passed through the door.

Danny and Chris were also of two minds whether to follow the great clown
or remain outside with the elephant, but their mother's statement that
Mr. Darner had come to take Jerry away and was even then in the house
finally drew them as a magnet, their eyes also directed towards Sultana
until they stumbled through the door.

Jerry saw Darn Darner's father sitting by the living-room window and
came to a stop. Mr. Darner was a dour, heavy-set man with a coarse,
bristling gray beard. He glared at Whiteface through thick glasses.

"What does all this hullabaloo mean?" he asked Mrs. Mullarkey, in a
gruff voice.

"It means," said Whiteface, answering for her and advancing towards Mr.
Darner, Jerry's hand held tightly in his, "that Jerry Elbow has found
his parents and the people have followed us here to show how glad they
are."

"You his father? A clown in a circus?" asked Mr. Darner.

"Yes, I am his father and I am a clown in a circus," replied Whiteface.

"Mr. Darner is the County Overseer of the Poor," Mrs. Mullarkey
explained. "He's been at me to give Jerry up and let him take him to the
poor farm ever since my Dan died."

"It's for your own good and your children's--and Jerry's, too, if you
weren't too blind to see it," the Overseer stated.