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Show if rf l 1 THE CLOlDlNrS 1 CHRISTMAS I ( By Mary GraKam Bonner (, 1924, Western Newspaper Union.) ,Wc-- OR YEARS he had fri&yy I Cp 1,een funny-Tl funny-Tl I 'J yeurs he bnd p.tint-J p.tint-J L ei' '"'s f'lce' worn OmNi lm1 !'iade Joke9- fefe-JlVr first of nil In this country with a road circus. Then, when the road circus cir-cus was going out of business, more or less, he joined a road circus abroad. And now he was very old. But every afternoon and every night for ten months of the year he made Jokes. lie was In a small circus, too, so sometimes he had to take other parts. The performing fox terriers acted with him. They were his pets. And how he loved them. How could some people be unkind to their pets? Not the old clown. There was the donkey, too. When he paid too much attention to the dogs the donkey came along and gave him a push to tell him that the donkey, don-key, too, wanted some attention. And now he had planned to have a holiday. A long holiday. He would take a little place and with his don-i don-i key and his. fox terriers tliey would rest after their work. They wotl'd not Join the circus another an-other year. They were all old. How tired he had become after some of the performances that year. He hr.d washed his face In the basin i of cold water outside his wagon and had not even bothered to get off all j the makeup. The water was cold. It was hard to heat water after the performance was over, and only a little of the paint came off only a little cold-look-fng pink water was at the bottom of the basin. Eut the dogs didn't mind. They slept on the end or by the side of his cot in his wagon. They jumped in after him each evening, and they each kissed him good night. They didn't mind paint. They were used to It. Oh, yes, he would take a long. long holiday. lie would rest on the little he had managed to save. It would be enough f.r him and his pels. But as the days passed along he seemed to feel rested and the pets seemed to have new vigor and strength. It was splendid to feel rested rest-ed again. A family hud Invited him to Christinas dinner and he had ac-cepte, ac-cepte, and he had asked, too. If he could come with his donkey and bring his dogs along. They, he said, would help put on a little show for the children. It was nil agreed. But when Christmas afternoon came and the Christmas dinner was over, and the old clown was beginning bis show for the children, he knew then that he could never take more than a few months' holiday from being a clown. The laughter and the delight and the shrleki ami the cries of Joy from the children were things t lie old clown could not get along without. This Christmas had shown him that ! |