Page:Dapples of the Circus (1943).pdf/175

 Then Mr. Williams got leave from Mr. Bingham for Freckles and Sir Wilton to show in some of the local theaters. Dapples was so small that he trotted about on the theater stage like a large dog. He and Freckles were prime favorites with the children, and they became the matinée idols of southern California. Mr. Bingham allowed the boy half of what he made in this way, so that he saved several hundred dollars that winter. This amount the circus mother carefully hoarded for him.

The only tragic event in the circus that winter was a fire that came very near taking both Freckles and Sir Wilton from the show. It would seem that a circus, when in its winter quarters, would be perfectly safe, but this is not the case. Many of the large buildings in which the animals, birds, and snakes are kept, have to be artificially heated.

These heating plants are temporary and very crude, so that fires often occur. This,