half way around the ring, and just as pa was getting confidence some one
hit the horse on the ham with a piece of board, and the horse went out
from under pa and he began to fall over backwards, and I thought his
circus career would end right there, when the man who had hold of the
rope pulled up, and pa was suspended in the air by the ring in the belt,
back up, and stomach hanging down like a pillow, his watch dangling
about a foot down towards the ring, and the horse came around the ring
again and as he went under pa, pa tried to get his feet on the horse's
back, but he couldn't make it work, and pa said, as cross as could be:
"Lookahere, you fellers, you let me down, or I will discharge every
mother's son of you."

[Illustration: Pa Was Suspended in the Air.]

But they didn't seem to be scared, for one man caught the horse and let
it out of the ring, and the man who handled the rope tied it to the
center pole by a half hitch, and the fellows all went into the dressing
room to play cinch on the trunks, leaving pa hanging there. Just then
the boss canvasman came along and he said: "Hello, old man, what you
doing up there?" And pa said some of the pirates in the show had
kidnaped him, and seemed to be holding him up for a ransom, and he said
he would give ten dollars if some one would let him down.

The boss canvasman said he could fix it for ten, all right, and he blew
a whistle, and the gang came back, and the boss said: "Bring a blanket
and help this gentleman down;" so they brought a big piece of canvas,
with handles all around it, and about a dozen fellows held it, and the
rope man let pa down on the canvas, and unhitched the ring, and when pa
was in the canvas he laughed and said: "Thanks, gentlemen, I guess I am
mot much of a horseback rider," and then the fellows pulled on the