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“Well, Sonny, when you grow up, maybe you can,” replied Tody the Clown.

Marmaduke looked at the wide mouth with its funny smile.

“You’re always happy, aren’t you?”

Tody nodded and answered:

“Sure–anyway almost always.”

“Don’t you ever feel cross or have any troubles?”

Tody threw back his head at that and laughed way out loud.

“Sure I do,” said he. “A heap of troubles, but I just think of all the little girls and boys like you that I’ve got to make happy. Then I try hard to make ’em laugh and–“

“An’ what?”

“Why all my troubles fly away, quick as a wink,” laughed Tody. “Yes, just as quick as I do this.” And quicker than a wink he turned a somersault. He turned a whole lot of somersaults and then he took Marmaduke on his shoulder and galloped around the tent and they had a glorious time.

But the music was sounding out in the big tent just next them–drums and horns and bugles and fifes. The circus would start in a minute now and all the fun would be over.

“Where’s your ticket, Sonny?” asked Tody.

“I haven’t any,” Marmaduke explained. “I’ve lost the Toyman–and he’s got my ticket an’–an’–I can’t go in.”

“Don’t you worry about that. You’ll have the best seat in the whole circus.” And Tody turned another somersault just to make him laugh. Then he looked down at little Wienerwurst.

“But they won’t let any doggies in there. We’ll just tie him to this pole.”

Marmaduke shook his head and tried hard to keep the tears back. Just one little one rolled down his right cheek But that was on the other side of Tody. Maybe Tody saw it anyway, for when Marmaduke said to him,–“Then I can’t go in either, my little pet doggie would feel so badly,” the jolly Clown answered:

“Well, we’ll just have to fix it up some way. Can y’ keep him quiet?”

“Quiet as a mouse,” answered Marmaduke, “quiet as Mother Robin when she sits on her nest.”

And Wienerwurst barked out loud just to show how quiet he could be.

Tody spoke to another man. This one had on a bright red vest, red as Father Robin’s. He looked at the boy and the dog. His voice wasn’t as pleasant as Tody’s nor the giant’s, but what he said was all right.

It was just “Sure!” and Marmaduke and Wienerwurst slipped inside the big tent, right near the front, where they could see all the wonderful things that went on.

Wienerwurst sat pretty quiet on his lap and together they watched the elephants stand on their heads, and the men way up in the air turn somersaults on little swings, and the ladies in bright spangles gallop round and round the ring, and the monkeys and the clowns do tricks–and everything.

Tody was the funniest and happiest of all, and he made all the children laugh and shout and clap their hands. Even Johnny Cricket, the lame boy, who had come a long way to see the circus, smiled.

Marmaduke and Wienerwurst were so excited that they forgot all about Jehosophat and Hepzebiah and the Toyman.

After a while Tody turned a somersault, a cartwheel, and a flipflop, and landed right near their seat.

“How would you like to ride on an elephant?” he whispered in Marmaduke’s ear.

Of course Marmaduke answered:

“Better ‘n anything I ever did.”

So Tody took him by the hand and led him into the little tent and put a little pointed cap on his head, just like Tody’s own. Then he lifted Marmaduke into a big seat on top of Jumbo, the big elephant. And out they marched under the tent and round and round the ring.

Marmaduke could look down on all the rows of people. He was up quite high and their faces looked small, but he could tell Jehosophat, and Hepzebiah, and Sammy Soapstone, and Sophy, Lizzie Fizzletree, and Fatty Hamm, too. And there was the Toyman walking around, looking everywhere for him.

“‘Llo, Toyman,” he shouted, and the Toyman looked up and saw Marmaduke in his little pointed cap, way up on the back of the big elephant.