old stockholder in the show, who would act as assistant manager during
the season and pa smiled on them with a frown on his forehead, and said
he hoped his relations with them would be pleasant, one of the old
canvasmen remarked to a girl who rides two horses at once with the
horses strapped together, so they can't get too far apart and cause her
to break in two, said that old goat with the silk hat would last just
about four weeks, and that he reminded the canvasman of a big dog which
barked at people as though he would eat them, and at the same time
wagged his tail, so people would not think he was so confounded
dangerous.

The principal proprietor of the circus told pa to make himself at home
around the tent, and not be offended at any pleasantry on the part of
the attaches of the show, for they were full of fun, and he went off to
attend to some business and left pa with the gang. They were practicing
riding bare-backed horses around the ring, with a rope hitched in a belt
around the waist of the rider and an arm swinging around from the center
pole, so if they fell off the horse the rope would prevent the rider
from falling to the ground, a practice that the best riders adopt early
in the season, the same as new beginners, 'cause they are all stiffened
up by being out of practice. One man rode around a few times, and pa got
up close to the ring and was making some comments such as: "Why, any
condemned fool could ride a horse that way," when the circus gang as
quick as you could say scat, fastened a belt around pa's stomach, that
had a ring in it, and before he knew it they had hitched a snap in the
ring, and pa was hauled up as high as the horse, and his feet rested on
the horse's back, and the horse started on a gallop.

Well, say, pa was never so surprised in his life, but he dug his heels
into the horse's back, and tried to look pleasant, and the horse went