Show hickles jac best world by bichard HE DAY BEFORE dar darlings ng s ethree THE three ring circus largest to ever visit new england came to dexter silas ledbetter called his 12 year old son in from the barn and said look here minute jackie youve 6 fact ion been a pretty this good boy summer guess you deserve bein on hand with the other boys at that circus when it gets here tomorrow the 1 ledbetters were poor as c church u ach mice and jackie dared even let himself think ills his pop would let him attend the circus consequently his round blue eyes grew even rounder old silas grinned and swallowed a lump in his throat lie ile dug down into ills his pocket and brought out a shiny new silver half dollar jackie carefully placed the half dollar in a pocket of his tattered overalls pulled his straw hat well over his ruddy face puckered up his lips and began to whistle lie he whistled all that afternoon and was still whistling when he came in from the lower lot for supper once upstairs jackie carefully took off his shirt and then felt in the pocket of his overalls for the halt half dollar hed better sleep with it under his pillow he reasoned like hed read about folks doing it was right then that jackies heart sank right then that the world turned black and there was a horrible terrifying empty feeling in the pit of his stomach the half dollar was gonel gone jackie wanted to cry but he was too much of a man for that tha t ile he searched through the other pocket very carefully and then looked in his shoes and under the bed and about everywhere that the half dollar might have been but it was gone completely vanished and so jackie his heart aching with ini misery scry crawled into led bed and then be help it he cried but all the time he kept telling himself he be was a man now and hed letter better stop crying before mom canie came up to tuck him in and kiss him good night if mom found him crying shed feel bad and probably cry too and jackle jackie want that to happen he decided even HE let mom know that he had lost the half dollar or pop either that be fair hed just go oft off by himself tomorrow afternoon and make them think he was at the circus all the time ile ho want them to know for anything there any one in the world had a better pop and mom than he IV 1 jackie carefully placed the half dollar in a pocket of his tattered overalls jackie fought to keep back ack b the tears lie ile wait long after breakfast and set out w with ith his pitchfork over his shoulder and a whistle on his lips once out of sight of the house tile the whistle died the lie ache and misery in his heart just let it go on still he was going to see the parade anyway and pop and mom would think he was going to the circus it was comforting to know that pop and room mom were happy jackie reached the lower lot and began to shake out tile the hay as pop had asked him to do ile he loaf on the job lie he told himself because it he be did pop think him very cry grateful for the half dollar jackie turned the hay in one windrow and started on the next but all the while his heart fairly sobbed with misery and then them abruptly that same heart almost ceased to beat jackie stared and stared at something round and shiny that lay in the stubbles under the forkful of hay hed just picked up after a long time it seemed his heart began t to 0 thump again he felt go goose oe pimples breaking out all over his body ile he wanted to cry y and shout and do all sorts of tunings and then jackie remembered that hed been working vor king here on tho the afternoon before and the half dol lar irr must have slipped out of his pocket ile he picked up the coin s squeezed it lovingly arid and holding it tightly in his clenched fist went to shaking out the hay again the best mom and the best pop in the world he told himself joyfully |