Pecks Bad Boy with the Circus | Page 6

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 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
handles of the canvas, and by gosh, pa shot up into the air half-way to
the top of the tent, and when he came down they caught him in the
canvas and tossed him up a whole lot of times until pa said: "O, let up,
and make it $20." Just then the proprietor who had introduced pa to the
men came in and saw what was