Page:Dapples of the Circus (1943).pdf/189

 stopped for three weeks, and Freckles and Dapples had the supreme test of playing before a Madison Square audience, just as Pickles had said they would. So when June came round they were once more showing in New England, and rapidly approaching Freckles's own home town, where they were billed to show just as they had the year before.

When they at last drew up on the siding in the very freight yard where Freckles, Pickles, and Beany had first seen the long trains enter, Freckles's heart was pounding so he could scarcely breathe.

Eagerly he peeped out of the window, and could hardly believe his eyes when he saw Pickles and Beany astride the top board of that famous fence, and half a dozen other boys with them. He hurried into his clothes, and, without waiting to wash his face, ran forth to greet his friends.

"Hello, Pickles; hello, Beany; hello, fellers. Don't you all know me?"