The performers and
hands cheered the manager, and then they yelled for pa for a speech.
Pa got up on the tub that the elephants stand on, and said that it was
true what the manager said about a wild west show, and that he was proud
of the confidence reposed in him. He should be glad to take an
expedition and go out into the far west and beard the wild west Indian
in his tepee and engage Indians by the hundred to come with us next
year. He would pierce the wilderness of the west in search of the
wildest red men and would hunt the cowboy in his lair and secure those
who could make the most trouble for cattle and horses and shoot up an
audience if necessary to keep the peace, and he would buy buffaloes
enough so every performer could ride one if he wanted to. He said while
we had this year had some attempts at a wild west department in our
show, it was only a tame imitation of what we would have next year, and
he wanted them all to pray for him, that he might come out of the wild
far west without being killed. He said he should take Hennery along with
him as a mascot, and if the worst came he could trade me to an Indian
tribe for ponies, or leave me as a hostage with some tribe until he
returned the Indians at the close of next season. Pa closed his remarks
by hoping that nothing had occurred during the past season that would
cause anybody to have it in for him, 'cause he had tried to be impartial
in his cussedness, and while he felt that he had been considered an
interloper in the profession at first, he had found that everybody
looked upon him later in the season as the main guy in the show, and
that all had felt at liberty to give it to him in the neck on every
proper occasion and he felt that he had taken his medicine like a
thoroughbred.
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