The story
“Dan Dinsmore, a natural born fun-maker, fell in love with Beata McBride. The two young people saw a great deal of one another at the gay beach resort where Dan had saved Beata from drowning, and little sister Eulalie came in for no small share of her big sister’s admirer’s attentions. But no clown in a circus could ever think of proposing marriage to a girl like Beata—so Dan went away. Some months later, Dan’s circus came to Beata’s home town. Eulalie won big sister’s promise to take her to see the clowns. But the day of the show the little girl became very ill. Her fever rose, and anxious Beata watched beside the delirious child, who called incessantly for ‘the clown.’ The doctor had said, ‘Don’t deny her anything she wants. For I fear to do so would be fatal.’
“How could he know that Eulalie would beg for a circus feature? At last, Beata, desperate, phoned the manager of the show. ‘I will pay any price,’ she told him, ‘if you will send one of the clowns to my house to amuse my very sick little sister.’ Dan seized the opportunity. He entertained Eulalie with all his funniest antics, taking care that neither she nor Beata should guess who he was. But the following day, Beata called on the manager. Eulalie was safe—and she insisted that the clown be rewarded. When Dan, innocent of what was wanted of him, entered the room, it would have been hard to say which was most surprised—the girl, the manager, or the clown. Dan discovered that his vocation was by no means a stumbling block in the way of his love. And then he claimed his reward, while Eulalie, restored to health, vowed that Dan was the greatest man in the world.”
Summary from Reel Life · 4 December 1915
