The audience thought the animals
would kill everybody. The big lion got his meat down, but it didn't set
well, and he turned a somersault, and snarled, and pulled the bars of
the cage, while the grizzly bear rolled up in a ball and rolled over in
his cage till the men had to hold on to the wheels to keep the shebang
from going over. The hyenas, who are always mad, went on a tear that
could be heard in all the tents.

Pa and the managers came back into the menagerie tent with the animal
keeper, who had been sent for, and they began to try to find out what
ailed the animals, and the animal keeper asked what pa had been feeding
them, and pa said he had given them their ground turnips.

"Turnips, indeed," said the keeper, as he took up some of the turnip and
tasted of it, and he handed a handful to pa. Pa tasted it, and pa had a
hot box, and the managers tasted of it, and they said: "No wonder." Then
they asked pa where he got it, and pa said he sent me to order it, and
then they all said: "That settles it."

[Illustration: Pa Tasted of It.]

I thought I would go 'way and jump in the river, but pa said: "Hennery,
come here, my angel," and he spit on his hands and picked up a barrel
stave. I went right up to pa, as innocent as could be, just as any
dutiful son should, and right there before the animals and freaks
pa--well, that's the reason I am not sitting down very much these days.
So long.

CHAPTER XXI.

The Bad Boy and His Pa Inject a Little Politics Into the Show--Rival
Bands of Atlanta Citizens Meet in the Circus Tent--A Bunch of Angry
Hornets Causes Much Bitter Feeling.

I expect that next year I shall be one of the managers of this show,
'cause they tell me I have got the greatest head of any boy that has
ever traveled with the show.

We haven't been having a very big business in the south, because the
negroes haven't money enough to patronize shows, and a lot of the white
people are either too high-toned or else they are politicians and want a
pass. The managers and heads of departments held a meeting to devise
some way to get both classes interested, and everybody was asked to
state their views. After they all got through talking pa asked me what I
thought would be the best way to get the people excited about the show,
and I told him there was no way except to inject a little politics into
it. I said if they would give me $50 or so, to buy Chinese lanterns, and
about a hundred complim