"Speech! Speech!" some one called out.
"What do they mean?" asked Helen of Bill Watson.
"They want you to say something," the clown said.
"Oh, I never could--never in the world!" and Helen blushed more vividly
than before.
"Try it," urged Joe. "Just thank them. You can do that."
Much confused, Helen arose at her place.
"I'd rather ride in a circus ring ten times over than make a speech,"
she confessed in an aside to Joe.
"Go on," he urged.
"My dear friends," she began tremblingly, "I want to thank you for all
the nice things you have said about me, and I want to say that I'm
glad--glad----" She paused and blushed again.
"Glad to be here," prompted Joe.
"Yes, that's it--glad to be here, and I--er--I---- Oh, you finish for
me, Joe!" she begged, as she sat down amid laughter.
Then the supper went on, more merrily than before. But it had to come
to an end at last, for the show people needed their rest if they were
to perform well the next day. And most of them, especially those like
Joe and the acrobats, who depended on their nerve as well as their
strength, needed unbroken slumber.
As Joe walked back to the railroad, where their sleeping cars were
standing on a siding, the young trapeze performer asked Helen about her
business transaction with the law clerk. He had not had a chance to do
this at the supper.
"Well," began the girl, "as you know, he brought me the cash, Joe. Oh,
how nice those new bills did look. He had it all in new bills for me.
Mr. Pike told him to do that, he said, as they didn't know whether I
could use a check, traveling about as I am. Anyhow he had the bills
for me--about three thousand dollars it was. The rest of my little
fortune, you know, is in stocks and bonds. I only get the interest,
but this cash was from the sale of some of grandfather's property."
"Then you didn't keep the cash yourself?" Joe asked.
"No. Mr. Sanford said it wouldn't be safe for me to carry so much
money around with me. Do you think it would?"
"Of course not," Joe agreed. "But you could have let our treasurer
keep it for you. He could have banked it."
"Yes; Mr. Sanford thought of that, he said. But he also said if my
money was in the bank I wouldn't get more than three per cent. on it.
I don't know exactly what he means--I never was any good at fractions,
and I know nothing about business. But, anyhow, Mr. Sanford kindly
explained that I would get more interest on my money if it was invested
than if it was in a bank. And he offered to invest for me all I didn't
need at once. Wasn't he kind?"
"Perhaps," admitted Joe, rather dubiously. "How is he going to invest
it?"
"Oh, he knows lots of ways, he said, being in the law office. But he
said he thought it would be best to buy oil stock with it. Oil stock
was sure to go up in price, he said; and I would make money on that as
well as interest, or dividends--or something like that. Wasn't he
good?"
"To himself maybe, yes," answered Joe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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