Once when I was a teenager, my father and I were standing in line to buy tickets for the circus. One family between us and the ticket counter made a big impression on me. There were eight children, all probably under the age of 12. Their clothes were clean. The children were well-behaved, all of them standing in line, two-by-two behind their parents, holding hands. The ticket lady asked the father how many tickets he wanted. He proudly said, "Please let me buy eight children's tickets and two adult tickets so I can take my family to the circus." The ticket lady told him the price. The wife's head dropped, and the man's lip began to quiver  . The father asked, "How much did you say?" The ticket lady told him the price again. The man didn't have enough money. Seeing what was going on, my dad put his hand into his pocket, pulled out a $20 bill and dropped it on the ground (We were not wealthy either). My father reached down, picked up the bill, tapped the man on the shoulder and said, "Excuse me, sir, this fell out of your pocket." The man knew what was going on. He wasn't begging for money but certainly thanked the help in a difficult, embarrassing situation. He looked straight into my dad's eyes, took my dad's hand in both of his, and with a tear streaming down his cheek, he replied, "Thank you, sir. This really means a lot to me and my family." My father and I went back to our car and drove home. We didn't go to the circus that night, but we didn't go without. What did the writer mean by saying "we didn't go without"?
They returned home with another kind of joy. They were very happy to meet the family. They wanted to go to the circus very much. They had already seen the circus before.