*** I am not sure if anyone will even like this story, but please review and tell me if I should continue and where you want this story to go, please also read my other Fic " A New Year"… thanks!*** I WILL DEVELOP THE PLOT SOON SO DO NOT SAY IT IS NOT GOING ANYWHERE*** I don't own ANYTHING …don't sue.***

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**DO NOT COPY MY IDEA*** I do not own anything** *** 

** I changed a whole lot of things about the story... I recommend you go back and read it over to see the changes... sorry***

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                                               Prairie Lakes, 1893

            "How long do we lose you for this time?" Jo McGuire asked Miranda. She brought a plate of fried potatoes and sausage to the table

            "This year the circus is in town for three days," Miranda told them. "Yesterday being the first." She bolted down a biscuit and gravy and managed a few quick forkfuls of potatoes, just to satisfy her mother. Her mother, Mrs. McGuire, had been her mother since she was 6, she missed her parents at times, but could sometimes not even remember what they looked like, and especially her brother, she couldn't even picture his face. She really did consider Mrs. McGuire her mother; after all she had basically raised her.

            "Might I be excused now?" She asked

            "Child, you'd think the circus couldn't start without you," her father said. Yes her father, Mr. McGuire, he had raised her too. He had already milked the cows and done a morning's work, turning the soil of the newly harvested fields. He was eating his second helping of breakfast.

            "Papa, it's only a few days a year," Miranda said. "Pretty please let me go" She showered him with her brightest smile. It never failed.

            "All right, Miranda, but be home before night fall," He said.

            "And don't forget your hat." Her mother added.

            "OK. Bye!" Miranda said. She kisses Lizzie on the cheek. "Look for me at the show"

            "I will" Lizzie smiled.

Miranda stuffed her hat on her head and was out the door. She took a few steps down the front path, going just far enough so she could look into the kitchen window. Her parents and Lizzie were sitting at the table. No one was looking out at her. Quickly, she doubled back around the house and slipped into the woodshed. She breathed in the smell of logs and mildew as she wedged her arm behind a stack of logs and pulled out a pair of men's trousers. Then she dislodged a shirt, a jacket, and a cap, all smelling on the wood in the shed. The trousers were and old pair of her father's that Miranda had shrunk as best she could by repeatedly bathing them in boiling water. She had had to feign illness when the rest of the family went to a barn dance to manage the time alone at home. The trousers were still way too large for her, she had also helped herself to one of her father's old belts- one she convince herself she hardly ever saw him wearing anymore. The other items she had been acquired slyly, one by one. Miranda knew Lizzie would be horrified if she knew why Gordo had never recovered his cap after forgetting it at the house one day. The jacket, the biggest and most difficult article to come by, had once belonged to Ethan Craft. Miranda had convinced Ethan that she desperately wanted something warm to wrap around herself to remind her of him. It had cost her a kiss behind the school, too. The shirt had been the most daring acquisition- and the sneakiest; Miranda even felt a trifle guilty about it. One day she had offered to help Kate Sanders bring a kettle of her special soup over to Harry Hamilton when he was sick. Miranda wasn't sure if Kate really loved the idea of letting hr help, but that kettle was awfully heavy, and Kate was too weak to turn down Miranda's offer. Miranda had borrowed Harry's shirt right off the line while it was drying- almost right under Kate's pretty nose. She told herself she would return the shirt one day but it was getting rather worn after its second circus season. Miranda shed her own clothes and made a pile in the farthest, dimmest corner of the wood shed. She climbed into the large trousers, tucking in the shirt and securing everything with the belt.  She had punched an extra hole in it with an ice pick. It wasn't the neatest package, but she could cover some of it up with the jacket. She hoped no one would look too hard at her boots. Not even she could manage to get her hands on a pair of boys' shoes- especially ones that were small enough for her. Finally Miranda tucked her long brown braid under Gordo's cap. She peeked out of the woodshed to make sure the coast was clear. Now she was ready- ready to give the elephants water in return for a free admission pass, or sneak under a tent like some of the boys did, or otherwise get to see every possible bit of the greatest show on earth.