Mr. Stubbs's Brother: A Sequel to 'Toby Tyler'Otis, James
General
Mr. Stubbs's Brother: A Sequel to 'Toby Tyler'
Otis, James
Circus -- Juvenile fiction
Leander knew no more than he had already told; after having been
relieved from his care of the baby, he had started for the pasture, and
had seen the show-bills as he came along. He was certain it was the same
circus Toby had gone with, for the names on the bills were the same, and
he had heard some of the townspeople say so as he came along.
"An' I shall see the skeleton an' the fat woman again," said Toby,
delighted at the idea of meeting those kind friends from whom he had
thought himself parted with forever.
"Don't you s'pose you could get 'em to leave that show an' come with
ours?" asked Bob, thinking perhaps some kind fortune had thrown this
opportunity in their way that they might the better succeed in their
project.
Toby was not sure such a plan could be made to work, for the reason that
they were only intending to give two or three performances, and Mr. and
Mrs. Treat might not think it worth their while to leave the circus they
were with on the strength of such uncertain prospects.
"And you shall go to the show, Abner," said Toby, pleased at the
opportunity he would have of making the crippled boy happy for one day
at least; "an' I'll take all of you fellers down, an' get the skeleton
to talk at you, so's you can see how nice he is. You shall see his wife,
an' old Ben, an' Ella, an'--"
"But won't you be afraid of Job Lord?" interrupted Leander, fearful lest
Toby's dread of meeting his old employer might prevent them from having
all this promised enjoyment.
"Uncle Dan'l wouldn't let him take me away, an' now I'm home here I
don't believe old Ben would let him touch me."
There was evidently no probability that they would transact any more
business relative to their own circus that day, so intent were they on
talking about the one that was to come, and it was not until nearly time
to drive the cows home that they remembered the presence of their band.
Ben proposed that Leander should show them what he could do in the way
of music, so that he need not be at the trouble of bringing his
accordion up into the pasture again, and the boys ceased all
conversation for the purpose of listening to the so-called melody.
After considerable preparation in the way of polishing his clappers on
the cuff of his jacket and fingering the keys of his accordion to make
sure they were in proper working order, Leander extracted with one
finger a few bars of "Yankee Doodle" from the last-named instrument, and
gave an imitation of a drum with the clappers, in a manner that won for
him no small amount of applause.
"Now, we'll go home," said Toby, "'cause Uncle Dan'l will be waitin' for
me an' the cows, an' to-morrow I'll meet you down-town where the circus
pictures be."
Then he helped Abner on to his crutches, and walked beside him all the
way, wishing, oh, so much! that he could save the poor boy from having
to go out to the poor-farm to sleep.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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