Page:Stringer - Lonely O'Malley.djvu/133

 never-fading and yet a rather muddled and hazy impression. He remembered the first delicious moment of his discovery when, at the corner of Barrison Street, a group of boys, known as the South River Gang, looked up wide-eyed and open-mouthed, and with sudden fierce gestures and loud cries proclaimed it was the baker's kid on the wagon. This caused them, one and all, to scramble down from their points of vantage and to trail helter-skelter after the blue-and-gold float. There could be no doubt about it! For all the stateliness and solemnity of the powdered page they could make out the bandy legs and the freckled nose—the New Boy had run away and joined the Circus!

It was a proud moment for Lonely O'Malley. And the news spread rapidly, for even before Main Street was reached, the whole Baxter Street Gang had been apprised of the wondrous fact, and at once joined the others and followed enviously at the heels of the great rocking float, debating how such a thing could ever come about, trying to feel important over the discovery, as they had done when it was found that Biff Perkins's uncle,