Andy the Acrobat

Harkness brings the thrill of the circus alive in Andy the Acrobat. You can almost smell the grease paint, hear the flapping of the tent, see the antics of the clowns, and hear the roar of the animals. An excerpt reads, ôThinking over all this, Andy realized that the beginning and end of all his troubles was his irrepressible tendency towards acrobatic performances. "And I simply can't help it!" he cried in a kind of reckless despair. "It's born in me, I guess. Oh, don't I hope Aunt Lavinia turns me out, as she has often threatened to do. Say, if she only would, and I could join some show, and travel and see things and--live!" Andy threw himself flat on the green sward. He closed his eyes and gave himself up to a rapture of thought. Gay banners, brightly comparisoned horses, white wildernesses of circus tents, tinselled clowns, royal ringmasters, joyful strains of music floated through his active brain. It was a day dream of rare beauty, and he could not tear himself away from it.ö