The only trouble came when the meal was finished. No one wanted to wash the dishes, and, finally, it was decided to return them to their respective kitchens just as they were, and to let them be washed with the rest of the dinner dishes at home. And this decision came near putting an end to Hut Club dinners, for both Mrs. Dunn and the Widow Sullivan were determined not to wash any more dirty dishes from the hut. When the meal was over, the boys lounged about the hut, and Dan Sullivan brought a lot of things from his sister’s playhouse with which to furnish it more suitably. Archie Dunn brought a lot of hay from the loft in his mother’s barn, and when a piece of old carpet was spread upon it it made an acceptable couch. A piece of old carpet was laid in front of the hut, too, where the boys could sit and watch the trains switching back and forth on the railway, and the tramps who were heating coffee in cans over by the cattle-pen. Finally, some cattle arrived in the pen to be loaded into cars for the city, and the boys had just decided to go and watch the men loading them, when an engine came up the side-track with the most beautiful car they had ever seen, behind it. The car was painted in all colours of the rainbow, and in giant letters was printed the magic name of “The World’s Greatest Show.” The boys lost no time in getting down from the cattle-pen fence, and the car had barely stopped when they were aboard. “Hooray,” shouted Charlie Huffman, “we’ll all get jobs of passin’ bills.” And it was with this end in view that they sought the advertising manager in the car, who promised to give them all jobs when the circus came in two weeks. The boys deluged him with questions of every sort. “Will there be any elephants?” “Is there goin’ to be a parade?” and “Will there be any trapeze performances?” The poor man was finally obliged to lock the door to keep them out, and the boys stood about the car until nearly six o’clock, admiring the paintings, and speculating as to whether they would be able to work their way into the circus or not, when it finally came. Their speculations were interrupted by the appearance on the scene of the Widow Sullivan with a good-sized maple switch, which she used to good effect in getting the two Sullivans and Archie Dunn home for supper. For Mrs. Dunn had given Mrs. Sullivan instructions before she started, so that when Archie complained that he had been whipped by “that woman next door,” he received no sympathy whatever. And when he went to bed at nine o’clock, he could hardly sleep for thinking of the wonderful things which had happened this day. The coming circus and the great Hut Club kept him awake until far after ten, so that he got up too late for Sunday school the next morning, and was punished accordingly.