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By Root 1481 0

there were three rings in the circus, only one of them was being used. With the other clowns, Hank went around the ring, doing his elbow-touching and juggling act. Nobody laughed, although the younger members of the audience giggled and pointed. Hank was disappointed; it hadn’t been much of a thrill. He suffered the sourhours while waiting for the evening performance. The attendance at the night show wasn’t much better, and again there was no one from Stay More. Hank knew it had been a bad drought summer and people didn’t have much money, and his own folks didn’t have any money at all. But he wished that at least one of his uncles or brothers would show up in the audience and recognize him. Maybe tomorrow. But when the evening performance was over, Phil assembled all the circus people and said to them, “Okay, let’s blow this morgue. Everybody up at dawn and tear down the rags.” Hank was surprised to discover that his friend Phil was apparently the boss of the whole circus, and he asked him if he meant that they were leaving in the morning, and Phil said, “Yeah, kid, this town is a total blank,” so Hank asked him if he could go with them to whatever next town they were going to, and Phil said, “Sure, kid, but the pay is lousy.” Hank realized that he hadn’t been paid anything for his two performances so far, but he’d had plenty of free food. He went to bed early on the grass and had dreams of doing his act in front of big crowds in the cities.

He was awakened just before dawn by a hand on his shoulder. It was the World’s Oldest Man. “Get up, Ingledew,” he said. Hank rose quickly to his feet. “Let’s go home,” the old man said. “The circus is over.”

“But I’m a-gorn with ’em. Phil said I could,” Hank protested, then remembered he would have to speak loudly for the old man to hear him. He began to repeat himself loudly, but the old man hissed “Sshh!” and put a finger to his lips and clamped the other hand over Hank’s mouth. “Wait ’till we’re out of here,” the old man said and took his arm and began to lead him out of the circus lot. Hank couldn’t understand why the old man intended to go with him. Or maybe the old man just intended to escort him out of the circus. If the old man was so old that he knew everything, even Hank’s last name, then maybe the old man knew some reason why Hank should not join the circus for keeps and go with them to the next town. Suddenly Hank remembered his mule, and by mute sign language or pantomime he tried to convey this to the old man, and was finally required to whisper loudly in the old man’s ear, “My mule,” and the old man let him go and get it. Then the old man slipped into a tent and got a fifty-pound sack of peanuts and hoisted it up onto the back of the mule. Hank led the mule and they left the grounds of the circus. When they were out of earshot of anyone in the circus, Hank raised his voice and said to the old man, “I was fixin to jine the circus fer keeps. Phil said I could. Aint he the boss?”

“Philip Foogle and his brother Charles own the circus, yes,” the old man said. “But he isn’t the boss, and neither is Charles.”

“Who is?”

“I am. Or, rather, I’m an agent of the boss.”

“Why won’t you let me jine the circus? I don’t want to go back to Stay More.”

“You don’t? That’s dreadful. You shouldn’t have left it in the first place. Didn’t anyone ever tell you the story of your great-great-uncle Benjamin Ingledew?”

Hank had heard of the story of his great-grandpap’s older brother Benjamin, who had headed for California to hunt for gold and died in the Mountain Meadows Massacre, but he didn’t understand what that had to do with his joining the circus, and he wondered how the old man knew about Benjamin Ingledew, but realized that the old man was so old that he knew everything. They were well outside of Jasper by now, halfway to Parthenon, and the old man was still hobbling along beside him. Was he actually going all the way to Stay More with him? It would sure wear him out.

“You wanter ride the mule?” Hank offered.

“Thank you,” the old man said. “I would be very grateful.” Hank helped