As I read this I was trying to figure out which side the boy's bread was really buttered on. The vagabond seemed to have a lonely life, and Tommy was lucky that the clown he encountered wasn't a serial killer. One of our most notorious serial killers also performed as a clown. In fact there is a book titled "Killer Clown" on that subject. As for the circus, it is now having to reinvent itself since the public has now turned against the practice of using animals for entertainment. It will have to do so if it wants to avoid going the way of the rotary telephone.