eat out of his hand.




CHAPTER IX


The Bad Boy and His Pa Return to the Circus to Find They Have Been
Quite Forgotten--The Fat Lady and the Bearded Woman Give Pa the
Cold Shoulder--Pa Finally Makes Himself Recognized and Attends the
Last Performance of the Season.

We arrived from the far west and struck the show at Indianapolis,
where it was playing its last date of the season, before going to
winter quarters. It was a sad home coming, 'cause the animals and
the performers had forgotten us, and we had to be introduced to
everybody.

We arrived about noon and while I stayed down town to get a shine,
Pa took a street car and went right up to the lot, and the crowd
was around the ticket wagon getting ready to go in. Pa went up to
the ticket taker at the entrance and said, "hello, Bill," and was
going to push right in, when Bill said that was no good, and there
couldn't any old geezer play the "hello Bill" business on him.

A couple of bouncers took Pa by the elbows and fired him out, and
the crowd laughed at pa, and told him to go and buy a ticket like
a man, and Pa told the bouncers he would discharge them on the
spot. Pa went to the manager's tent and complained that he had