The Circus Boys On The Mississippi(密西西比河上的马戏团男孩)
VIP免费
2024-12-26
1
0
492.75KB
153 页
5.9玖币
侵权投诉
The Circus Boys On the Mississippi
1
The Circus Boys On the
Mississippi
(Or Afloat with the Big Show on the Big River)
EDGAR B. P. DARLINGTON
The Circus Boys On the Mississippi
2
CHAPTER I
MAKING A LIVELY START
"Have you had any trouble with Diaz, Teddy?"
"Who's he?"
"The new Spanish clown."
"Oh!"
Teddy Tucker's face grew serious.
"What about him, Phil?"
"That is what I am asking you. Have you had any misunderstanding-
-angry words or anything of the sort with him?" persisted Phil Forrest,
with a keen, inquiring glance into the face of his companion.
"Well, maybe," admitted the Circus Boy, with evident reluctance.
"What made you think I had?"
"From the way he looked at you when you were standing in the
paddock this afternoon, waiting for your cue to go on."
"Huh! How did he look at me?"
"As if he had a grudge against you. There was an expression in his
eyes that said more plainly than words, 'I'll get even with you yet, young
man, you see if I do not.'"
"Wonderful!" breathed Teddy.
"What do you mean?"
"You must be a mind reader, Phil Forrest," grumbled Teddy, digging
his heel into the soft turf of the circus lot. "Can you read my mind? If
you can, what am I thinking about now?"
"You are thinking," answered Phil slowly, "that you will make me
forget the question I asked you just now. You are thinking you would
rather not answer my question."
Teddy opened his eyes a little wider.
"You ought to go into the business."
"What business?"
"Reading people's minds, at so much per read."
"Thank you."
The Circus Boys On the Mississippi
3
"I wish you'd read the mind of that donkey of mine, and find out what
he's got up his sleeve, or rather his hoofs, for me this evening."
"Do you know of what else you are thinking?"
"Of course I do. Think I don't know what I am thinking about?
Well! What am I thinking about?"
"At the present moment you are thinking that you will do to Diaz what
he hopes to do to you some of these days--get even with him for some
fancied wrong. Am I right?"
"I'll hand him a good stiff punch, one of these fine spring mornings,
that's what I'll do," growled Tucker, his face flushing angrily.
"Teddy Tucker, listen to me!"
"I'm listening."
"You will do nothing of the sort."
"I won't?"
"No."
"You just wait and see."
"Since we started out on our fourth season with the Sparling
Combined Shows this spring, you have behaved yourself remarkably well.
I know it must have pained you to do so. I give you full credit, but don't
spoil it all now, please."
"Spoil it?"
"Yes. You must remember that this is now a Big show--larger this
season than ever before, and you must not expect Mr. Sparling to excuse
your shortcomings as he did in the old days."
"I'm not afraid of Boss Sparling."
"You have no occasion to be, as long as you do your duty and attend to
business. We owe him a heavy debt of gratitude, both of us. You know
that, don't you, Teddy?"
"I--I guess so."
"What is the trouble between you and Diaz?" persisted Phil Forrest,
returning to his original inquiry.
"Well," drawled Teddy, "you know their act?"
"Yes."
"Throwing those peaked hats clear across the arena and catching the
The Circus Boys On the Mississippi
4
hats on their heads, just like a couple of monkeys."
"I didn't know monkeys ever did that," smiled Phil.
"Well, maybe they don't. The trained seals do, anyhow."
Phil nodded.
"They--the Spaniards--were doing that the other day when I was going
out after my clown act. I had picked up the ringmaster's whip, and as one
of the hats went sailing over my head I just took a shot at it."
"Took a shot at it?"
"Yes. I fired at it on the wing, as it were. Don't you understand?"
demanded the lad somewhat impatiently.
Phil shook his head.
"I hit it a crack with the ringmaster's whip and I hit the mark the first
shot. Down came the hat and it caught me on the nose."
"Then what did you do?"
"Knocked it on the ground, then kicked it out of the ring," grinned
Teddy.
"Of course you spoiled their act," commented Phil.
"I--I guess I did."
"That was an ungentlemanly thing to do, to say the least. It is lucky
for you that Mr. Sparling did not happen to see you. Do you know what
would have happened to you if he had?"
"He would have fined me, I suppose."
"No. You would have closed right there. He would have had you
sent back home by the first train if he had seen you do a thing like that."
"I don't care. I can get a job with the Yankee Robinson show any
time, now."
"Not if you were to be discharged from this outfit for bad conduct.
I don't wonder Diaz is angry. Did he say anything to you at the time?"
Teddy nodded.
"What did he say?"
"I didn't understand all he said. Some of it was in Spanish, but what I
did understand was enough," grinned the boy.
"Strong language, eh?"
"Phil, he can beat the boss canvasman in that line."
The Circus Boys On the Mississippi
5
"I am surprised, Teddy Tucker."
"So was I."
"I don't mean that. I am surprised that you should so far forget
yourself as to do such a thing. I don't blame Diaz for being angry, and I
warn you that you had better look out for him. Some of those
foreigners have very violent tempers."
"Well, he didn't tell the boss, at any rate."
"No. Perhaps in the long run it might have been better for you if he
had. Diaz is awaiting his opportunity to get even with you in his own
way. Look out for him, Teddy."
"He had better look out for me."
"Don't irritate him. Were I in your place I should go to the clown and
apologize. Tell him it was a thoughtless act on your part and that you are
sorry you did it--"
"I won't."
"As you please, but that is what I would do."
"You--you would do that?"
"I certainly would."
"And let him give you the laugh?"
"That would make no difference to me. I should be doing what is
right, and that would be satisfaction enough, no matter what he said or did
after that."
Teddy reflected for a moment.
"Well, maybe that would be a good idea. And if he won't accept my
apology, what then--shall I hand him a--"
"Smile and leave him. You will have done the best you could to
make amends."
"All right, I'll apologize," nodded the Circus Boy. "I'll shed a tear or
two to show him how sorry I am. Want to see me do it?"
"I should say not. You will do it better provided I am not looking on,
but for goodness' sake don't make a mess of the whole business. It would
be too bad to make an enemy of one of your associates so early in the
season. Think how uncomfortable it would be for you all through the
summer. He has not been with us long enough to become used to your
The Circus Boys On the Mississippi
6
practical jokes. Perhaps after he gets better acquainted with you, he may
not mind your peculiar ways so much," added Phil, with a short laugh.
"Now run along and be good."
Teddy turned away and slipped through the paddock opening, in front
of which the lads had been standing just outside the tent, leaving Phil
looking after him with a half smile on his face.
The Circus Boys were again on the road with the Great Sparling
Combined Shows. This was their fourth season out, and the readers will
remember them as the same lads who in "THE CIRCUS BOYS ON THE
FLYING RINGS," had made their humble start in the circus world.
During that first season both lads had distinguished themselves--Phil for
his bravery and cool headedness, Teddy for getting himself into trouble
under all circumstances and conditions. They had quickly risen, however,
to the grade of real circus performers, the owner of the show recognizing
in each, the making of a fine performer.
In "THE CIRCUS BOYS ACROSS THE CONTINENT," it will be
recalled how Phil and his companion won new laurels in the sawdust arena,
and how the former ran down and captured a bad man who had been a
thorn in the side of the circus itself for many weeks through his efforts to
avenge a fancied wrong. By this time the boys had become full-fledged
circus performers, each playing an important part in the performance.
It will be recalled, too, how Phil and Teddy in "THE CIRCUS BOYS
IN DIXIE LAND," advanced rapidly in their calling; how Phil was
captured by a rival show, held prisoner on the owner's private car, and later
was obliged to become a performer in the ring of the rival show. His
escape, his long tramp to rejoin his own show, followed by the battle of
the elephants--will be well remembered by all the readers of the previous
volumes in this series.
During the winter just passed, the lads had been attending the high
school at Edmeston, where they made their home, working hard after
school hours to keep themselves in good physical condition for the next
season's work.
Spring came. The lads passed their final examinations, and, with
their diplomas in their pockets, set out one bright May morning to join the
The Circus Boys On the Mississippi
7
show which, by this time, had come to be looked upon by them as a real
home.
They had been on the road less than two weeks now, and were looking
forward with keen anticipation to their summer under the billowing canvas
of the Great Sparling Shows.
"I think I _will_ take a peep to see how Teddy is getting along with his
apology," decided Phil, turning and entering the paddock. Then he
stepped quietly into the dressing tent.
He saw Teddy approach the clown, Diaz, who sat on his trunk making
up his face before a hand mirror.
Teddy halted a few feet from the clown, waiting until the latter should
have observed him. The clown glanced up, glowered, and slowly placed
the mirror on the trunk beside him. He seemed astonished that the boy
should have the courage to face him.
Then Teddy, solemn-faced, made his apology. To Phil Forrest's
listening ears it was the most amazing apology he ever had listened to.
"I'm sorry I made a monkey of you," said Teddy.
"What!" fairly exploded the clown.
"I'm sorry I made a monkey of you," repeated the Circus Boy in a
slightly louder tone. "Maybe I wouldn't have done so if I had had time to
think about it."
"You make apology to me--to me?" questioned Diaz, tapping his own
chest significantly.
"Yes; to whom did you think I was making an apology--to the hyena
out under the menagerie top, eh?"
"Bah!"
"I am sorry I made a fool of you, Mr. Diaz."
"Me--fool?"
"Yes, I guess you are about right. You certainly look the part, and--"
Diaz sprang up with a growl of rage, Tucker giving ground a little as
he observed the anger in the painted face before him. Before the lad
could raise his hands to protect himself Diaz had grasped Teddy and
hurled him across the dressing tent, where he landed in a pail of water.
He was up in a twinkling. His face was flushed and his hands were
The Circus Boys On the Mississippi
8
clenched.
No sooner had he gotten to his feet than he observed that the clown
had started for him again. Teddy squared off, prepared for fight. At that
moment, however, there came an interruption that turned the attention of
the enraged clown in another direction.
Phil Forrest quickly stepped between them facing Diaz.
"What are you going to do?" demanded the Circus Boy in a quiet
voice.
"Do?"
"Yes."
"I punish the monkey-face--"
"You will, eh?" howled Teddy, starting forward.
Phil thrust his companion aside.
"Go away. I will see if I can explain to him," cautioned Phil, turning
to the clown again, just as the latter was making a rush at Teddy.
"One moment, Mr. Diaz. My friend Teddy is not very diplomatic, but
he means well. He apologized to you for what he had done, did he not?"
"Yes," growled the clown. "Then why not call it square and--"
"I punish him. I fix him!" roared Diaz, making a leap for Teddy, who
had managed to edge up nearer to them.
"You will do nothing of the sort," answered Phil Forrest firmly, again
stepping between them.
An angry light glowed in the eyes of the clown. For an instant he
glared into Phil's steady gray eyes, then all of a sudden launched a vicious
blow at the boy.
The blow failed to reach the mark. Phil dodged and stepped back a
couple of feet.
Another, as swift as the first was sent straight for his head. This blow
the Circus Boy skillfully parried, but made no effort to return.
"Mr. Diaz! Mr. Diaz!" warned Phil. "You forget yourself. Please
don't do anything you will be sorry for afterwards."
"I fix you!" snarled the clown.
"I don't want to hit you, sir, but you may force me to do so."
Phil had no time to warn the fellow further, for the clown began to rain
The Circus Boys On the Mississippi
9
blows upon him, though with no great exhibition of boxing skill. Phil
could have landed effectively anywhere on the clown's body had he
chosen to do so.
Instead, the boy slowly gave ground, defending himself cleverly. Not
one single blow from the powerful fist of Diaz reached him, Phil
exhibiting the wonderful self-control that was characteristic of him. He
even found opportunity to warn Teddy to get out of the tent until the
tempest had blown over.
Teddy, however, stood with hands thrust in his trousers pockets,
shoulders hunched forward, glaring at Diaz.
"Don't you get in this now," breathed Phil. "Keep away! Keep
away! I'll--"
At that moment Phil stumbled over a trunk, landing on his head and
shoulders. Quick as he was he found himself unable to turn over and roll
away soon enough to get beyond reach of the angry clown.
Diaz hurled himself upon the slender, though athletic figure of the
Circus Boy, almost knocking the breath out of Phil.
No sooner had he done so than something else happened. A body
launched itself through the air. The body belonged to Tucker. Teddy
landed with great force on the head and shoulders of the enraged clown,
flattening the latter down upon Phil with crushing weight, and nearly
knocking Forrest senseless.
The Circus Boys On the Mississippi
10
CHAPTER II
JANUARY LENDS A FOOT
"Stop it!" roared a voice. "We don't allow 'roughhouse' in the
dressing tent."
"Yes," added another; "go out on the lot if you want to settle your
differences."
Mr. Miaco, the head clown, who had been a true friend to the boys
from the beginning of their circus career, had discovered what was going
on about the time Teddy decided to mix in in the disagreement. Mr.
Miaco sprang up and ran to the struggling heap. Grasping Teddy firmly
by the shoulder he tossed the lad aside.
"Now, you stay out of this, unless you want a thrashing from me," the
head clown warned.
The next to feel the grip of his powerful hand was the clown, Diaz,
and when Mr. Miaco discovered that the clown had Phil Forrest down, he
could scarcely restrain himself from severely punishing the fellow.
However, Miaco satisfied himself with hauling Diaz from his victim with
little ceremony. Then he jerked the angry clown to his feet.
"Well, sir, what have you to say for yourself?" demanded Miaco,
gazing at the other sternly.
"This no business of yours," growled Diaz.
"That remains to be seen. I'll decide whether it is any of my affair or
not. Phil, what does this mean?"
"Just a little matter between ourselves. Thank you for helping me
out."
"Did he attack you, Phil?"
"He did, but he no doubt thought he had sufficient provocation.
Perhaps we should not be too hard on Mr. Diaz."
"Then the best thing to do is to tell Mr. Sparling. I--"
"Please don't do anything of the sort," begged Phil. "In the first place,
Diaz's anger was directed against Teddy, and I had to mix myself in their
quarrel. Teddy did something to him a few weeks ago that made the
摘要：
展开>>
收起<<
TheCircusBoysOntheMississippi1TheCircusBoysOntheMississippi(OrAfloatwiththeBigShowontheBigRiver)EDGARB.P.DARLINGTONTheCircusBoysOntheMississippi2CHAPTERIMAKINGALIVELYSTART"HaveyouhadanytroublewithDiaz,Teddy?""Who'she?""ThenewSpanishclown.""Oh!"TeddyTucker'sfacegrewserious."Whatabouthim,Phil?""Thatis...
声明：本站为文档C2C交易模式，即用户上传的文档直接被用户下载，本站只是中间服务平台，本站所有文档下载所得的收益归上传人(含作者)所有。玖贝云文库仅提供信息存储空间，仅对用户上传内容的表现方式做保护处理，对上载内容本身不做任何修改或编辑。若文档所含内容侵犯了您的版权或隐私，请立即通知玖贝云文库，我们立即给予删除！
相关推荐
-
【词汇变形总汇】2025高考词汇变形总汇 - 教师版VIP免费
2024-12-06 3 -
【超简37页】新课标高考英语考纲3500词汇VIP免费
2024-12-06 4 -
《高考英语3500词详解》（WORD版）VIP免费
2024-12-06 13 -
《高考英语3500词详解》VIP免费
2024-12-06 11 -
高中英语-[教师版]80天通关高考3500词汇VIP免费
2024-12-06 12 -
高中人教选修7课文逐句翻译VIP免费
2024-12-06 7 -
高中人教选修7课文原文及翻译VIP免费
2024-12-06 13 -
高中人教必修4课文逐句翻译VIP免费
2024-12-06 7 -
高中人教必修4课文原文及翻译VIP免费
2024-12-06 13 -
高考英语核心高频688词汇VIP免费
2024-12-06 10
分类：外语学习
价格：5.9玖币
属性：153 页
大小：492.75KB
格式：PDF
时间：2024-12-26
相关内容
-
3-专题三 牛顿运动定律 2-教师专用试题
分类：中学教育
时间：2025-04-07
标签：无
格式：DOCX
价格：5.9 玖币
-
2-专题二 相互作用 2-教师专用试题
分类：中学教育
时间：2025-04-07
标签：无
格式：DOCX
价格：5.9 玖币
-
6-专题六 机械能 2-教师专用试题
分类：中学教育
时间：2025-04-07
标签：无
格式：DOCX
价格：5.9 玖币
-
4-专题四 曲线运动 2-教师专用试题
分类：中学教育
时间：2025-04-08
标签：无
格式：DOCX
价格：5.9 玖币
-
5-专题五 万有引力与航天 2-教师专用试题
分类：中学教育
时间：2025-04-08
标签：无
格式：DOCX
价格：5.9 玖币
渝公网安备50010702506394
