“That’s not got nothin’ to do with Jerry!” cried Danny hotly.  “I guess he ain’t in no poor farm.”

“He’s goin’ to be, though,” pursued Darn calmly, in that restrained, superior, informative manner which sometimes can be so maddening.

“I ain’t either, am I, Danny?” Jerry appealed dolefully.

“No, you ain’t,” Danny assured him.  “Darn’s jest tryin’ to make you cry.  Don’t you let him scare you.”

“Jerry Elbow’s goin’ to the poor farm before the circus gets here,” stated Darn.

“I ain’t!” cried Jerry in a shaky voice.  “I won’t go!  So there!”

“They’ll take you,” Darn informed him, “and you won’t have anything to say about it.”

“Mother ’Larkey won’t let them take me, will she, Danny?” asked Jerry in a voice that was becoming shrill and high from fear.

“No, she won’t,” asserted Danny.  “Darn Darner, you jest let Jerry be.  You ain’t got no right to scare a orfum boy like that.”

“We won’t let them take you,” comforted Celia Jane, suddenly affectionate, and put her arm about Jerry’s neck.

Darn stepped directly in front of Jerry and stared coolly down at him until Jerry was so uncomfortable that he couldn’t raise his eyes from the ground.

“You’re goin’ to the poor farm Wednesday morning,” he said calmly, “because Mrs. Mullarkey’s too poor to keep you any longer.  She can’t make enough to keep her own kids.”

Jerry felt suddenly very little and all alone in a big cold world.  Fear had entered his heart.  He felt that Mrs. Mullarkey not only hadn’t been able to make both ends meet but that she was never going to be able to do it.  He some way knew that Darn Darner was telling the truth and that soon he would be torn away from the only home he could remember.  His lips twisted and he felt the hot tears filling his eyes.  Yet he denied Darn’s statement with all his soul.

“They won’t!  They shan’t take me!  I’ll run away first!”

“Much good that would do you,” commented Darn unsympathetically.  “It’d be easy enough to find you.”

“How do you know they’re goin’ to take Jerry away?” asked Chris.

“He don’t know it!” cried Nora.  “He’s jest tryin’ to scare us.”

“No, I ain’t,” denied Darn.  “My father’s overseer of the poor in this county and I guess I heard him tell mamma last night that he was goin’ to take Jerry to the poor farm Wednesday morning.  He said Mrs. Mullarkey had agreed as to how she’d hafta let him take Jerry because her insurance money from Mr. Mullarkey was all gone and she couldn’t make enough to support her own kids.”

“It ain’t so!” blustered Jerry, but all the time terribly frightened.  He tried to think of something to say that would show he was not afraid of Darn Darner, who was always picking on little boys.

“You shan’t go!” Celia Jane cried, tears running down her cheeks.  She flung both arms around Jerry’s neck and squeezed him passionately.