you will make a great reputation for yourself."

"I don't want to be a performer all my life. I am going to own
a show some of these days," announced the boy confidently.

"Oh, you are, are you?" laughed Dimples. "Well, if you say so,
I most surely believe you. You have the right sort of pluck
to get anything you set your heart on. Now if my boy only--"

"Your boy?"

"Yes. Didn't you know that I am a married woman?"

"Oh my, I thought you were a young girl," exclaimed Phil.

"Thank you; that was a very pretty compliment. But, alas, I am
no longer young. I have a son almost as old as you are. He is
with his father, performing at the Crystal Palace in London.
I expect to join them over there after my season closes here."

"Is it possible?"

"Yes, and as my own boy is so far away I shall have to be a sort
of mother to you this season. You have no mother, have you?"

"No. My mother is dead," answered the lad in a low voice,
lowering his eyes.

"I thought as much. Mothers don't like to have their boys join
a circus; but, if they knew what a strict, wholesome life a