Under the Lilacs by Louisa May Alcott Read Free Book Online

disappointment.
    “I’ll ask the girls; maybe they will know,” said Ben to himself as, after looking vainly for more stray leaves, he trudged
     on, enjoying the bobolink’s song, the warm sunshine, and a comfortable sense of friendliness and safety, which soon set him
     to whistling as gaily as any blackbird in the meadow.

A Circulating Library
C HAPTER 6
    A fter supper that night, Bab and Betty sat in the old porch playing with Josephus and Belinda, and discussing the events of
     the day; for the appearance of the strange boy and his dog had been a most exciting occurrence in their quiet lives. They
     had seen nothing of him since morning, as he took his meals at the Squire’s, and was at work with Pat in a distant field when
     the children passed. Sancho had stuck closely to his master, evidently rather bewildered by the new order of things, and bound
     to see that no harm happened to Ben.
    “I wish they’d come. It’s sundown, and I heard the cows mooing, so I know they have gone home,” said Betty, impatiently, for
     she regarded the newcomer in the light of an entertaining book, and wished to read on as fast as possible.
    “I’m going to learn the signs he makes when he wants Sancho to dance; then we can have fun with him whenever we like. He’s
     the dearest dog I ever saw!” answered Bab, who was fonder of animals than her sister.
    “Ma said — Ow, what’s that?” cried Betty with a start, as something bumped against the gate outside; and in a moment Ben’s
     head peeped over the top as he swung himself up to the iron arch, in the middle of which was the empty lantern frame.
    “Please to locate, gentlemen; please to locate. The performance is about to begin with the great Flyin’ Coopid act, in which
     Master Bloomsbury has appeared before the crowned heads of Europe. Pronounced by all beholders the most remarkable youthful
     progidy agoin’. Hooray! here we are!”
    Having rattled off the familiar speech in Mr. Smithers’s elegant manner, Ben began to cut up such capers that even a party
     of dignified hens, going down the avenue to bed, paused to look on with clucks of astonishment, evidently fancying that salt
     had set him to fluttering and tumbling as it did them. Never had the old gate beheld such antics, though it had seen gay doings
     in its time; for of all the boys who had climbed over it, not one had ever stood on his head upon each of the big balls which
     ornamented the posts, hung by his heels from the arch, gone round and round like a wheel with the bar for an axis, played
     a tattoo with his toes while holding on by his chin, walked about the wall on his hands, or closed the entertainment by festooning
     himself in an airy posture over the side of the lanternframe, and kissing his hand to the audience as a well-bred Cupid is supposed to do on making his bow.
    The little girls clapped and stamped enthusiastically, while Sancho, who had been calmly surveying the show, barked his approval
     as he leaped up to snap at Ben’s feet.
    “Come down and tell what you did up at the Squire’s. Was he cross? Did you have to work hard? Do you like it?” asked Bab,
     when the noise had subsided.
    “It’s cooler up here,” answered Ben, composing himself in the frame, and fanning his hot face with a green spray broken from
     the tall bushes rustling odorously all about him. “I did all sorts of jobs. The old gentleman wasn’t cross; he gave me a dime,
     and I like him first-rate. But I just
hate
‘Carrots’; he swears at a feller, and fired a stick of wood at me. Guess I’ll pay him off when I get a chance.”
    Fumbling in his pocket to show the bright dime, he found the torn page, and remembered the thirst for information which had
     seized him in the morning.
    “Look here, tell me about this, will you? What are these chaps up to? The ink has spoilt all but the picture and this bit
     of reading. I want to know what it means. Take it to ’em, Sanch.”
    The dog caught the leaf as it