Bobo did not smile any more. His smile was lost. He was a clown with the travelling circus. There were monkeys that rode on small bicycles; lions jumping through hoops; elephants playing football; performing parrots, dogs and horses; acrobats and trapeze artistes. But all the children loved watching Bobo the most.
The children laughed and they laughed at all his antics. He tripped over his own shoes. He had a boxing match with a chimpanzee. He fell off the trapeze. His dress fell off into a big swimming tub, and there he stood in his night suit! The children clapped and roared with laughter whenever he came into the ring, but Bobo did not find anything funny any more.
All the people in the circus wanted Bobo to smile again because they all loved him. Even the animals and the birds loved Bobo. They tried out new tricks. One of the acrobats put on a clown dress and painted his face. But they couldn’t make Bobo smile. None could make out why Bobo was sad.
One day Norman, the trapeze artiste, was passing the cage of the chimpanzees and he saw them playing with one another. An idea occurred to him. He went to the owner of the circus.
“Sir, let’s get another clown,” he said.
“In place of Bobo?” asked the owner, surprised.
“No, no! Get one more clown,” explained Norman.
“But why? Bobo gets us a lot of children, doesn’t he?”
“Yes, he does. But haven’t you noticed that he has lost his smile? He is always sad. And we are all feeling terrible about it. It would be nice if he had some company.”
“Hmm….,” said the owner, “Perhaps you are right. Let’s try it.”
So after a few days, Duffle came to the circus. He was the new clown. He met Bobo and the two of them worked out their act for the next show. That evening, when the crowds had collected in the stands, the children were surprised to see not one but two clowns! The clowns washed their toy car. Flinging buckets of water at the car they got thoroughly wet! Bobo looked at Duffle, wet and dripping, and a slight smile came into his eyes.
Duffle climbed a ladder with a bucket of paint it his hand. Bobo stumbled against the ladder which came down with the bucket of paint on Duffle’s head. Everyone laughed aloud. And the best thing was that Bobo looked at Duffle burst out laughing too! Bobo wasn’t lonely now! He found his smile.
