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The Toyman waved his hand and smiled. I guess he was very glad to find that Marmaduke wasn’t lost after all.

But Jehosophat was wishing that he had been lost, so that he could have had that fine chance to be part of the circus.

Suddenly there was a chorus of barks. Marmaduke had forgotten all about Wienerwurst.

He turned around to look for him and leaned back so far that he almost fell flop off the elephant’s back. Tody caught him just in time or there would have been trouble.

The trick dogs were coming into the circus now. Some of them were walking on their hind legs.

Marmaduke listened.

There were so many different barks! Just as many as there were dogs,–deep or squeaky, smooth or creaky, rough or happy, gruff or snappy, and one that Marmaduke knew the very minute he heard it.

“Run–run–run–run–runrunrun!”

Yes, he knew that little voice. He could tell little Wienerwurst’s bark anywhere. Somehow it was different from any doggie’s in the world. There he was, frisking and scampering and biting at the other dogs’ tails, just in fun.

“Run–run run–run–runrunrun!”

And that is just what they did, right into the circus ring where the man in the red cap held out big hoops of paper above the dogs’ heads.

The first dog jumped through one hoop, and the second dog jumped through another. Then the man in the red cap held up a third hoop bigger than all the rest.

Another dog, a long tall greyhound, got ready to take his turn, but I guess Wienerwurst decided all-of-a-sudden that he wasn’t going to be left out. He just gave the tail of that big dog a little nip, and when the big dog turned around to see what was the matter, why Wienerwurst jumped through the hoop all by himself.

So pleased was he that he ran round the ring, looking up at the people in their seats, with his little pink tongue hanging out in delight.

A great doggie was Wienerwurst.

But soon it was all over and the people left their seats, and walked out of the tent to their homes and their suppers.

Tody the Clown just wouldn’t let Marmaduke and little Wienerwurst go. He invited them and his brother and sister and the Toyman, too, to have supper in the tent.

At a long table they sat, with Tody, and the big giant, and the little teeny dwarf, and the Lady-with-the-Long-Long-Beard, and the Lady-with-the-Necklace-of-Snakes. But she put the snakes away and Marmaduke wasn’t afraid at all.

Tody the Clown sat by his side and kept his plate full and his cup full too. He didn’t forget little Wienerwurst either. He had a nice big bone all for himself.

But the time came to say “Good-bye,” which they did, to one and all of the kind circus people.

Tody the Clown didn’t kiss Marmaduke. He just shook hands. Marmaduke was glad of that. He felt like a real man now. For hadn’t he been part of a circus and ridden on an elephant! I guess so!

All Tody said to him was:

“Good-bye, pardner, you just keep smiling and make people happy, and you’ll be a circus man too, one of these days.”

So the Toyman hitched up “old Methuselah,” and the three happy children rode home together, falling asleep in the buggy before ever they reached the White-House-with-the-Green-Blinds by the side of the road.

When you visit that place ask Marmaduke to show you the silver button and the big giant’s ring. He keeps them still in his little bureau. But the candy was gone, oh, long ago.