CHAPTER XIX — The Circus Boys on the Mississippi

In Chap­ter XIX of “The Cir­cus Boys On the Mis­sis­sip­pi,” titled “Ted­dy Joins The Band,” Phil For­rest pro­pos­es a cap­ti­vat­ing idea to enhance their upcom­ing approach to Des Moines. He sug­gests that the band be divid­ed into two parts to play on deck as they near their next loca­tion, an idea that Mr. Spar­ling, the cir­cus own­er, eager­ly approves. Phil’s sug­ges­tion aims for a tri­umphal entry, com­pen­sat­ing musi­cians for their extra time to encour­age par­tic­i­pa­tion.

The exe­cu­tion occurs ear­ly the next morn­ing when the boat’s pas­sen­gers are sud­den­ly awak­ened to an impromp­tu con­cert orches­trat­ed by Phil’s plan. The blar­ing brass, clash­ing cym­bals, and the boom of drums stir every­one, includ­ing Ted­dy Tuck­er and Phil, from their sleep. What starts as a bewil­dered wak­ing for the Cir­cus Boys quick­ly turns into a play­ful skir­mish, dis­play­ing Ted­dy and Phil’s youth­ful ener­gy and cama­raderie. Their tus­sle, how­ev­er, does not end in their cab­in; it esca­lates in a com­i­cal yet dis­rup­tive man­ner involv­ing the band play­ing out­side their win­dow.

Ted­dy’s mis­ad­ven­ture with a bass drum strikes a humor­ous chord. In an attempt to escape Phil’s teas­ing, Ted­dy leaps through a win­dow, inad­ver­tent­ly div­ing into and through the drum. This act dis­rupts the morn­ing’s per­for­mance, lead­ing to chaot­ic and humor­ous exchanges among the band mem­bers, par­tic­u­lar­ly with the drum­mer, who finds his musi­cal con­tri­bu­tion unin­ten­tion­al­ly sab­o­taged. Phil’s inter­ven­tion, aim­ing to res­cue Ted­dy from fur­ther ret­ri­bu­tion, intro­duces anoth­er lay­er of chaos, mark­ing the inci­dent with equal parts hilar­i­ty and ten­sion.

The chap­ter con­cludes with Phil and Ted­dy fac­ing the finan­cial respon­si­bil­i­ty for the dam­age caused to the bass drum. Their encounter with Mr. Spar­ling over the inci­dent under­scores the implic­it trust and under­stand­ing between the cir­cus own­er and the boys. Despite Spar­ling’s ini­tial amuse­ment and dis­mis­sive atti­tude towards the reim­burse­ment for the dam­ages, Phil insists on account­abil­i­ty, reflect­ing a mature aspect of their oth­er­wise play­ful char­ac­ters.

This chap­ter, while reveal­ing the light-heart­ed and mis­chie­vous side of cir­cus life through Ted­dy and Phil’s antics, also sheds light on the close-knit com­mu­ni­ty with­in the cir­cus crew, exem­pli­fied by their inter­ac­tions with Mr. Spar­ling and among them­selves. The play­ful nar­ra­tive main­tains a tone of cama­raderie and adven­ture that is evi­dent through­out the “Cir­cus Boys” series.