Finally he got out
of Delaware, and the next day the farmers came in with the oats, but the
show was gone, and they won't do a thing to pa if he ever shows up in
Delaware again.
[Illustration: Pa Rode Out of Town and Rode All Night.]
Pa met us at the depot in Washington, but he was ever so changed from
his long ride and anxiety over the possibility of being arrested and
pilloried, and lambasted by a negro in Delaware. He said to me, with a
trembling voice: "Hennery, this 'ere show business is too much for your
pa. I would rather be a Mormon, in Utah, with 40 wives, and several
hundred children, and long whiskers. I am a changed man, Hennery, and
afraid of my shadow."
CHAPTER XVI.
A Senator's Son Bets the Bad Boy That Elephants Are Cowards--They
Let a Bag of Rats Loose at the Afternoon Performance--The Elephants
Stampede, Pa Fractures a Rib and General Pandemonium Reigns.
Gee, but I must be an easy mark. I have got so I bet on a sure thing,
and when a fellow bets on a sure thing he is bound to lose.
It was this way. The show arrived in Washington, D. C., on a Sunday
morning, and, as usual, all the boys in town came to the lot to see us
put up the tents. I was around with pa and the boss canvasman, and the
town boys could see I belonged to the show, and they envied me and
wanted to get acquainted with me so I would let them walk around with
me, and go into the tents Sunday afternoon and see the animals.
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