nine o'clock
These boys knew that the stake and chain wagon was always the first to leave the train . Some of them usually fell in behind it and followed to the circus grounds , for it was good sport to see men with heavy sledge-hammers drive the many stakes and stretch the long chain which formed the perimeter of the mammoth tent , and behind which all the vans would ultimately take their places . After the stake and chain wagon , came wagons bearing the cooking and dining tents , for breakfast is a most important matter when you have five hundred hungry people to feed . By nine o'clock the vast concourse were all on the circus ground , breakfast was over and preparations for the great parade were on foot . Nearly everything in the circus , with the exception of the side-shows , had to take part in the parade . Only the small boy , who stands upon the pavement , holding to lamp-post or iron hitching-post to steady himself in the wild excitement , can tell you how his heart races and his blood leaps as the first gilded chariot swings around the corner into the main street . Thoughts of this moment have been in the boy 's mind for weeks , and the realization is always greater than his anticipation .