Andy the Acrobat

by John Kendrick Bangs

  Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Ginny Brewer and the Online DistributedProofreading Team

  ANDY THE ACROBAT

  Or

  Out With the Greatest Show on Earth

  BY

  PETER T. HARKNESS

  Author of

  CHIMPANZEE HUNTERS,CIRCUSES--OLD AND NEW,HOW A GREAT SHOW TRAVELS, ETC.

  1907

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER

  I. EXPELLED

  II. HOOP-LA!

  III. DISASTER

  IV. A BUSINESS PROPOSITION

  V. THE CIRCUS

  VI. CIRCUS TALK

  VII. A WARM RECEPTION

  VIII. "COASTING"

  IX. GOOD-BYE TO FAIRVIEW

  X. A FIRST APPEARANCE

  XI. SAWDUST AND SPANGLES

  XII. AN ARM OF THE LAW

  XIII. ON THE ROAD

  XIV. BILLY BLOW, CLOWN

  XV. ANDY JOINS THE SHOW

  XVI. THE REGISTERED MAIL

  XVII. A WILD JOURNEY

  XVIII. A FREAK OF NATURE

  XIX. CALLED TO ACCOUNT

  XX. ANDY'S ESCAPE

  XXI. A FULL FLEDGED ACROBAT

  XXII. AMONG THE CAGES

  XXIII. FACING THE ENEMY

  XXIV. ANDY'S AUNT

  XXV. A BEAR ON THE RAMPAGE

  XXVI. A CLEVER RUSE

  XXVII. A ROYAL REWARD

  XXVIII. "HEY, RUBE!"

  XXIX. A FREE TROLLEY RIDE

  XXX. WITH THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH

  XXXI. CONCLUSION

  ANDY THE ACROBAT

  CHAPTER I

  EXPELLED

  "Andrew Wildwood!"

  The village schoolmaster of Fairview spoke this name in a tone ofseverity. He accompanied the utterance with a bang of the ruler thatmade the desk before him rattle.

  There was fire in his eye and his lip trembled. Half of the twenty oddscholars before him looked frightened, the others interested. None hadever before seen the dull, sleepy pedagogue so wrought up.

  All eyes were fixed on a lad of about sixteen, seated in the front rowof desks.

  The name called out applied to him. It had been abbreviated so commonly,however, that its full dignity seemed to daze him for the moment.

  Andrew Wildwood slowly arose, his big, fearless eyes fixed dubiously onthe schoolmaster.

  "Yes, sir," he said.

  "Step forward, sir."

  Andy Wildwood did so. He was now in full view of the other scholars. Mr.Darrow also arose. He thrust one hand behind his long coat tails,twirling them fiercely. From the little platform that was his throne heglared down at the unabashed Andy. In his other hand he flourished thelong black ruler threateningly.

  He pointed a terrible finger towards two desks, about four feet apart,at one side of the room. The desk nearest to the wall had its top splitclear across, and one corner was splintered off.

  "Did you break that desk?" demanded the pedagogue.

  Andy's lips puckered slightly in a comical twist. He had a vividimagination, and the shattered desk suggested an exciting andpleasurable moment in the near past. Some one chuckled at the rear ofthe room. Andy's face broke into an irrepressible smile.

  "Order!" roared the schoolmaster, bringing down the ruler with a loudbang. "Young man, I asked you: did you break that desk?"

  "Yes, sir, I'm afraid I smashed it," said Andy in a rather subdued tone."It was an accident."

  "He was only fooling, teacher!" in an excited lisp spoke up little TodSmith, the youngest pupil in the school. "He broke the desk, but--say,teacher! he did it--yes, sir, Andy did the double somersault, just likea real circus actor, and landed square on both feet!"

  The eyes of Andy's diminutive champion and admirer sparkled likediamonds. A murmur of delight and sympathy went the rounds of theschoolroom.

  Mr. Darrow glared savagely at the boy. He brandished the ruler wildly,sending an ink bottle rolling to the floor. As a titter greeted thiscatastrophe, he lost his temper and dignity completely.

  Springing down from the platform, he made a swoop upon Andy. The latterstood his ground, and there was a shock. Then Andy was swayed to and froas the schoolmaster grasped his arm.

  "Young man," spoke Mr. Darrow in a shaking tone, "this is the limit. Anexample must be made! Last week you tore down the schoolhouse chimneywith your ridiculous tight rope performances."

  "And wasn't it just jolly!" gloated a juvenile gleesome voice in a loudwhisper.

  The schoolmaster swept the room with a shocked glance. It had no effectupon the bubbling-over effervescence of his pupils. Every imaginationwas vividly recalling the rope tied from the schoolhouse chimney to anear tree. Every heart renewed the thrills that had greeted AndyWildwood's daring walk across the quivering cable.

  Then the culminating climax: the giving way of the chimney, a shower ofbricks--but the young gymnast, safe and serene, dangling from the eaves.

  "Last week also," continued the schoolmaster, "you stole Farmer Dale'scalf and carried it five miles away. You are complained of continually.As I said, young man, you have reached the limit. Human patience andendurance can go no farther. You are demoralizing this school. And now,"concluded Mr. Darrow, his lips setting grimly, "you must toe the mark."

  A hush of expectancy, of rare excitement, pervaded the room. Theschoolmaster swung aloft the ruler with one hand. He swung Andy arounddirectly in front of him with the other hand.

  Andy's face suddenly grew serious. He tugged to get loose.

  "Hold on, Mr. Darrow," he spoke quickly. "You mustn't strike me."

  "How? what! defiance on top of rebellion!" shouted the irate pedagogue."Keep your seats!" he roared, as half the school came upright under thetense strain of the moment.

  The next he was struggling with Andy. Forward and backward then wentover the clear recitation space. The ruler was dropped in the scrimmage.As Mr. Darrow stooped to repossess it, Andy managed to break loose.

  Dodging behind the zinc shield that fronted the stove, he caught its topwith both hands. He moved about presenting a difficult barrier againsteasy capture. Andy looked pretty determined now. The schoolmaster was soangry that his face was as red as a piece of flannel. He advanced againupon the culprit, so choked up that his lips made only inarticulatesounds.

  "One minute, please, Mr. Darrow," said Andy. "You mustn't try to whipme. I can't stand it, and I won't. It hasn't been the rule here, ever. Idid wrong, though I couldn't help it, and I'm sorry for it. I'll standdouble study and staying in from recess and after school for a month, ifyou say so. You can put me in the dark hole and keep me without mydinner as long as you like. I have lots of good friends here. I'd beashamed to face them after a whipping--and I won't!"

  "Yes, yes--he's right!" rang out an earnest chorus.

  "Silence!" roared the schoolmaster. "An example must be made. I shall domy duty. Andrew Wildwood--Graham! what do you mean, sir?"

  The scholars thrilled, as a new and unexpected element came into thesituation.

  Graham, quite a young man, and double the weight of the schoolmaster,had arisen from his seat. He walked quietly between Mr. Darrow and Andy,quite pushing back the former gently.

  "The lad is right, Mr. Darrow," he said, in his quiet, drawling way. "Iwouldn't punish him before the scholars if I were you, sir."

  "What's this? You interfere!" flared out the pedagogue.

  "Don't take it that way, Mr. Darrow," said Graham. "You are displeased,and justly so, sir, but boys will be boys. Andy is the right kind of alad, I assure you, only in the wrong kind of a place. They did the samething with me when I was young. If they hadn't, I wouldn't be herespelling out words of two syllables at twenty-eight years of age."


  Andy's eyes glistened at the big scholar's friendliness. A murmur ofapprobation ran round the room.

  Silently the pedagogue fumed. The disaffection of the occasion, mild andrespectful as it was, disarmed him. He regarded Andy with a despairinglook. Then he straightened up with great dignity.

  "Take your seat, sir!" he ordered Andy severely, marching back to hisown desk.

  "Yes, sir," said Andy humbly.

  "Pack up your books."

  Andy looked up in dismay. The fixed glint in the schoolmaster's eye toldhim that this new move meant no fooling.

  "Now you may go home," resumed Mr. Darrow, as Andy had obeyed his firstmandate.

  Andy kept a stiff upper lip, though he felt that the world was slippingaway from him.

  A picture of an unloving home, a stern, hard mistress who would make useof this, his final disgrace, as a continual club and menace to all hisfuture peace of mind, fairly appalled him.

  He arose to his feet, swinging his strapped up books to and fro airily,but there was a dismal catch in his voice as he turned to the teacher'sdesk, and said:

  "Mr. Darrow, I guess I would rather take the whipping."

  "Too late," pronounced the relentless schoolmaster in icy tones.

  And then, as Andy reached the door amid the gruesome silence and awe ofhis sympathetic comrades, Mr. Darrow added the final dreadful words:

  "You are expelled."