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“Oh, he’s a jolly toy!” cried Archibald. “I’ll have some fun with him when I show him to the other fellows. Hi! Look at him jig!” and he pulled the strings so fast that it seemed as if the poor Clown would turn somersaults.

“I can see what will happen to me,” thought the Clown. “I shall come to pieces in about a week, and be thrown in the ash can. Why can’t he be nice and quiet?”

But Archibald was not that kind of boy. He seemed to want to make a noise or do something all the while. Most of his toys at home were broken, and that is why his mother had to promise to get him another before he would let her take him to the dentist’s to have an aching tooth pulled.

“I want this Clown!” cried Archibald, making the cymbals bang together again and again.

“Very well, you may have it,” his mother replied.

“I’ll wrap it up for you,” said the clerk, and the poor Clown was quickly smothered in a wrapping of paper around which a string was tied.

“Here is your toy, Archibald,” said his mother, when the plaything came back ready to be taken out of the store. The mother had taken it from the clerk, and now she handed it to her little boy.

And so he carried the Calico Clown away, without giving the poor, jolly fellow a chance to say good-bye to the Elephant, the Camel or the Celluloid Doll.

“Now our good time for to-night is spoiled,” sadly thought the Elephant. “Our jolly comrade is gone!”

All the way home in the automobile Archibald kept punching the red and yellow Clown in the chest and banging the cymbals together until the boy’s mother said:

“Oh, Archibald, please be quiet! My head aches!”

“All right, I’ll make my Clown jiggle!” said the boy, who really loved his mother, though sometimes he was rude.

Then he pulled the strings until the poor Clown thought his arms and legs would come off, so fast were they jerked about.

When Archibald reached home with his new toy he ran out into the street to find some of his playmates. He saw a boy named Pete and another named Sam.

“Look what I’ve got!” cried Archibald.

“A Jumping Jack!” exclaimed Sam.

“It’s a Calico Clown, and he can do everything,” said Archibald. “He’s like one in a circus, and he can do funny tricks. He can jiggle his arms and legs and play the cymbals. I’ll show you!”

He worked the Clown so fast that the red and yellow chap grew dizzy again.

“That’s fine!” said Sam. “I wish I had a Clown like that.”

“Can he do the giant’s swing?” asked Pete.

“What’s the giant’s swing?” Archibald wanted to know.

“It’s something the men do in a circus,” was the answer. “Here, I have some string in my pocket. We’ll make a trapeze in your back yard and we’ll have the Calico Clown do the giant’s swing.”

“Oh, that’ll be fun!” cried Archibald.

“Yes, it may be fun for you,” thought the Calico Clown, “but what about me? What is the giant’s swing, anyhow? Oh, I wish I were back on the toy counter!”

CHAPTER II

A BROKEN LEG

Sam and Pete hurried with Archibald to his back yard. Archibald carried the red and yellow Calico Clown in his hands. Now and then the boy would punch the gay fellow in the chest, making the cymbals clang together with a bang. Again Archibald would pull the strings, causing the Calico Clown to jiggle his arms and legs.

“You’re a nice toy, all right,” said Archibald. “I like my Clown!”

“But wait until I make him do the giant’s swing!” exclaimed Pete. “That will be worth seeing!”

When the boys reached a tree in Archibald’s yard, Pete found a piece of broken broom handle for the bar of the trapeze. From his pocket he took some strong pieces of string. With these the broomstick was tied to the limb of a tree, so that it hung down and swung to and fro like a swing.