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 spendthrifts. Each week they gave her a portion of their pay. She guarded it carefully for them until the end of the season, and then gave it back to them with a bit of good advice about spending it.

Perhaps Freckles's best friend in the whole show was Big Bill, the head canvas-man. He was a tall, broad-shouldered chap, with a deep voice. He managed men as a general manages soldiers.

It was said on good authority that no canvas-man in the American show world could get so much out of a crew as could Big Bill. Yet he never bullied. He gave orders, and no one ever dreamed of disobeying them. When he gave an order and it proved too hard for his subordinate, the big fellow would himself take hold of the difficult task, throwing things right and left with his great strength, laughing at the crew's weakness all the time.

"You see, son," he would conclude, "your Uncle Bill don't ever ask anything of you boys that he can't do himself.