While he was looking first at her, and then at her very
thin husband, the skeleton told his wife the little that he had
learned regarding the boy's history; and when he had concluded she
waddled away toward her tent.
"Great woman that," said the skeleton, as he saw her disappear
within the tent.
"Yes," said Toby, "she's the greatest I ever saw."
"I mean that she's got a great head. Now you'll see about how much
she cares for what Job says."
"If I was as big as her," said Toby, with just a shade of envy in
his voice, "I wouldn't be afraid of anybody."
"It hain't so much the size," said the skeleton, sagely -- "it
hain't so much the size, my boy; for I can scare that woman almost
to death when I feel like it."
Toby looked for a moment at Mr. Treat's thin legs and arms, and
then he said, warningly, "I wouldn't feel like it very often if I
was you, Mr. Treat, 'cause she might break some of your bones if
you didn't happen to scare her enough."
"Don't fear for me, my boy -- don't fear for me; you'll see how
I manage her if you stay with the circus long enough. Now I often
--"
If Mr. Treat was about to confide a family secret to Toby, it was
fated that he should not hear it then, for Mrs. Treat had just come
out of her tent, carrying in her hands a large tin plate piled high
with a miscellaneous assortment of pie, cake, bread, and meat.
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