If he knows there is a
conspiracy on foot between his parents and the teachers to keep him from
the circus, he begins to think of some lie to get out of school. He will
be sick, or run away, or something.
He will get there if possible. And after the first lie succeeds in getting
him out of school, he is a liar from the word go. There is something, some
sort of electricity that runs from a boy to a circus, and all the teachers
in the world cannot break the connection. A circus is the boys' heaven.
You may talk to him about the beautiful gates ajar, and the angel band in
heaven that plays around the great white throne, and he can't understand
it, but the least hint about the circus tent, with the flap
pulled to one side to get in, and the band wagon, and the girls jumping
through hoops, and the clown, and he is onto your racket at a jump.
You may try to paralyze him by the story of Daniel in the den of lions,
and how he was saved by faith in the power above, and the boy's mind will
revert to the circus, where a man in tights and spangles goes in and
bosses the lions and tigers around, and he will wonder if Daniel had a
rawhide, and backed out of the cage with his eye on the boss lion.
At a certain age a circus can hold over heaven or anything else in a boy's
mind, and as long as the circus does not hurt him, why not shut up shop a
half a day and let him go? If you keep him in school he wont learn
anything, and he will go to the circus in the evening and be up half the
night seeing the canvas men tear down the tent and load up, and the next
day he is all played out and not worth a continental.
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