The confounded elephants just glory in the mud, and the minute they get in the ring they all lay down and roll in the mud and water, so when they are ready to do their act they look like walking mud pies.  The 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 that would stand it to be lassoed and thrown down for the amusement of the public, buffaloes that would bellow and act like old times on the plains, stage coaches and robbers, and he promised that next year they would have no cause to be ashamed of the show.  He said pa was authorized to spare no expense to round up a wild west show second to none.  The performers and hands cheered the manager, and then they yelled for pa for a speech.