"And I simply can't help it!" he cried in a kind of reckless despair.
"It's born in me, I guess. Oh, don't I hope Aunt Lavinia turns me out,
as she has often threatened to do. Say, if she only would, and I could
join some show, and travel and see things and--live!"

Andy threw himself flat on the green sward. He closed his eyes and gave
himself up to a rapture of thought.

Gay banners, brightly comparisoned horses, white wildernesses of circus
tents, tinselled clowns, royal ringmasters, joyful strains of music
floated through his active brain. It was a day dream of rare beauty, and
he could not tear himself away from it.

An idle hour went by before Andy realized it. As echoing voices rang out
on the quiet air, he got to his feet rubbing his eyes as if they
were dazzled.

"Recess already," Andy said. "Well, I'll lay low until it's over. I
don't want to meet the boys just now. Then I'll do some more thinking. I
suppose I've got to decide to go home. Ugh! but I hate to--and I just
won't until the very last moment."

Andy went in among the shrubbery farther away from the road, but he
could not hide himself. An active urchin discovered him from a distance.
He yelled out riotously to his comrades, and they all came trooping
along pell-mell in Andy's direction.

Their expelled schoolmate and favorite greeted them with a genial smile,
never showing the white feather in the least.