"Oh, everything is about ready. They've laid out the ring, and are putting up the seats. The bearded lady's sick, and says she shan't appear if she doesn't feel better. But they can spare her better than they could us." "I don't know," said Robert, smiling. "At any rate, we have harder work to do than she, though we may not get as much money." "And it isn't as good fun, either," remarked Charlie. "That's true. Well, let us go in and see how things are going on." Charlie Davis was a year younger and considerably smaller than Robert, but his line of business was the same, and the two rode together well. Young performers are always popular, and the two boys always received their share of applause. Charlie had a more lively temperament than Robert, and being a little fellow was a general favorite among the other performers. Leaving the circus for a time we will go back to Mr. Nathan Tarbox, who had been so signally defeated in his plans of revenge upon his young victim by Anak. As he entered the house he was met by Mrs. Tarbox, who from the window had witnessed with dismay the conflict between her husband and the Norwegian giant. She was a tall, bony woman, not usually demonstrative, but she rushed up to her husband on this occasion in a tremor of excitement and threw her arms round his neck. "Oh, Nathan!" she exclaimed, "I thought that monster would kill you. I shook like a leaf when I saw you in his grasp." "Quit your fooling," returned the affectionate husband. "Why didn't you come out and help me?" "How could I—a delicate woman like me?" asked Mrs. Tarbox, reproachfully. "I suppose you wouldn't have minded seeing me killed before your eyes," retorted Nathan with sarcasm; "you wasn't too delicate for that. I dare say you'd like to be a widow." "How can you talk so, Nathan? You hurt my feelings. Do be reasonable, now. What could I do?" "What could you do? I'll tell you what you could do. You could have taken the frying-pan and laid it over his head. That's what you ought to have done. Between us we could have managed the big brute." "You know, Nathan, I couldn't have reached his head. Who is he? I never saw such a monster before in all my born days." "He's the Norwegian giant at the circus. If he hadn't been a giant I could have managed him. There isn't a man in town but I can handle." "Of course there isn't. What made him touch you?" "It's all the fault of them bad Graham children that tramped across my fields when I'd told 'em not to. I was goin' to give the biggest one a lesson with a horsewhip, when that overgrown ruffian broke in and seized me. I wish I had him tied to a tree just for five minutes," said Tarbox, walking the room in his fury. "Big as he is I'd lash him till he bellowed for mercy." "That would be nice, Nathan dear," said Mrs. Tarbox, complacently.