l, Sullivan showed up at Canton, and he went everywhere, all the
forenoon, and met all the old timers, and at the afternoon performance
he was awfully jolly.

John was standing beside the ring when the Japanese jugglers were
juggling, and he leaned against a pole. Pa came in from the menagerie
tent, and he didn't know Sullivan, and when he saw Sullivan holding the
pole up, pa said to the boss proprietor that the fat man who was
interfering with the show ought to be called down or put out.

The boss said to pa: "You go take him by the ear and put him out," and
pa, who is as brave as lion, started for Sullivan, and the boss winked
at the other circus men, and pa went up to Sullivan and took hold of
John's neck with both hands, and said: "Come on out of here."

Well, sir, we ought to have moving pictures of what followed. Sullivan
turned on pa, and growled just like a lion. Then he took pa around the
waist and held him up under his arm, and picked up a piece of board and
slatted pa just as though pa was a child, and the audience just yelled,
and pa called to the circus men for help, but they just laughed.

[Illustration: John L. Slatted Pa Just as Though He Was a Child.]

Pa got a chance at the fat man and he hit him in the jaw, but it did not
hurt Sullivan, only made him mad. He took pa up by the collar and
whirled him around until pa was dizzy, and then he started with him for
the menagerie tent, and called to the boss canvasman: "Bill, come on and
tell me which is the hungriest lion, and I will feed him with this cold
meat."

Pa yelled, 'cause he thought he was in the hands of an escaped lunatic,
and the circus hands came and took him away. Then the owner told pa who
Sullivan was, and pa almost fainted. But finally, after breathing hard
for awhile, pa went up to Sullivan and shook his hand, and said: "Mr.
Sullivan, you must excuse me. If I had known you were the great John L.,
I would not have licked you." Sullivan looked at pa and said: "Well, you
are a wonder, old man, and you did do me up," and pa and Sullivan became
great friends. Since then pa is pretty chesty, 'cause the circus men
point him out to the jays as the man who whipped John L. Sullivan.

CHAPTER X.

The Bad Boy and His Pa Drive a Roman Chariot--They Win the Race, but
Meet With Difficulties--The Bearded Lady to the Rescue--A Farmer's
Cart Breaks Up the Circus Procession.

Ohio was a hoodoo for the circus business, and Kentuck