One year ye
give 'em the rottenest kind of a thing, and they eat it up; the
next year you hand 'em a knock-out, and it's a frost. Is that
the way it is with a church show?"
"Much the same," Douglas admitted half- amusedly,
half-regretfully. "Very often when I work the hardest, I seem to
do the least good."
"I guess our troubles is pretty much alike.' Polly nodded with a
motherly air of condescension. "Only there ain't so much danger
in your act."
"I'm not so sure about that," he laughed.
"Well, you take my tip," she leaned forward as though about to
impart a very valuable bit of information. "Don't you never go
in for ridin'. There ain't no act on earth so hard as a ridin'
act. The rest of the bunch has got it easy alongside of us.
Take the fellows on the trapeze. They always get their tackle up
in jes' the same place. Take the balancin' acts; there ain't no
difference in their layouts. Take any of 'em as depends on
regular props; and they ain't got much chance a-goin' wrong. But
say, when yer have ter do a ridin' act, there ain't never no two
times alike. If your horse is feelin' good, the ground is
stumbly; if the ground ain't on the blink the horse is wobbly.
Ther's always somethin' wrong somewheres, and yer ain't never
knowin' how it's goin' ter end-- especially when you got to do a
careful act like mine.
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