Chap­ter XV begins with what seems like a peace­ful evening aboard the “Marie,” as the Spar­ling cir­cus fleet floats smooth­ly down the Mis­sis­sip­pi. The still­ness is decep­tive, con­ceal­ing the storm of con­fu­sion about to unfold. While most of the crew remains alert, Ted­dy snoozes sound­ly, obliv­i­ous to the tur­moil he unknow­ing­ly helped ignite ear­li­er. Ten­sion brews qui­et­ly in the pilot house, where Mr. Cum­mings fumes over a pre­vi­ous encounter with Ted­dy that bruised his pride. His frus­tra­tion fes­ters into mut­tered threats and reck­less thoughts of retal­i­a­tion, and his mood only wors­ens with each bump and veer caused by unpre­dictable sand­bars. The jeer­ing from the deck doesn’t help. Fueled by annoy­ance and ego, Cum­mings becomes dan­ger­ous­ly dis­tract­ed, mis­judg­ing shad­ows and move­ments with every spin of the wheel. His night of anger sets the stage for a bizarre and chaot­ic mis­un­der­stand­ing that will send the entire boat into a spi­ral of con­fu­sion and motion.

Trou­ble begins when Cum­mings, already frayed, notices move­ment near the pilot house. His nerves, tight­ly wound, twist fur­ther when he assumes a wild ani­mal has bro­ken free from the cir­cus menagerie. In truth, it is only Jan­u­ary, the stub­born cir­cus don­key, wan­der­ing freely in search of snacks and mis­chief. But Cummings’s imag­i­na­tion leaps ahead of rea­son. In his pan­ic, he locks him­self inside the pilot house, mis­tak­ing the inno­cent don­key for some­thing much more dangerous—perhaps a lion. He grabs a firearm, wild­ly bran­dish­ing it through the small open­ings, shout­ing threats no one can deci­pher in the ruckus. At the same time, he pulls the lever for full reverse, send­ing the “Marie” into a sud­den and dis­ori­ent­ing shift in motion. The ves­sel lurch­es, alarms sound, and the once sleepy atmos­phere erupts into urgent chaos.

Phil is jolt­ed from his bunk by the sharp sway of the boat and the star­tled shouts of crew mem­bers. Instinc­tive­ly, he races toward the source of the noise, piec­ing togeth­er the cause faster than any­one else. As he nears the pilot house, the strange sight of a pan­icked don­key becomes clear. Ted­dy, rub­bing his eyes from sleep, joins the scene and bursts into laugh­ter when he spots Jan­u­ary paw­ing at the door like an over­sized dog want­i­ng in. But there’s no time for amuse­ment. Phil climbs to the upper deck and sees that the “Marie” is veer­ing dan­ger­ous­ly toward the bank. With­out hes­i­ta­tion, he seizes con­trol of the wheel, care­ful­ly cor­rect­ing the course, while bark­ing orders to restore bal­ance and reduce speed.

Below deck, con­fu­sion reigns. Crew mem­bers spill into the cor­ri­dor, some bare­foot, oth­ers clutch­ing cir­cus tools as makeshift weapons, unsure whether they face a wild ani­mal or a man gone mad. Mr. Spar­ling, alert­ed by the com­mo­tion, arrives just in time to see Phil steady­ing the boat and Ted­dy try­ing to wran­gle Jan­u­ary with a rope and half-heart­ed bribes of sug­ar cubes. His pres­ence cuts through the pan­ic. March­ing up to the pilot house, he bangs on the door and demands Cum­mings open up. The door cracks open, reveal­ing the flus­tered pilot mid-sen­tence, try­ing to explain his imag­ined threat. Sparling’s tone is stern and com­mand­ing, his con­fi­dence set­tling the mood aboard like calm after a squall.

The boat is even­tu­al­ly brought back under con­trol, though not with­out scratch­es, both to its sides and to the pride of the crew. Mr. Spar­ling assigns new night-watch duties and gives Cum­mings a blis­ter­ing warn­ing about jump­ing to con­clu­sions. Ted­dy, still chuck­ling at January’s sur­prise adven­ture, is tasked with keep­ing bet­ter track of the don­key mov­ing for­ward. Mean­while, Phil qui­et­ly reflects on how quick­ly things spi­raled and how impor­tant it is to stay com­posed in moments of con­fu­sion. Though no one was seri­ous­ly hurt, the inci­dent under­scores the unpre­dictable nature of their riv­er journey—and how every cir­cus act, whether in the ring or onboard, demands bal­ance, aware­ness, and tim­ing.

This chap­ter doesn’t just entertain—it reveals the val­ue of lead­er­ship under pres­sure and the com­e­dy born of mis­un­der­stand­ing. Life with the cir­cus is nev­er qui­et for long, and even the tamest crea­ture can trig­ger may­hem if giv­en the chance. It’s a reminder that adven­ture often arrives unan­nounced and that resilience is built in the moments where humor and chaos col­lide. The boat sails on, stead­ied by quick minds, strong friend­ships, and the ever-present spir­it of the show.