one o'clock
Nevertheless , there was a sizable turnout of people for the afternoon performance . After all , a circus was a circus . Moreover , this particular circus was marked at the afternoon performance by happenings of a nature most decidedly unusual . At one o'clock the doors were opened : at one-ten the eyes of the proprietor were made glad and his heart was uplifted within him by the sight of a strange procession , drawing nearer and nearer across the scuffed turf of the common , and heading in the direction of the red ticket wagon . At the head of the procession marched Peep O'Day -- only , of course , the proprietor did n't know it was Peep O'Day -- a queer figure in his rumpled black clothes and his red-topped brass-toed boots , and with one hand holding fast to the string of a captive toy balloon . Behind him , in an uneven jostling formation , followed many small boys and some small girls . A census of the ranks would have developed that here were included practically all the juvenile white population who otherwise , through a lack of funds , would have been denied the opportunity to patronise this circus or , in fact , any circus .