freaks are awful to handle, the giant being the only one that can wade
through and look pleasant, and the fat woman would make you weary, she
has to be carried back and forth to the platform by half a force of
hands. Pa has had shawl straps and coffin handles fastened to her
clothes, so there will be something to grab hold of to move her around.
I don't think that another year we will have any fat woman, 'cause pa
says it costs more to get this 500-pound female from one place to
another than all the rest of the show. He thinks that people who visit
the show don't care much about a fat woman anyway, but just guy her and
ask her what kind of breakfast food she lives on. He thinks if we had
three reasonably fat women that weighed about 200 pounds apiece, it
would give better satisfaction and they would be easier to handle; but
when she heard what pa said and felt that she was going to be shook next
year she began to cry, and it was like turning on water in a bathtub. Pa
had to pet her and then the bearded woman got jealous.

At Jefferson City there came a cold wave and everything was froze stiff,
and you could skate in the rings, and the management decided to get to
St. Louis and send the show to winter quarters, and organize for next
season. So we have had a time closing up for the season, and sending the
animals to the barns on our farm up north, and discharging and paying
off the performers and bidding everybody good-by. We have bought
presents for everybody, and it has been a picnic.

Pa had a big heart, with roses all around it, made of a horse collar,
covered with flowers, which came from the freaks, and the performers
remembered him with presents, and pa gave everybody something, and
everybody got together in the main tent and made speeches.

The manager thanked everybody and promised that next year we would have
the greatest show on earth. He said the management had decided that what
we lacked this year was a wild west show, as the people everywhere
seemed to dote on busting broncos, and roping cattle, and chasing
buffaloes and seeing Indians and rough riders chase up and down the
arena. He felt that in justice to our rough-riding president, it was
proper to have a wild west show that would make things hum next year. He
said he took pleasure in informing the people of the show that pa had
been commissioned to go out west at once and secure the Indians and
cowboys, horses that buck and bounce off the riders, cattle