But playing circus no longer appealed to the Mullarkey children. Darn
Darner had had a blighting influence on the power of their imaginations,
and Danny in the elephant costume would have been to them now only a
little boy in an old green wrapper much too large for him, dragging
about a stuffed blue trouser leg for a tail,--a very ridiculous
spectacle. Jerry realized that there would never be a next time and that
he would never play the elephant.

A few days before the circus was to come to town Jerry and the
Mullarkey children were returning from the woods by the creek, where
they had gone to see what the prospects were for a good yield of hazel
and hickory nuts in the fall, and had just entered the edge of town when
they saw Darn Darner approaching. They had not set eyes on him since the
day he broke up their circus and they were doubtful as to how he would
behave towards them.

"Just pretend as though nothing had never happened," Nora suggested.

"Yes, that's best," Danny agreed. "Let him speak first."

They watched Darn's nearer approach without seeming to do so. They tried
to keep talking and laughing so he wouldn't think they were the least
little bit afraid of him, but Jerry and Celia Jane first fell silent and
then Chris and Nora, and finally Danny, so that when they met Darn they
were as quiet and subdued as a funeral party.

"Hello!" said Darn, as they were in the act of passing. "Where you kids
been?"

"Hullo, Darn," replied Danny. "We just been out in the woods."