The wagons of "the greatest show on earth" passed up the avenue at daybreak. Their incessant rumbling soon awakened ten-year-old Billie and five-year-old brother Robert. Their mother feigned sleep as the two white-robed figures crept past her bed into the hall, on the way to investigate. Robert struggled manfully with the unaccustomed task of putting on his clothes. "Wait for me, Billie," his mother heard him beg. "You'll get ahead of me."
"Get mother to help you," counseled Billie, who was having troubles of his own.
Mother started to the rescue, and then paused as she heard the voice of her younger, guarded but anxious and insistent.
"You ask her, Billie. You've known her longer than I have."
