one time shambled up to them with a soiled napkin thrown over
one arm. As it chanced, he approached Teddy first.

"Bean soup! What'll you have," he demanded with a suddenness
that startled the Circus Boy.

Teddy surveyed the waiter with large eyes, then permitted
his gaze to wander about the table to the faces of the
grinning billposters.

"Bean soup. What'll I have?" reflected the lad soberly.
"Now isn't it funny that I can't think what kind of soup
I want. Bean soup; what'll I have?"

The waiter shifted his weight to the other foot, flopped the
napkin to the other arm and stuck out his chin belligerently.

"Bean soup! What'll you have?" he demanded, with a rising
inflection in his voice.

"Let me think. Why, I guess I'll take bean soup if it's all the
same to you," decided Tucker, solemn as an owl.

The billposters broke out into a roar of laughter. They fairly
howled with delight at Teddy's droll manner, but the Circus Boy
did not even smile. He looked at them with a hurt expression in
his eyes until the men were on the point of apologizing to him.

They did not know young Tucker.