A Circus Nun. . .

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 49, 8 June 1901, Page 19

A Circus Nun. . .

IT was very caily in the morning. Long lines of pink were just beginning to pencil the cool grey claw n. Elsie Turner, who figured on the- bills as ' Mdle. Zara, Principal Equestrienne," came down from the sleeping car, and stood an instant to breathe in the refreshing coolness. From the. tracks below her arose a very babel of sound — the tramp of horses' feet, the rattle of heavy chain harness the rumble of ponderous waggons, and the many-voiced complaints of animals and through it all a sharp fusillade of command ss the paraphernalia of the great circus was marshalled and unloaded A big, athletic young man came swinging up the long platform behind her "Do I wake, or am I dreaming 9 ' ho demanded, just at her shoulder "Can it be that I see Mademoiselle Zaia and 5 a.m. out together ? " She turned quickly at his greeting, her pretty face dimpling with satisfac"lt is so fine," she responded, her breath coming a little quickly. "I awoke early, and that wooded hill with the long walk towards it looked so tempting that I slipped out." She might have added, "And I thought you would perhaps be out, too," but she didn>t - , „ , "Let us try it together," he suggested. "I have a few minutes on my hands just now — not many, though, for I want the men to make some changes in Chicot's cage. The little rascal wants something, and I can't make out what it is. He has been swearing at me for two days, and last nisht he bit me " Hardin^ glanced at his thumb in its leather cot, and smiled indulgently at the memory of Chicot's turbulence. "Come on, little girl, we'll sprint up here a little way — do us both good," and they went off briskly together -ii "This cool September weather is helping them all," he said. "Dixon seems a little off his feed, though, lower lip hanging down until it would make you shed tears to see him. There he is now " A lone, hollow eroan came from Ihe camel's car. "Poor old fellow," he remarked sympathetically, 1 am always sorry for that beast. Lite seems to be such a played-out show to lT She looked at him with a little frown between her brows "Do you ever think of anything but those animals?" , "Maybe I do talk about them a stood deal," he assented , "but, you see, they are all I have." _ They walked along in silence for a ten minutes, his eyes resting curiously on the averted face of his companion "I have been thinking about you lately," he said finally "When I see you walking along here so neat and dainty, it is hard to think of you out there under the big top with your hail flying, and cheeks painted, and bob Sk She'"stopped on the dde^yalk, and looked at him, speechless. Then she recovered herself sufficiently to gasp "You talk as though you thought it was something awful for me to do my aC "Well, hang it, Elsie, I don't know why I got into this, guess IHliavo to go on Sow, though. It isn't the act, especially that Igo against It s the dress I'm no Sunday school, but a eUow can't get rid of all the things that were rubbed into him when he was a boy. I lived up in Vermont, in a httio town where the women were all a lot ot nuns. Why, a lamy day skirt would have given my mother ague for a week. I nevir thought much about it before, though-* was just a part o the show —until I got to knowing you then i thot"ght of it more as I nould if it was m yilr e \rdignatTo'n'faded out of tho talk to me," she. said thoughtfully. I was brought up mtho ring, and I can't understand it. It l performed in long skirts I might break m He°laughed heartily "You mightthere isn't a doubt. That shows what a fool I am " He looked down into the wide brown eyes lifted to his, and added, "I don't know as a good woman is a matter of skirts, any way. "Do you always come in to the show ' she asked, as they neared the train, on their return. "Oh pretty often I'll be there tomorrow night, all right. You folks will get a great treat, too We aie billed for Spungfield. Big university thero, and the toim's just opened Theie'U be a lively crowd Went to a university myself once— but I've forgotten it .11,1 She glanced at him quickly, then ncr oves dropped, and the colour faded a little fiom her cheeks He was so different. It hurt her. Still— that was why she cared. The next evening the equestrian director was conscious of an unusual stn

m the dressing tent. It made him a little nervous, too. There was a big ciowd, and the seate were packed with students It was a bad ciowd if everything didn't s,o smoothly. The white horses came curvetting into the ring for the bareback turn, and behind them the two principal equestriennes, Mdles. Zara and Julie. Mdle Julie was in her accustomed glory of pink fleshing and fluff skirts, her bare arms and neck gleaming above her glitteung corsage but Mdle. Zara ' The director drew his hand across his eyes to clear his vision. A sombre little figure Avas coming lightly into the ring. Her black dress fell m straight folds to her slender ankles. The close sleeves and lound waist allowed a mere glimpse of white neck and arms. Her pale brown hair, parted smoothly on either sido of her small, white face, hung m two braids to her waist, and the soft, flexible shoes just glimpsing below her black skirt, gave the impression of bare w lute feet . "What on earth " the diiector breathed softly. A hand fell heavily on his arm, and he turned irritably to the tall young zoo superintendent. "Great Scott, Harding, don't come down on a fellow like that ! Look at that girl — has she gone stark mad p Look at that get-up ' She can't act — she'll hang herself, sure!" The young man's face was white. He grasped the director's arm more firmly. '"Hush'" he whispered, imperiously. The only sounds in the big tent w ere the blare of the band and the crack of the ringmaster's whip. Mdle. Julie kissed her hand to the reserved seats, and spiang to her knee on the broad back of the galloping horse. The slender black figure poised an instant, the next, she was standing lightly on the horse's back. A murmur of applause broke the silence. The dnector, in his relief, sw ore a gentle oath , then leaned forward. "You just wait for the hoops and the banners with those skirts," he murmured. "There she goes. If she gets on those skirts when she lands she's gone'" He wiped the perspiration from his foiehead, and glanced apprehensively towards the reserved seats. Mdle Zara sprang through the hoop, and, for a dizzy breath, hung over the hoiv. Her slender body straightened, and again she stood lightly erect , then she sank to her knee and rose again. The clinging skirt might have been air for any impediment it seemed to offer. Only the ringmaster could see the whiteness about her lips, and the great drops of sweat on her forehead. As she w ent through the last hoop, a voice from the mass of students demanded, "What's the matter with the circus nun?" "She's all right'" came in an emphatic roar. "Who's all right?" "The circus nun l " thundered the chorus The director held a little iubilee with himsplf, fairly jabbering m his excitement. "She's great, I tell you! She's knocked out every bareback nder in the United States' I'll have that billed from now on as a special feature — 'The Circus Nun' — won't it make a hit p " The zoo superintendent's grasp on his aim was something to remember. "And have her bieaking her neck on those infernal skirts? Not much, if I know it, you wont'" Harding remarked. At the entrance to the dressing tent a foicible hand drew Miss Elsie around into its shadow. "How you startled me'" she said, gaspingly. She was trembling from the physical strain, and leaned against the guy ropos for support. "Was it all right?" she asked, wearily. "Do you mind my acting now ?" 'More than ever," he answered gently. "I know more now than I did an hour ago — a moment ago, even'" "Oh, I hoped you would like it'" she said, in a pathetic little voice. She turned her face away, and in the dimness her hand went to her eyes. She couldn't undeistand him. Then she felt hei small w r et hand taken from her eyes, and held in a strong clasp. Just beyond them the music clashed, and the turmoil of the ring went on He bent close to her ear. 1 Listen, Elsie I have found out a o;roat deal m a short time I have found out something that I've been coming to all this season — that I don't like any of it but you Will you leave it all and come back with me to the life I have been trying to forget'"' A great glow of inciedulous joy lit liei face, then faded. 'But I am afiaid,'' she said, tremulously 'What will they think of me m the life you tried to foiget p " They will think," ho answered, his voice full of glad assurance, "that you aio sweet and true and good, and they

will know thai I loved you and that you brought me back." With a long, happy sigh she dropped her head on his arm. Lifting it, he kissed the face of the little Oircus Nun. — Jeannette Scott Benton, in "Munsey's."

John Bunyan in his prison cell, On Pilgrim's Pi ogress loved to dwell, And neaily all that staitling tale He wrote while pining in a gaol. His work lives on though John succumbed, No doubt the damp his limbs had numbed, And gave him cold ; his death that's sure, He'd not got Woods' Great Peppekmint Cure.