mile to Jenkins' corner and Jerry felt that his legs were ready to give
out and send him sprawling in the street before he got there, but he
kept running just the same. Celia Jane tagged along, far in the rear,
and called to Jerry to wait for her, but a boy couldn't stop and wait
for a girl without Danny's making fun of him, so, as much as Jerry would
have liked to rest, he kept pantingly on. He was glad to plump down flat
on the ground in front of the billboard and rest till Nora and Celia
Jane arrived.

"Whoopee! I'll be the clown!" exclaimed Chris, pointing to the poster
which showed trapeze performers turning somersaults in the air, a clown
playing ringmaster to a dancing white pony and a girl walking a tight
rope.

"I'll be the dancin' pony!" cried Celia Jane.

"I'll be the rope-walker," Nora said.

"And what'll I be?" asked Jerry plaintively, feeling left entirely out
in the cold.

"Why didn't you speak up and grab onto something before they were all
taken?" asked Danny. "You've got a tongue, ain't you?"

"He could swing up in the air hanging by his hands," Celia Jane
suggested.

"We ain't got no net like they have in the picture to catch him if he
falls," Nora objected.