"Joking!" chorused the two. "We ain't joking. We want to go with the circus. Honest Injun, we do!"
Freckles looked at his chums for several seconds before he could find his voice. Then he spoke very solemnly and with great emphasis.
"Boys," he said, "the circus is all right for them that has to follow it. I ain't saying a word against it. They are awful good to me. They are the best friends I ever had, 'cepting you fellers. But here's the point. You have both got something that I ain't. You have got homes and friends that will stay in one place long enough for you to know how they look. The circus people have only themselves. They haven't any home. Of course, some of them who are lucky have homes they go to in the winter, and mighty glad they are to see them. But you fellers have homes and friends and school, and a chance to make something of yourselves. But I have only the circus. The circus is all
