
him how best to remove the grease paint from his face. “He thinks every
performer is trying to spoil his act. He’s jealous, that’s all. But
look out for him. He’ll try to make trouble for you, and he has an ugly
temper. Keep away from that part of the ring where he is, and you’ll
get along all right. I watched you to-night. You did pretty well. Keep
at it.”
“Thanks,” replied Jack gratefully. “I think I can do a better act when
I get my flying machine. Where do we show next?”
“At Haddington. That’s a big city. But you’d better hustle, now, and
get to the train.”
Jack finished removing his make-up, and then donned his street clothes.
He was given a trunk by Sam, in which to put his clown outfit and some
tubes of grease paint. So far his baggage was very light.
“Come on with me and I’ll see that you get a place in the
sleeping-car,” said Sam, for the Bower & Brewster Show had its own
special train, with quarters for the hundreds of performers, employees
and animals.
Outside the dressing-tent Jack found that very little of the circus
remained. The menagerie had entirely disappeared, and now men were
beginning to take down the big tent. It was quite a different scene
from the one of an hour before. Then it had been light, lively and gay,
with strains of music and the laughter of the crowd.
Now it was dark; on all sides were rumbling wagons drawn by struggling
horses, and men were shouting and calling to one another, trying to
get their vehicles loaded so they could drive them to the flatcars by
which they were transported. Yet though there was seeming confusion,
everything was done by a careful system.
Jack found that the interior of the sleeping-car was not much like the
regular Pullmans. But it answered the purpose, and he soon followed
the example of the other circus performers and crawled into his bunk.
He was tired, yet the excitement of what he had gone through kept him
awake. Then, too, there were many disturbing noises caused by making
up the train and loading the big wagons containing the tents, poles,
supplies and animal cages.
Gentle snores on all sides of him told Jack that his companions were
not disturbed by what, to him, were unusual things, for they fell
asleep almost as soon as their heads touched the pillows. Finally sharp
whistles of the locomotives told him that the train was ready to start,
and soon he felt himself being lulled to slumber by the motion of the
car and the steady click-clack as the wheels passed over the rail
joints.
He was roused from his sleep by some one shaking him, and he looked up
to see the good-natured face of Sam Kyle looking in on him.
“Time for breakfast,” announced the head clown.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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