Page:Dapples of the Circus (1943).pdf/136

 Everything is easy if you only take hold of it with a will."

Freckles's first acquaintance with. Big Bill was made one dark, rainy night when the circus was badly mired after the evening performance. Freckles himself had taken Dapples to his car and seen him safely aboard. He had then gone back to the lot to see the circus people get through the mud. Mr. Williams had remarked, in his way, that there would be the devil to pay when they started to move.

It had rained all day long. Even in the morning, when they had come to the lots, several of the wagons had been mired. That afternoon during the performance there had come a mighty downpour, which was like a cloudburst. Some of the trapeze work had been given up because the paraphernalia were so wet and slippery. In many places on the grounds the water stood six inches deep. One of the rings inside the big top was so badly flooded that it had to be abandoned, while