He looked up at Mr. Burrows, and it
was such a look as a friendless dog might give to a man who had just
petted it and given it something to eat.
"Thank you, mister, for lettin' me carry water for the el'funts," said
Jerry.
"That's all right," replied the man. "Here, there's a dime for peanuts.
Have a good time."
Jerry was too surprised to take the dime and Mr. Burrows pressed it into
his hand and went back into the tent before Jerry had recovered.
"The boss must have taken a fancy to you!" said Sam to Jerry. "Well,
them elephants is awful thirsty and we've got to get to work. Come on."
Jerry, envied of all the boys, put the dime in his blouse pocket. He
seemed to be treading on air instead of the solid earth as he followed
Sam to another part of the ground where the boys were given large pails.
He felt in his blouse pocket every now and then to make sure that he
really had a dime and also that it had not grown wings and flown out of
his pocket, or made a hole in it and dropped out. It was always there
and his feeling of exhilaration at his good fortune kept up, despite the
hard work of carrying that pailful of water from the pump across the
street to the back of the second biggest tent, where he and Chris
emptied it into a kind of a tub.
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