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"He mustn't suspect he mustn't know," she whispered to Agnes, hurriedly. "You go one way, Aggie, and I'll go the other. Neale must return by either the Old Ridge Road or Ralph Avenue. Which one will you take?" Agnes was just as excited as her older sister. "I'll go up Ral-Ralph Avenue, Ru-Ruth!" she gasped. "Oh! It will be dreadful if that awful Sorber takes away our Neale "
"I guess there ain't," agreed Mr. Sorber. "And does he ever tell you how he was took into the Lions' Den, like a little Dan'l, when he was two, with spangled pants on him and a sugar lollypop to keep him quiet?" "Mercy!" gasped Agnes. "In a lions' den?" repeated Tess, while Dot's pretty eyes grew so round they looked like gooseberries. "Yes, Ma'am! I done it. And it made a hit.
He was such a red-faced man, and he was so stout and rough looking, that Agnes scarcely knew how to speak to him. She noted, too, that he had a big seal ring on one finger and that a heavy gold watchchain showed against his waistcoat where the short jacket was cut away. "Who who are you?" Agnes managed to stammer at last. "And what do you want?" "Why, I'm Sorber, I am," said the man.
Of course he's dead or he'd found us, for lemme tell you, Miss, the repertation of Twomley & Sorber's Herculean Circus and Menagerie ain't a light hid under a bushel by no manner o' means!" Not if Mr. Sorber were allowed to advertise it, that was sure. But the man went on: "So there you have it. Neale's mine. I'm his uncle. His mother told me when she was dying to look after him.
"Did ye iver think, sir," interposed the cobbler, softly, "that mebbe there was implanted in the la-ad desires for things ye know nothin' of?" "Huh!" grunted Sorber, balancing a mouthful of beans on his knife to the amazement of Dot, who had seldom seen any person eat with his knife. "Lit me speak plainly, for 'tis a plain man I am," said the Irishman. "This boy whom ye call nephew ?"
"If he goes peaceable, we'll let bygones be bygones. He's my own sister's child. And Twomley says for me not to come back without him. I tell ye, he's a drawin' card, and no mistake." "But, Mr. Sorber!" cried Agnes. "He wants to study so." "Shucks! I won't stop him. He's allus readin' his book. I ain't never stopped him.
And until a few years ago there was Neale's mother. She was my own sister." Agnes had begun to be very curious. And while he was talking, the girl was looking Sorber over for a second time. He was not all bad! Of that Agnes began to be sure. Yet he wanted to beat Neale O'Neil for running away from a circus.
"We expect Neale here about four o'clock. Before that my sister Ruth will be at home. I want you to stay and see her, Mr. Sorber " "Sure I'll meet her," said Mr. Sorber, warmly. "I don't care if I meet every friend Neale's made in this man's town. But that don't make no differ. To the Twomley & Sorber tent show he belongs, and that's where he is a-goin' when I leave this here town to-night."
Ruth, she believed, would know just how to handle this ticklish situation. Just then Tess and Dot appeared, taking a walk through the yard with their very best dolls. Naturally they were surprised to see Agnes talking in the backyard with a strange man, and both stopped, curiously eyeing Mr. Sorber. Dot's finger involuntarily sought the corner of her mouth.
"For then you're so scared of them that you can't remember how they look. But Mr. Sorber is a perfectly safe lion. He's even got false teeth. He told us so." Mr. Sorber could scarcely refuse Ruth's invitation. He was much impressed by the appearance of the oldest Corner House girl.
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