"What do you mean, Toby?"
"Why, you know that I've been wantin' to get away from the circus,"
said Toby, a little impatient that his friend should be so wonderfully
stupid, "an' I think that I'll have as good a chance now as ever
I shall, so I'm goin' to try it."
"Bless us!" exclaimed the fat lady, in a gasping way. "You don't
mean to say that you're goin' off just when you've started in the
business so well? I thought you'd want to stay after you'd been so
well received this afternoon."
"No," said Toby -- and one quick little sob popped right up from
his heart and out before he was aware of it -- "I learned to ride
because I had to, but I never give up runnin' away. I must see
Uncle Dan'l, an' tell him how sorry I am for what I did; an' if he
won't have anything to say to me I'll come back; but if he'll let
me I'll stay there, an' I'll be so good that by 'n' by he'll forget
that I run off an' left him without sayin' a word."
There was such a touch of sorrow in his tones, so much pathos in his
way of speaking, that good Mrs. Treat's heart was touched at once;
and putting her arms around the little fellow, as if to shield him
from some harm, she said, tenderly: "And so you shall go, Toby, my
boy; but if you ever want a home or anybody to love you come right
here to us, and you'll never be sorry. So long as Sam keeps thin
and I fat enough to draw the public you never need say that you're
homeless, for nothing would please us better than to have you come
to live with us.
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