The boys were surprised when Mr. Jally announced that it was supper time and that he must go home.

“Gracious!  And I told my aunt we’d be to supper by six o’clock!” exclaimed Shep.  “We’ll have to leg it to her house.”

“Come again to-morrow at nine o’clock,” said the photographer, and this the chums promised to do.

“Well, I’ve learned a whole lot to-day,” said Snap as they walked along.  “I am sure I can take a much better picture than formerly.”

“And I’ve learned one little lesson,” came from Whopper.  “After this I am not going to take so many snapshots of landscapes.  I am going to take time exposures, and put my camera on a tripod, and study the scene through the ground glass, to get the best view possible.”

Mrs. Carson, the doctor’s sister, had given the boys their dinner, and now she had supper on the table waiting for them.  Their experiments of the afternoon had made them hungry, and all “pitched in” with a vigor that made the good woman smile.

“What do you intend to do this evening?” she asked.

“We are going to the circus, Aunt Jennie,” answered Shep.  “Father said we might go.”

“I thought as much.  Don’t stay out too late.”

“We’ll come home as soon as the show is over.”

“Well, if it gets too late I’ll put the key out for you—–­under the front-door mat,” said Mrs. Carson.  “I fancy you can find your way to your rooms.”

“Certainly,” answered Snap.

“You needn’t stay up for us, Aunt Jennie,” said Shep, who knew his relative was in the habit of retiring early.

“I am not going to bed so very early, Shep.  I am afraid some of those tramps who follow the circus will come and rob me.  I heard the town was full of the good-for-nothings.”

“You had better lock up good after we are gone,” said Giant.

“No fear but what I’ll do that,” answered Mrs. Carson.

“We’ll try not to wake you up when we come in, aunty.”

“I’ll hear you, never fear.  And, Shep, if you are hungry when you get back, you’ll find a jar of cookies in the pantry, and a pitcher of milk in the icebox.”

“Good for you!” cried the doctor’s son, and he ran around the table and gave his aunt a hug and a kiss.  “You know what boys like, don’t you?”

The four chums were soon on their way to the circus grounds, located on the outskirts of Railings.  Here they found erected a large main tent and several smaller ones, all lit up by numerous gasolene torches.  At one side of the main tent was a side show, with numerous pictures hung between high poles.  Near the entrance to the big show was a ticket wagon, and here a long line of people were awaiting their turns to get the bits of pasteboard which would admit them to the wonders under the canvases.

“Going to have a big crowd and no mistake,” observed Snap as he looked at the folks flocking to the circus grounds.