71 Nikolaus von Jeroschin on the Prussian Crusades
72 Philip of Novara on Frederick II’s Crusade
73 Frederick II on His Taking of Jerusalem and Sibt ibn al-
Jawzi’s Recording of the Event
74 Responses to Frederick II’s Crusade
Chapter Eight: Conflict and Coexistence in Spain
75 Chronicle of the Cid
76 The Conquest of Lisbon
77 Alfonso VIII’s Report on Las Navas de Tolosa
78 Muslim–Christian Treaty
79 Moorish Laws
80 Christian Laws
81 Constitutions of the Order of Merced
82 Expulsion of the Jews from Spain
83 Abu Abdilla Mohammed on the Expulsion of the Muslims
Chapter Nine: Crusades at the Crossroads
84 Joinville’s Life of St. Louis
85 Matthew Paris on the Shepherds’ Crusade
86 Ibn al-Athir on the Mongol Invasion
87 Ibn ‘Abd al-Zahir’s Biography of Baybars
88 Ludolph von Suchem on the Fall of Acre and Its Aftermath
89 Humbert of Romans on Criticisms of Crusading
90 Ramon Lull’s Plan to Convert the Muslims
91 Order for the Arrest of the Templars and Papal Bull Suppressing the Templars
92 John Mandeville on Prester John
93 Letters between Pope Innocent IV and Guyuk Khan
94 Johann Schiltberger on the Nicopolis Crusade
95 Kritovoulos on the Fall of Constantinople
96 Pius II’s Commentaries
97 Erasmus On the War against the Turks Chapter Ten: Modern Perceptions of the Crusades
98 David Hume on the Crusades
99 Edward Gibbon’s Evaluation of the Crusades
100 William Wordsworth’s Ecclesiastical Sonnets
101 Michaud, History of the Crusades
102 William Hillary’s Call for a New Crusade
103 Sayyid ‘Ali Hariri’s Book of the Splendid Stories of the Crusades
104 World War I Political Cartoons
105 Sayyid Qutb’s Social Justice in Islam and Muhammad Asad’s Islam at the Crossroads
106 The Hamas Covenant
107 Pope John Paul II’s Statements about Past Christian Actions
108 Crusading Rhetoric after 9/11
109 Modern Use of Images of Saladin
110 Umej Bhatia’s Analysis of the Crusades and Modern Muslim Memory
Sources
Index of Topics
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Our debts in compiling this reader have been many. We are grateful to Paul Dutton for his continuing encouragement and insightful guidance at every stage. Cynthia Feher’s assistance in obtaining source materials was absolutely invaluable, while Janet Sorrentino generously provided information on liturgical practice. Heidi Schnarr valiantly scanned an enormous amount of material onto disk and expertly proofread it; Stephen Bowden, Scott Pincikowski, Lauren Anderson, and Sarah Sponenberg also helped with technical aspects of the project. Hood College supported a portion of the work with a Summer Research Institute grant, and the Writing Group (you know who you are) helped by chivvying us along. Finally, we would like to recognize and encourage our students, whose interest in the history of religious discord has been on the whole open-minded and unflagging, and who in the wake of the terrible events of September 2001 have shown a continuing desire to understand other cultures and to explore the history of conflicts that sadly persist today.
show how these reflect the social, political, and religious contexts of the given periods.
Hence, Chapter X begins with the Enlightenment period as seen through the works of David Hume and Edward Gibbon (docs. 98 and 99). This is followed by sources that reflect the Victorian Romantic movement and the rise of imperialism. Here, Wordsworth’s poetical take on the Crusades (doc. 100) is provided alongside Michaud’s popular history of the crusading era with its patriotic and nationalistic overtones (doc. 101). The theme of imperialism is clearly seen in Hillary’s Suggestions for the Christian Occupation of the Holy Land, as a Sovereign State, by the Order of St. John of Jerusalem (doc. 102). Sayyid ‘Ali Hariri’s Book of the Splendid Stories of the Crusades (doc. 103) marks the first independently written Islamic history on crusading since the medieval period. Moreover, the work is one of the earliest Islamic sources to link crusading with contemporary European imperialism.
Documents from the first half of the twentieth century indicate how, for the West, the crusading image could be used to promote patriotism within the context of imperialism (doc. 104). Again, this ideal was highlighted and condemned by many Islamic writers, including Muhammad Asad and Sayyid Qutb (doc. 105). Qutb writes of “Crusaderism,” a term that defines a policy that seeks to destroy Islam, Islamic society, and Muslims. We can see how later institutions such as Hamas, building on Qutb’s use of this term, came to adopt the notion of an ongoing crusade, particularly in light of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (doc. 106). At the same time, there is evidence of the West’s growing awareness of these tensions and, in document 107, the Catholic Church’s desire to address actions of the past, such as the Crusades.
The final section of the chapter looks at crusading rhetoric within the twenty-first century. The events of 9/11 and subsequent hostilities again show the link between perceptions of the medieval Crusades and modern political and religious conflict.
of Beverly, a Woman Crusader. Newly translated from the Latin, this is a fascinating record of Margaret’s journey to the Holy Land, where she participated in the defense of Jerusalem in 1187, was wounded and, on several occasions, captured by the enemy. Her travels home were no less perilous, and they show the particular hazards faced by women who chose to travel to the Holy Land and back.
In drafting a new edition of the book we have had to make difficult decisions as to what documents to omit. No doubt we have cut someone’s key source and offer our apologies to those for whom this is the case. Publication restrictions necessitated difficult decisions, but we hope the new additions will be of some consolation.
As before, we are very grateful for the ministrations of our publisher We would especially like to thank the Series Editor Paul Dutton, as well as History Editor Natalie Fingerhut and Editorial Assistant Megan Pickard. We are also indebted to Professor Nicholas Paul for his excellent suggestions on crusader homecoming sources. The inevitable flaws that remain are entirely our own.
INTRODUCTION
Crusalem, the most holy of cities for the Christian West, lay at the heart of a series of movements known today as the Crusades. In its strictest sense, a crusade was a holy war called by the medieval papacy with the aim of gaining the Holy Land and, in particular, the city of Jerusalem. At the end of the eleventh century, when the Crusades began, Jerusalem and the surrounding territory were in the hands of Muslims, a people and religion little known in the West, save for the fact that they were not Christian. For Jerusalem did not belong solely, or even primarily, to Christianity Its sacred role had been founded in Judaism, and, in the tradition of “people of the book,” Islam too had ascribed a revered status to the city. Thus, each of these three great monotheistic religions laid claim to Jerusalem at the time of the Crusades, and each continues to do so today.
The evolution of the crusading ideal, however, went far beyond the restrictive definition given above. As will be evident from the primary sources provided here, crusading took on a much broader scope as it developed through the latter half of the Middle Ages and on into the early modern period. This development and its consequences form a central focus of this book. The crusading movement did not emerge out of a vacuum in 1095, nor did it end with the loss of the crusader states in the late thirteenth century. Moreover, the significance of these movements did not lie solely in battles and conquests. Just as important were the societies and institutions altered and created by the Crusades, as well as the legacy they left to both Europe and the Middle East.
The significance of Jerusalem and the Holy Land to Western medieval culture is established in the first chapter, “Background and Origins.” Here it can be seen how Christians of the West viewed the Middle East region, not simply with reverence, but with
a sense of ownership that created a strong spiritual bond. A journey to the Holy Land was seen as the ultimate Christian pilgrimage (doc. 1), and although the vast majority of the medieval population never visited the region, the writings of those who had made the journey established it as a fundamental part of the West’s religious heritage and birthright. This link was crucial to the ideology that would create the Crusades.
But Muslims also had a link to Jerusalem. The rise of Islam during the early Middle Ages had altered the religious and political face of the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain and set the stage for later struggles over these territories (doc. 4). Critical to the understanding of this change is a knowledge of both Western and Islamic views of warfare. In the Qur’an (doc. 3) and the writings of churchmen such as Augustine (doc. 2), the origins of jihad and Christian holy war are evident. Important too are the attitudes each religion displayed toward those outside the faith. Documents such as the Pact of Omar (doc. 5), Ibnu Hayyan’s accounts of Muslim and Christian conflicts in Spain (doc. 7), and even The Song of Roland (doc. 8) demonstrate the tolerance and tensions that could be found among Muslims, Jews, and Christians in the centuries prior to the First Crusade.
The Crusades were, however, a western European enterprise, and their birth depended as much on conditions within Europe as on those in Spain or the Holy Land. The rise of popular piety, the sanctification of violence, the bonds of patronage and loyalty among the landed classes, and the ambitions of the papacy and church to strengthen ecclesiastical authority all played a part in the creation of the crusade mentality. Yet even all this was not enough to spark the crusading movement. The final element of the formula lay in eleventh-century conquests of parts of the Byzantine (Greek) Empire by the Seljuk Turks, and the subsequent pleas from the Byzantines to the West for aid. Pope Gregory VII’s call for military aid against the Turks (doc 11) in 1074 contained many elements of the ideology of holy war, including the horror of Christian places being in non-Christian
hands, the demonizing of the Muslims, and sympathy for eastern Christians. The development of these ideas from the level of fraternal aid to that of a holy war, complete with both spiritual and material rewards, fell to Pope Urban II (1088–99), who made the dream a reality at the Council of Clermont in 1095.
The second chapter, “The First Crusade,” begins with Urban’s call (doc. 12) and concludes with the fall of Jerusalem to the crusaders and reactions to the crusade’s success. Many of the ideologies and strategies developed during the First Crusade would persist throughout the medieval period. In addition, the sources reveal attitudes and perceptions that would continue to direct crusading policy and action both in Europe and abroad. From Urban onward, the documents demonstrate the ethos and driving force of the crusading movement. Its motivation is particularly evident in the sources dealing with the Peasants’ Crusade—an event that draws attention to the violence of the movement and its tendency toward intolerance and fanaticism (docs. 13–15). The massacres of European Jewish communities present the most obvious example of such extremism, which was further demonstrated in the atrocities committed by Peter the Hermit’s crusade and the concluding slaughter of Jerusalem’s inhabitants by the official crusading army (doc. 20). Also apparent are the political divisions between church and secular authorities, between the Byzantine Empire and the West, and among the crusade leaders themselves—divisions that undermined the progress of the First Crusade and the efforts of later campaigns. Despite these disturbing events and trends, the capture of Jerusalem was seen as a resounding triumph for the West, as Pope Paschal’s letter (doc. 21) illustrates. The impact of the capture of Jerusalem upon the world of Islam, though recognized only slowly by the Muslim world, is represented here in the poet Abu l-Muzaffar al-Abiwardi’s lament for Jerusalem (doc. 23).
With the fall of Jerusalem, the crusaders’ attention turned from warfare to control. Governance and society in the four crusader states—the county of Edessa, the principality of Antioch, the
and Bernard’s own explanation of why things went wrong (doc. 40). This was the beginning of the end of Latin rule in the East.
Nur ad-Din died in 1174, and the mantle of Islamic leadership fell upon the shoulders of Salah al-Din Yusuf, known in the West as Saladin. The historian Baha ad-Din gives us a first-hand account of Saladin’s life and character (doc. 41), while Saladin’s secretary Imad ad-Din provides a poetic description of Saladin’s greatest victory, the battle of Hattin (doc. 42), in which the crusader forces were decisively crushed. On October 2, 1187, Saladin accepted the surrender of Jerusalem. The anguish of this loss to western Christians is recorded in the writings of Roger of Wendover and Pope Gregory VIII (docs. 43–44), while the Muslim reaction is represented by a letter from Saladin himself (doc. 44). In each of these documents, the growing confidence of the Muslim forces is clear. The successes of Zengi, Nur ad-Din, and Saladin strengthened and defined jihad, in the same way the crusaders had defined Christian holy war.
Bowed but not beaten, the West prepared for the Third Crusade. Led by two European kings, Philip II “Augustus” of France and Richard I “the Lionheart” of England (a third ruler, Emperor Frederick “Barbarossa,” drowned on his way to the East), this crusade was meticulously planned (doc. 45). The intrigues of European politics and the difficulties of Saladin’s reign are also made apparent in the eyewitness accounts of the expedition (doc. 47). Ending in an unsatisfactory stalemate, the Third Crusade left the West with only a foothold in the Holy Land and Saladin with a weakened claim to authority
Chapter Five, “Setting Out and Returning Home,” leaves the chronology of the Crusades aside for the moment to examine the general issues of undertaking a crusade and the journey there and back again. The chapter includes documents describing the preaching of crusades, the recruitment of soldiers (doc. 48), and the blessing of crusaders before their departure (doc. 51). To many potential soldiers, that first call to arms and the taking of vows marked the high point of their crusading careers. On the
conversion of non-Christian peoples. Innocent’s endeavors were not always successful, the Fourth Crusade being a case in point, nor could he stem the tide of heresy or of popular movements such as the Children’s Crusade (doc. 62). The Fifth Crusade came to grief in Egypt (doc. 64), despite a sound strategy aimed at the heart of Islamic wealth and power. Innocent’s efforts were nonetheless far-reaching: among their results were the Fourth Lateran Council (doc. 63) and the later rise of the Inquisition (doc. 60).
Innocent’s involvement with crusading in northeastern Europe was part of a long-standing commitment by the church to bring Christianity to a largely pagan region. These efforts happened to coincide with the territorial ambitions of the kings and princes of the Holy Roman Empire, and it is the story of this conquest and of the crusading activities of the German emperors that is addressed in Chapter Seven, “Crusades of the Holy Roman Empire.” German incursions into eastern Europe took many forms. Pressures for land in the West led many to migrate eastwards, either settling into so-called wilderness areas or taking lands from the native inhabitants. The church too participated in this movement, as is demonstrated by works such as the Cistercian settlement poem (doc. 66) and Henry of Livonia’s chronicle (doc. 69). But colonization and conversion were not always achieved peacefully Wends, Slavs, Prussians, Lithuanians, and other eastern European peoples found themselves the object of crusading campaigns. The Teutonic Knights, a German military order founded in the Holy Land, were also brought in to conquer and settle the region. The sources associated with these crusades show not only how the church was redefining the crusade ideal, but also how mercantile interests were becoming entwined with crusading activity—interests that foreshadow the exploration, colonization, and economic exploitation characteristic of the early modern period. The sources are also important for what they reveal about the pagan peoples of eastern Europe. Although brimming with Christian bias, writers such as Henry of Livonia,
Helmold (doc. 68), and Nikolaus von Jeroschin (doc. 71) impart valuable information about indigenous customs, beliefs, and lifestyles. The crusades in eastern Europe did achieve their objectives. Brutal at times, they helped to establish Christianity in the region while developing strong economic and political ties to the West. The chapter concludes with the crusading exploits of the Holy Roman emperor Frederick II (1197–1250) (docs. 73–74).
The Spanish crusades, like their eastern European counterparts, can also be counted as a victory for the medieval church and its secular allies. Chapter Eight, “Conflict and Coexistence in Spain,” illustrates how the region was the site for both cultural interaction and religious and political conflict. Muslim Spain brought Europe into contact with the learning and scholarship preserved and expanded upon by the Islamic world. The coexistence of Muslims, Jews, and Christians under Islamic control created a community that, if not free of discrimination, did at least exhibit more tolerance and cooperation than what would follow under Christian rule: the documents detailing the final expulsion of Jews and Muslims from Christian Spain display a very different attitude from that found in the earlier Muslim laws (docs. 82–83).
Readers will find that the Spanish crusading texts exhibit much of the rhetoric and many of the customs of the larger crusading movement. In fact the long history of Muslim–Christian conflict on the Iberian Peninsula had created many of the very crusading traditions usually ascribed to the campaigns of the Holy Land. The establishment of specialized religious orders and the religious overtones in Christian war stories show how the West was able to equate these Spanish campaigns with the struggles in the Holy Land. They had the backing of the papacy and the spiritual recompense that accompanied such support. In addition, the Spanish crusades, being closer to home, offered a more assured opportunity for material rewards and perhaps the added satisfaction of providing aid to what was perceived as a palpable threat to Christian Europe.
Not that the Holy Land had been forgotten. The ideal of taking the cross to go to Jerusalem remained strong in the face of the crusading calamities of the thirteenth century. But the century that had begun with the reforms and crusading visions of Innocent III now found itself floundering amidst successive defeats and mounting criticism. Chapter Nine, “Crusades at the Crossroads,” documents this critical period. Beginning with the launch of the French king Louis IX’s crusade in 1249 (doc. 84), the sources reflect, on the one hand, a desire to preserve the ideal of crusading and, on the other, a growing realization that the ideal was unobtainable in its time-honored form. Europe still longed to see and feel a part of a traditional crusade, yet the reality of the times did not allow for such activity. The crusade of the pious Louis IX came to nought. Popular movements such as the Shepherds’ Crusade (doc. 85) continued to appear, though they were not endorsed by the church or secular authorities. Divisions among the crusading forces left in the Holy Land weakened their ability to defend themselves against the Muslim world, now led by the Mamluks. And both Franks and Muslims faced difficulties with the arrival from eastern Asia of the destructive Mongols (doc. 86).
The fall of Acre to the Muslims in May of 1291 and the subsequent loss of the last remnants of the crusader states triggered a number of European critiques and recovery schemes. The criticisms were directed primarily against the military orders, of which the Templars bore the brunt of Europe’s disgust (doc. 91). A recovery scheme, by Ramon Lull (doc. 90), is excerpted in Chapter Nine. Lull’s work reflects a new approach to what European thinkers still saw as the problem of Muslim rule in the Holy Land, emphasizing conversion over combat and settlement over occupation. Needless to say, the scheme did not yield its desired results. Conversion and colonization would become the central focus of Europe’s attention as it moved into the Age of Discovery, but the recovery of Palestine would no longer be the object of these efforts.
John Mandeville’s fanciful account of the Christian ruler Prester John demonstrates the West’s growing awareness of a world beyond its borders and the opportunities such a world might afford (doc. 92). Rumors of the Mongols sparked curiosity among those who had not had the misfortune of direct contact with these destructive nomads. The popes, in particular, saw the arrival of the Mongols as a golden opportunity to create an alliance that would once and for all rid the Holy Land of Islam. In this they were mistaken, as the correspondence between Pope Innocent IV and Guyuk Khan clearly shows (doc. 93). In time the invading Mongols would convert to Islam and be absorbed into Eastern society There would be no support from that quarter, and indeed the dream of a Latin Christian Jerusalem was dealt a further blow with the rise of a new Islamic dynasty, the Ottoman Turks.
The Ottomans expanded their empire right up to the borders of western Europe. But even the proximity of the threat did not spur the West into any unified action. Accounts of the Nicopolis Crusade of 1395 (doc. 94) detail a resounding defeat due in part to disagreements within the Christian leadership. Ineffective as it was, the crusade of Nicopolis would be the last help given by the West to its eastern Christian neighbors. Devastating internal wars, a major papal schism, and the struggle against heresy occupied the West and made any response to the Ottomans impossible. Fortunately for the West, the Turks suddenly found themselves under attack from the forces of the brutal Tamerlane, a Mongol who defeated the Ottomans in 1402 and thus perhaps kept them from moving into Europe. But with the death of Tamerlane in 1405, the Ottomans once more turned to the task of attacking Christian holdings; this time their efforts were focused on the long-sought prize of Constantinople. The Byzantine Empire had slowly weakened since the sack of the city by the Fourth Crusaders in 1204. In 1453 the great city fell to the Ottomans, and the eastern empire came to an end (doc. 95).
And what of crusading? While schemes for regaining Constantinople from the Ottomans and even the dream of
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Title: Harper's Young People, April 4, 1882
Author: Various
Release date: March 4, 2018 [eBook #56677]
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Annie R. McGuire
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE, APRIL 4, 1882 ***
MR. STUBBS'S BROTHER
BY JAMES OTIS,
AUTHOR OF "TOBY TYLER," "TIM AND TIP," ETC.
CHAPTER I.
THE SCHEME.
"Why, we could start a circus jest as easy as a wink, Toby, 'cause you know all about one; an' all you'd have to do would be to tell us fellers what to do, an' we'd 'tend to the rest."
"Yes; but you see we hain't got a tent, or hosses, or wagons, or nothin', an' I don't see how you could get a circus up that way;" and the speaker hugged his knees as he rocked himself to and fro in a musing way on the rather sharp point of a large rock, on which he had seated himself in order to hear what his companion had to say that was so important.
"Will you come down with me to Bob Atwood's, an' see what he says about it?"
"Yes, I'll do that if you'll come out afterward for a game of I-spy round the meetin'house."
"All right; if we can find enough of the other fellers, I will."
Then the boys slipped down from the rocks, found the cows, and drove them home as the preface to their visit to Bob Atwood's.
The boy who was so anxious to start a circus was a little fellow with such a wonderful amount of remarkably red hair that he was seldom called anything but Reddy, although his name was known—by his parents, at least—to be Walter Grant. His companion was Toby Tyler, a boy who, a year before, had thought it would be a very pleasant thing to run away from his uncle Daniel and the town of Guilford in order to be with a circus, and who, in ten weeks, was only too glad to run back home as rapidly as possible.
During the first few months after his return many brilliant offers had been made Toby by his companions to induce him to aid them in starting an amateur circus; but he had refused to have anything to do with the schemes, and for several reasons. During the ten weeks he had been away he had seen quite as much of a circus life as he cared to see, without even such a mild dose as this amateur show would be; and again, whenever he thought of the matter, the remembrance of the death of his monkey, Mr. Stubbs, would come upon him so vividly, and cause him so much sorrow, that he resolutely put the matter from his mind.
Now, however, it had been a year since the monkey was killed; school had closed during the summer season; and he was rather more disposed to listen to the requests of his friends. On this particular night Reddy Grant had offered to go with him for the cows—an act of generosity which Toby accounted for only on the theory that Reddy wanted some of the strawberries which grew so plentifully in Uncle Daniel's pasture. But when they arrived there the strawberries were neglected for the circus question; and Toby then showed he was at least willing to talk about it.
There was no doubt that Bob Atwood knew Reddy was going to try to induce Toby to help start a circus, and Bob knew also that Reddy and Toby would visit him, although he appeared very much surprised when he saw them coming up the hill toward his house. He was at home, evidently waiting for something, at an hour when all the other boys were out playing; and that in itself would have made Toby suspicious if he had paid much attention to the matter.
Bob was perfectly willing to talk about a circus—so willing, that, almost before Toby was aware of it, he was laying plans with the others for such a show as could be given with the material at hand.
"You see, we'd have to get a tent the first thing," said Toby, as he seated himself on the saw-horse as a sort of place of honor, and proceeded to give his companions the benefit of his experience in the circus line. "I s'pose we could get along without a fat woman or a skeleton; but we'd have to have the tent anyway, so's folks couldn't look right in an' see the show for nothin'."
Reddy had decided some time before how that trifling matter could be arranged. In fact, he had spent several sleepless nights thinking it over, and as he went industriously to work making shavings out of a portion of a shingle he said:
"I've got all that settled, Toby; an' when you say you're willin' to go ahead an' fix up the show, I'll be on hand with a tent that'll make your eyes stick out over a foot."
Bob nodded his head to show he was convinced Reddy could do just as he had promised; but Toby was anxious for more particulars, and insisted on knowing where this very necessary portion of a circus was coming from.
"You see, a tent is a big thing," he said, seriously, "an' it would cost more money than the fellers in this town could raise if they should pick all the strawberries in Uncle Dan'l's pasture."
"Oh, I don't say as the tent Reddy's got his eye on is a reg'lar one like a real circus has," said Bob, slowly and candidly, as he began to draw on the side of the wood-shed a picture of what he probably intended should represent a horse; "but he knows how he can rig one up that'll be big enough, an' look stavin'."
With this information Toby was obliged to be satisfied, and with the view of learning more of the details, in case his companions had arranged for them, he asked:
"Where you goin' to get the company—the folks that ride, an' turn hand-springs, an' all them things?"
"Ben Cushing can turn twice as many hand-springs as any feller you ever saw, an' he can walk on his hands twice round the engine-house. I guess you couldn't find many circuses that could beat him, an' he's been practicing in his barn all the chance he could get for more'n a week."
Without intending to do so, Bob had thus let the secret out that the scheme had already been talked up before Toby was consulted, and then there was no longer any reason for concealment.
"You see, we thought we'd kinder get things fixed," said Reddy, quickly, anxious to explain away the seeming deception he had been guilty of, "an' we wouldn't say anything to you till we knew whether we could get one up or not."
"An' we're goin' to ask three cents to come in, an' lots of the fellers have promised to buy tickets if we'll let 'em do some of the ridin', or else lead the hosses."
"But how are you goin' to get any hosses?" asked Toby, thoroughly surprised at the way in which the scheme had already been developed.
"Reddy can get Jack Douglass's blind one, an' we can train him so's he'll go 'round the ring all right, an' your uncle Dan'l will let you have his old white one that's lame, if you ask him. I ain't sure but I can get one of Chandler Merrill's ponies," continued Bob, now so excited by his subject that he left his picture while it was yet a three-legged horse, and stood in front of his friends; "an' if we could sell tickets enough, we could hire one of Rube Rowe's hosses for you to ride."
"An' Bob's goin' to be the clown, an' his mother's goin' to make him a suit of clothes out of one of his grandmother's curtains," added Reddy, as he snapped an imaginary whip with so many unnecessary flourishes that he tumbled over the saw-horse, thereby mixing a large quantity of sawdust in his brilliantly colored hair.
"An' Reddy's goin' to be ring-master," explained Bob, as he assisted his friend to rise, and acted the part of Good Samaritan by trying to get the sawdust from his hair with a currycomb. "Joe Robinson says he'll sell tickets, an' 'tend the door, an' hold the hoops for you to jump through."
"Leander Leighton's goin' to be the band. He's got a pair of clappers; an' Mrs. Doak's goin' to show him how to play on the accordion with one finger, so's he'll know how to make an awful lot of noise," said Reddy, as he gave up the task of extracting the sawdust, and devoted his entire attention to the scheme.
"An' we can have some animals," said Bob, with the air of one who adds the crowning glory to some brilliant work.
Toby had been surprised at the resources of the town for a circus, of which he had not even dreamed; and at Bob's last remark he left his saw-horse seat, as if to enable him to hear more distinctly.
"Yes," continued Bob, "we can get a good many of some kinds. Old Mrs. Simpson has got a three-legged cat with four kittens, an' Ben Cushing has got a hen that crows; an' we can take my calf for a grizzly bear, an' Jack Havener's two lambs for white bears. I've caught six mice, an' I'll have more'n a dozen before the show comes off; an' Reddy's
goin' to bring his cat that ain't got any tail. Leander Leighton's goin' to bring four of his rabbits, an' make believe they're wolves; an' Joe Robinson's goin' to catch all the squirrels he can—we'll have the largest for foxes, an' the smallest for hyenas; an' Joe'll keep howlin' while he's 'tendin' the door, so's to make 'em sound right."
"Bob's sister's goin' to show him how to sing a couple of songs, an' he's goin' to write 'em out on paper, so's to have a book to sell," added Reddy, delighted at the surprise expressed in Toby's face. "Nahum Baker says if we have any kind of a show, he'll bring up some lemonade an' some pies to sell, an' pass 'em round jest as they do in a reg'lar circus."
This last information was indeed surprising, for inasmuch as Nahum Baker was a man who had an apology for a fruit store near the wharves, it lent an air of realism to the plan, this having a grown man connected with them in the enterprise.
"But he mustn't get any of the boys to help him, an' then treat them as Job Lord did me," said Toby, earnestly, the scheme having grown so in the half-hour that he began to fear it might be too much like the circus with which he had spent ten of the longest and most dreary weeks he had ever known.
"I'll look out for that," said Bob, confidently. "If he tries any of them games, we'll make him leave, no matter how good a trade he's doin'."
"Now where we goin' to have the show?" and from the way Toby asked the question it was easily seen that he had decided to accept the position of manager which had been so delicately offered him.
"That's jest what we ain't fixed about," said Bob, as if he blamed himself severely for not having already attended to this portion of the business. "You see, if your uncle Dan'l would let us have it up by his barn, that would be jest the place, an' I almost know he'd say yes if you asked him."
"Do you s'pose it would be big enough? You know, when there's a circus in town everybody comes from all around to see it, an' it wouldn't do to have a place where they couldn't all get in;" and Toby spoke as if there could be no doubt as to the crowds that would collect to see this wonderful show of theirs.
"It'll have to be big enough, if we use the tent I'm goin' to get," said Reddy, decidedly; "for you see that won't be so awful large, an' it would make it look kinder small if we put it where the other circuses put theirs."
"Well, then, I s'pose we'll have to make that do, an' we can have two or three shows if there are too many to come in at one time," said Toby, in a satisfied way that matters could be arranged so easily; and then, with a big sigh, he added: "If only Mr. Stubbs hadn't got killed, what a show we could have! I never saw him ride, but I know he could have done better than any one else that ever tried it, if he wanted to, an' if we had him we could have a reg'lar circus without anybody else."
Then the boys bewailed the untimely fate of Mr. Stubbs, until they saw that Toby was fast getting into a mood altogether too sad for the proper transaction of circus business, and Bob proposed that a visit be paid Ben Cushing, for the purpose of having him give them a
