The four little Blossoms squeezed into the window and Sam looked over their shoulders.
"Music!" cried Dot. "I hear it! They're coming!"
"I see 'em!" shouted Bobby, leaning out to look. "My, see the horses, Meg!"
Sam pulled him in again, and in another minute the parade was marching by in full swing. You know how wonderful a circus parade is; that is, if you have ever seen one. And if you haven't, goodness! we couldn't begin to do it justice. Of course the very largest circuses didn't come to Oak Hill; but still this one had many things to see. There were cream-colored horses and black ones, with girls dressed in pink and blue and white fluffy dresses and gorgeous long red coats, riding them. There were cages of animals, some of them sleeping and some switching their tails angrily and showing their teeth. There was a whole wagon load of monkeys, two bands, and even an elephant and a camel.
"Wouldn't it be awful if we couldn't go to the circus?" said Bobby solemnly, as the last of the procession, the clown driving his own cunning pony and cart, went up the street. "After seeing that parade I never could be happy 'less I saw them at the circus."
"Well, we are going," Meg reminded him practically.
"Let's hurry," urged Twaddles. "Maybe all the seats will be gone."
"Daddy bought tickets," said Dot dreamily. "Wasn't the first pony pretty? And did you see the little dog riding on him? Do you suppose Philip could ride a pony, Meg?"
Meg was sure Philip could, if he had a pony to ride and some one to teach him.
As the four little Blossoms and Sam went downstairs whom should they meet but Doctor Maynard, an old friend of the whole Blossom family, and the doctor who had helped them set Philip's leg when he had broken it.
"Well, well," said the doctor, smiling, "I think I know what you have been doing upstairs--watching the circus parade. And now where to?"
"Home," replied Meg. "We have to hurry, 'cause Daddy is going to take us to the circus this afternoon."
"Do you suppose you would have time to have a soda?" asked the doctor.
The children thought they would, and Doctor Maynard lined them up before the fountain and let each one choose. Meg and Bobby, who always liked the same things, took chocolate, and Dot asked for strawberry, while Twaddles said he would have orange. Doctor Maynard and Sam had ginger-ale, which Meg privately thought unpleasant stuff, it tickled one's throat so.