Searching for a short story
The gist of the story is that a very poor family saves money to send the two boys to the circus which is coming to town. The boys walk into town with the money. They see the parade as the circus arrives. A man approaches them and asks if they've got tickets. They pay the man who gives them tickets. The boys, thinking that the parade was the sum total of the circus, head home, not having seen the actual circus. The very happy and excited boys share the information about the parade with their parents, who realize what has happened. The parents don't tell the boys they have missed the actual circus show and paid for something they could have seen for free. The story closes with the mother crying herself to sleep.