But Jerry was sure he had never seen a circus and he _did_ want to go to
this one and see the elephant jump the fence. He felt very friendly to
that elephant and well acquainted with it. The roguish look in its
eyes, in the picture, made it seem a very nice sort of elephant and he
knew he would like it.

But he also knew that Mother 'Larkey found it very hard to make both
ends meet since her husband died--he had often heard her say so--but
there might be a possible chance that she would have several fifty-cent
pieces, so he started again to run after the other children, keeping
close enough to be in time if Mrs. Mullarkey _should_ happen to be
distributing fifty-cent pieces among her brood and there _should_ happen
to be an extra one for him. Even though she were not his mother, she
_might_ give it to him, she had already done so many things for him.




CHAPTER II

THE BLACK HALF-DOLLAR


Jerry's progress was brought to a sudden halt and he was sent sprawling
to the ground by running full tilt into a man who tried to turn the same
corner at the same time Jerry did, but from the opposite direction. The
impact was so swift and so hard that Jerry was whirled clear around and
fell on his face, striking two small pieces of board lying near the
sidewalk and loosening a plank in the sidewalk itself.