Midnight
Pa said : `` If you will give me a shotgun loaded with bird shot , I will make those animals get on their knees at the next performance , and beg my pardon . You can discharge your trainer , and I will teach them a lot of new stunts . '' Say , pa is a wonder , and he has already got old Barnum beat a block . The Bad Boy Feeds the Menagerie Scotch Snuff -- Pa Gets Mauled by the Sneezing Animals -- Pa Takes a Midnight Ride on a Mule to Escape Punishment . Well , I s ` pose I have done it now and it would not surprise me to be killed and fed to wild animals , ' The manager of the show was talking to pa and me , before we left New York , about the condition of the show . Its finances were all balled up on account of settling with people who pretended to be injured when the tent blew down at Poughkeepsie , and the hands and performers are kicking because we are a month behind on salaries , and they get drunk whenever any jay will buy for them . Everybody gives passes to everybody that wants to get in the show , so the box office man has a sinecure , and people chase us from town to town for money for board , and hay and everything .