Teddy! Turn! You'll strike on your head."
Teddy was as powerless to turn as if he had been paralyzed from head to foot. Down he went, straight as an arrow. There followed a splash as his head struck the water of the ditch, the lad's feet beating a tattoo in the air while his head was stuck fast in the mud at the bottom of the ditch.
"He'll drown," gasped Phil, springing down into the little stream, regardless of the damage liable to be done to his own clothes.
Throwing both arms about the body of his companion he gave a mighty tug. Teddy stuck obstinately, and Phil was obliged to take a fresh hold before he succeeded in hauling the lad from his perilous position. Teddy was gasping for breath. His face, plastered with mud, was unrecognizable, while his clothes were covered from head to foot.
Phil dumped him on the grass beneath the circus billboard and began wiping the mud from his companion's face, while Teddy quickly sat up, blinking the mud out of his eyes and grumbling unintelligibly.
"You're a fine circus performer, you are," laughed Phil. "Suppose you had been performing on a flying trapeze in a circus, what do you suppose would have happened to you?"
"I'd have had a net under me then, and I wouldn't have fallen in the ditch," grunted Teddy sullenly.
"What do you suppose the folks will say when you go home in that condition?"
"Don't care what they say. Fellow has got to learn sometime, and if I don't have any worse thing happen to me than falling in a ditch I ought to be pretty well satisfied. Guess I'll go back now. Come on, go 'long with me."
Phil turned and strode along by the side of his companion until they reached the house where Teddy lived.
"Come on in."
"I'm sorry, Teddy, but I can't. My uncle will be expecting me, and he won't like it if I am late."
"All right; see you tomorrow if you don't come out again tonight. We'll try some more stunts then."
"I wouldn't till after the circus, were I in your place," laughed Phil.
"Why not!"
"Cause, if you break your neck, you won't be able to go to the show."
"Huh!" grunted Teddy, hastily turning his back on his companion and starting for the house.
Phil took his way home silently and thoughtfully, carrying his precious bundle of books under an arm, his active mind planning as to how he might employ his time to the best advantage during the summer vacation that was now so close at hand.
A rheumatic, bent figure was standing in front of the shack where the lad lived, glaring up the street from beneath bushy eyebrows, noting Phil Forrest's leisurely gait disapprovingly.
Phil saw him a moment later.
"I'm in for a scolding," he muttered. "Wonder what it is all about this time. I don't seem able to do a thing to please Uncle Abner."
CHAPTER II
PHIL HEARS HIS DISMISSAL
"Where you been, young man?" The question was a snarl rather than a sentence.
"To school, Uncle, of course."
"School's been out more than an hour. I say, where have you been?"
"I stopped on the way for a few minutes."
"You did?" exploded Abner Adams. "Where?"
"Teddy Tucker and I stopped to read a circus bill over there on Clover Street. We did not stop but a few minutes. Was there any harm in that?"
"Harm? Circus bill--"
"And I want to go to the circus, too, Uncle, when it comes here. You know? I have not been to anything of that sort since mother died--not once. I'll work and earn the money. I can go in the evening after my work is finished. Please let me go, Uncle."
For a full minute Abner Adams was too overcome with his emotions to speak. He hobbled about in a circle, smiting the ground with his cane, alternately brandishing it threateningly in the air over the head of the unflinching Phil.
"Circus!" he shouted. "I might have known it! I might have known it! You and that Tucker boy are two of a kind. You'll both come to some bad ending. Only fools and questionable characters go to such places--"
"My mother and father went, and they always took me," replied the boy, drawing himself up with dignity. "You certainly do not include them in either of the two classes you have named?"
"So much the worse for them! So much the worse for them. They were a pair of--"
"Uncle, Uncle!" warned Phil. "Please don't say anything against my parents. I won't stand it. Don't forget that my mother was your own sister, too."
"I'm not likely to forget it, after she's bundled such a baggage as you into my care. You're turning out a worthless, good-for- nothing loaf--"
"You haven't said whether or not I might go to the circus, Uncle," reminded Phil.
"Circus? No! I'll have none of my money spent on any such worthless--"
"But I didn't ask you to spend your money, even though you have plenty of it. I said I would earn the money--"
"You'll have a chance to earn it, and right quick at that. No, you won't go to any circus so long as you're living under my roof."
"Very well, Uncle, I shall do as you wish, of course," answered Phil, hiding his disappointment as well as he could. The lad shifted his bundle of books to the other hand and started slowly for the house.
Abner Adams hobbled about until he faced the lad again, an angry gleam lighting up his squinting eyes.
"Come back here!"
Phil halted, turning.
"I said come back here."
The lad did so, his self-possession and quiet dignity never deserting him for an instant. This angered the crabbed old uncle more than ever.
"When will you get through school?"
"Tomorrow, I believe."
"Huh! Then, I suppose you intend to loaf for the rest of the summer and live on my hard earned savings. Is that it?"
"No, sir; I hadn't thought of doing anything of the sort. I thought--"
"What did you think?"
"I thought I would find something to do. Of course, I do not expect to be idle. I shall work at something until school begins again next fall, then, of course, I shall not be able to do so much."
"School! You've had enough school! In my days boys didn't spend the best part of their lives in going to school. They worked."
"Yes, sir; I am willing to work, too. But, Uncle, I must have an education. I shall be able to earn so much more then, and, if necessary, I shall be able to pay you for all
