At one minute to nine they were all at the door ready to climb into the car and be off.

“Did you give them their spending money?” asked Grandmother as she helped stow the lunch into the car.

“Not yet,” answered Grandfather.  “I’ll give it to them when they get there.”

“Listen to the man!” exclaimed Grandmother in disgust, “and make them miss half the fun of carrying their own money.  Wait a minute!” She hurried into the house and came back in a minute with two little black purses in her hand.  “There now, children,” she said as she handed a purse to each child, “you can carry your own money.  Here’s two nickels for you, Mary Jane, and two nickels for you, John.  Don’t lose them!”

“We won’t,” said Mary Jane and she clutched hers tightly in her hand, “and may we buy anything we want?”

“Anything you want—­anything!” Grandmother assured her.

“We’ll be home at six,” called Grandfather as he started the car and they whisked down the drive and away.

Such a jolly drive as that was!  They talked about the circus they were to see and how they would spend their money.  And whether the lion would roar and what they should buy.  And if the lady could really truly do everything on her horse that the picture said she could and how much ice cream cones would cost.  You see Grandmother had been right—­half the fun of spending money was the holding the money beforehand and planning how it was to be spent.

Arriving at the village where the circus was, Grandfather drove them by the great white tents—­how wonderful and mysterious they did seem too!—­and then he found a good place to leave the car and they walked to the main street where, from the second story of an office building, they saw the parade go by.

When the sound of the calliope was growing fainter in the distance and the children were certain sure that every bit of the parade had gone by, John looked away from the window and asked, “Can we go to the circus just as soon as we eat our lunch?”

“Yes, I should think we could,” answered Grandfather.

“Then let’s eat right now!” said John eagerly.

“Not such a bad idea,” laughed Grandfather as he looked at his watch.  “Then we’ll have plenty of time.”

They thanked the kind gentleman in whose office they had been and walked to the car to eat their lunch.  It was a good thing Grandfather had left the car out of sight of the circus tent, for it was hard enough to think about eating as it was!  Had the tents been in sight it would have been harder still.  But on this quiet street and with the wonderful parade to talk about they did full justice to Grandmother’s good meal.  And when they had finished, even to the tempting little apple pies, one for each person, they started for the circus.