Only the
romantic touch of the side-show banners and the wonder of the gilded
wagons assured them that their memories of the passing hour were not
empty dreams.
The boys were standing enraptured before the picture of the fat woman
upon the swaying canvas. Bud had drifted away from them to glut his
eyes upon the picture of the snakes writhing around the charmer. The
North-enders had been following Bud at a respectful distance, waiting
for the opportunity which his separation from his clan gave to them.
They were enforced by a country boy of great reputed prowess in
battle. Bud did not know his danger until they pounced upon him. In an
instant the fight was raging. Over the guy ropes it went, under the
ticket wagon, into the thick of the lemonade stands. And when Piggy
and Abe and Jimmy had joined it, they trailed the track of the storm
by torn hats, bruised, battle-scarred boys, and the wreckage incident
to an enlivening occasion. When his comrades found Bud, the argument
had narrowed down to Bud and the boy from the country, the other
wranglers having dropped out for heavy repairs. The fight, which had
been started to avenge ancient wrongs, particularly the wrongs of the
bill-board, only added new wrongs to the list. The country boy was
striking wildly, and trying to clinch his antagonist, when the town
marshal--the bogie-man of all boys--stopped the fight. But of course
no town marshal can come into the thick of a discussion in Boyville
and know much of the merits of the question.
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