and pat him on the head a hundred times a day. He would tell him
stories until he himself was completely exhausted; and although I knew
that this tended to retard his complete recovery, I had not the heart
to forbid it. I have often since felt thankful that I never made any
attempt to do so.

At last the fifteenth of September arrived. On the morning of that day
Messrs. Rockwell and Dunbar's Combined Circus and Menagerie made a
triumphal entry into Peoria, and was to exhibit on the green, down by
the river bank. The performance had been ostentatiously advertised and
placarded on every dead wall in town for a month back, and all the
children in the place, little Charlie included, were wild on the
subject. Signor Martigny was to enter a den containing three full-grown
lions, and was to go through the terrific and disgusting ordeal usual
on such occasions. Gagtooth, of course, was unable to go; but, being
unwilling to deny his child any reasonable pleasure, he had consented
to Charlie's going with his mother. I happened to be passing the house
on my way homewards to dinner, just as the pair were about to start,
and called in to say good-bye to my patient. Never shall I forget the
embrace and the kiss which the father bestowed upon the little fellow.
I can see them now, after all these years, almost as distinctly as I
saw them on that terrible fifteenth of September, 1855. They perfectly
clung to each other, and seemed unwilling to part even for the two or
three hours during which the performance was to last. I can see the
mother too, impatiently waiting in the doorway, and telling Charlie
that if he didn't stop that nonsense they would be too late to see
Sampson killing the lion. She--Heaven help her!--thought nothing and
cared nothing about the pleasure the child was to derive from the
entertainment. She was only anxious on her own account; impatient to
shew her good looks and her cheap finery to the two thousand and odd