“True enough, as we slipped out of sight three figures came toward us along a path that skirted the field. And, there walking hand in hand with a big, broad-shouldered man, were the tow-headed boy and the little girl with the forget-me-not bonnet.
“‘Of course, they’ll get another one, won’t they, Uncle Tommy-Tom?’ the little girl was asking as they came within hearing.
“‘Oh, by all means. Every circus must have its clown.’
“‘Well, I’m not certain,’ replied the one called Uncle Tommy-Tom, ‘but I saw the ringmaster getting a gayly colored suit from out a big trunk just after we had returned from the chase. And there was a man fussing with an odd-looking wig and mixing some red and white paint. Then I heard the two of them talking, and the man with the paint said he’d have everything in shape by the time they reached the next town.’
“‘Oh, then, of course, they were getting ready to make a new clown,’ spoke up the tow-headed boy in a most knowing and positive fashion.
“‘Make one?’ questioned the little girl. ‘Make one how?’
“‘Why, up, to be sure,’ answered the boy. ‘Clowns are always made up, though I can’t tell you up where ’cause the piece I read didn’t say.’
“And so, still talking, the three of them melted away in the gathering dusk. Even as I stood gazing down the path they had taken, I felt my companion’s trunk on my shoulder.
“‘Come, come, Friend Dan, there’s nothing to be gained by tarrying here. Besides, I have already put my wits back to work and hit upon a plan by which even now you are as good as engaged as a clown with the Very Biggest Circus.
“‘No, not a word,’ was his warning command, as I sought to ply him with questions. ‘For I have not yet completed the whole of my scheme. Besides, our first thought must be of a lodging place for the night. So—your arms round my leg once again.’
“Obeying, I mounted the big fellow’s foot and we plunged back into the depths of the woods. Presently we came to a space well covered with grass and here we made ready for bed. Hollowing a hole for the bumpy part of his head, Gray Ears was soon stretched out on his side, while I, using the curve of his trunk for a pillow, snugly bunked in the lee of his ponderous front knees.
“Twice I sought to speak of the plan he had named and twice did my companion bid me be silent. And so, lying there gazing upward through the canopy of boughs to the patches of star-sprinkled sky, I pictured the future that unfolded before me.