“That’s a cold place!” exclaimed Mrs. Newton.  “Why don’t you take her where it’s warm?”

“Well, to tell you the truth, I don’t know where to take her,” said the boy.  “We just had money enough left to pay our trolley fare from a place called Wayville, where we played last night, to this town.  We thought we’d come back here.”

“To give another show?” asked the hardware man.

“No, I guess our show is gone for good,” was the boy’s answer.  “But I sort of liked this place, and so did my sister.  I thought I might get work here, at least until I could make money enough to go back to New York.”

“Got any folks in New York?” asked Mr. Winkler, as he stroked the head of his pet monkey.

“Well, no, not exactly folks,” replied the show boy, as he brushed some bits of bark from his trousers.  “But it’s easier to get a place with a show if you’re in New York.  They all start out from there.”

“That boy looks to me as though the best place for him, right now, would be at a table with a good meal on it,” said Mrs. Newton.  “He looks hungry and cold.”

“He does that,” agreed Mrs. Brown, who had followed Bunny and Sue to see that they did not get into mischief.  “I’m going to invite him to our house.”  She stepped up closer to the lad who had got the monkey down out of the tree, and asked:  “Wouldn’t you like to come home with me and have something to eat?”

The boy’s face flushed and his eyes brightened.

“Thank you,” he said.  “I really am hungry.  I’ll be glad to work for a meal.  There wasn’t money enough for breakfast and car fare too, but I thought there was a better chance for work here than in Wayville, and so my sister and I came on.”

“And where did you say she was?” asked Mrs. Brown.

“I left her sitting in the little park down by the water front, while I came up into the town to look for work.  Then I saw the crowd around the tree and——­”

“Poor little girl!” exclaimed Mrs. Brown.  “Now, you two are coming home with me!” she went on.  “We’ll talk about work later.  Come along, my boy.  I’ve got children of my own, and I know what’s good for ’em.  Take me to where you left your sister.  And don’t all of you come, or you might bother the poor child,” she added, as she saw the crowd about to follow.  “I’ll tell you all about it later.”

“Can’t we come, Mother?” asked Bunny Brown.

“Yes, you and Sue come with me.  Mrs. Newton,” she went on, turning to a fat lady, “I wish you’d go to my house and start to get something ready for these starved ones to eat.  I’ll be right along with them.”

“And I’ll take my monkey back home,” said Jed Winkler.  “My sister might be worried about him,” and he smiled as the crowd laughed, for it was well known that Miss Winkler did not like Wango, though she was not unkind to him.

“Now show me where your sister is,” said Mrs. Brown to the boy, as she walked along with him and her own two children.  “By the way, what’s your name?”