He remembered just too late that he was talking to orphans, and his jolly face went dark red. But he recovered quickly, glanced about his audience, saw that Miss Pond was straying nervously toward Sally's platform, as if halfway convinced that Betsy's childish intuition had been correct.
"Oh, Miss Pond!" he sang out ingratiatingly. "I wonder if you'd do me the favor to step up on the platform. I believe Betsy is scared. Yessir, I believe she's scared half out of her skin!" He laughed, stooped to chuck Betsy under the chin, then, with a courtly gesture, offered Miss Pond his hand.
Sally looked on, her throat tight with fear and with tears of gratitude toward Gus, as the barker, with a rapid fire of talk and joking, kept his audience completely hypnotized. He jollied shy little Betsy into taking the midget into her arms, like a baby or a big doll, and only Sally, of all those who looked on, could guess how keenly the artificially smiling little atom of humanity was resenting this insult to her dignity.
He coaxed and flattered and flustered Miss Pond into standing beside "Pitty Sing," so that the children could see what a vast difference there was in their height. And somehow he had attracted the attention of a carnival employe, for before he had exhausted the possibilities of the midget as a diversion, Winfield Bybee himself came striding into the Palace of Wonders, mounted the midget's platform and, after a moment's whispered conference with Gus, made an announcement:
"Children, I'm old Pop Bybee; Winfield Bybee is the way it's wrote down in the Bible. I own this carnival and I want to tell you children that I'm proud to have you as my guests. I love children, always did! Now, boys and girls, the Ferris wheel and the whip and the merry-go-rounds are waiting for you."
He was interrupted by a whoop of joy from the boys, in which the girls joined more timidly. "It won't cost you a cent. If your chaperon--" and he turned to Miss Pond with a courtly bow--"will do me the honor to accept these tickets, you'll all have a ride on the Ferris wheel, the whip and the merry-go-round absolutely free. Don't crowd now, children, but gather at the door of the tent. I thank you."
When he sprang, rather stiffly, from the platform, he offered Miss Pond his hand, then, with her arm pressed to his side, he escorted her with pompous courtesy to the door of the tent, where the children were already milling about, wild with excitement.