If Barnum would have us believe that he bought Joice Heth “in _perfect good faith_,” that he “_believed_ all this,” he must convince us that suddenly at the age of twenty-five his mind developed an artlessness and gullibility which it had never had even during his boyhood, and which it did not manifest during his later career. III Barnum and his Italian continued to travel about New England, New York, and New Jersey, but with poor success, for juggling, balancing crockery, and walking on stilts were as nothing compared to just being 161 years old, and the public were more interested in the family history of George Washington than in feats of skill and accuracy; there is also reason to believe that Signor Vivalla’s skill was not vastly entertaining. In April of 1836 Barnum met Aaron Turner, one of the early circus proprietors of America. They formed a partnership by which Barnum became ticket-seller, secretary, and treasurer of Turner’s traveling circus at $30 per month and twenty per cent. of the net receipts. He was also to receive $50 per month for the services of Signor Vivalla. Charity and their small daughter Caroline returned to Bethel, and Barnum toured the country with Turner’s circus, traveling in New England, the middle Atlantic states, and some of the South. Turner may be regarded as one of Barnum’s masters, in so far as he had any at all. Barnum listened with approval as Turner told him and the rest of the company that any man of health with common sense was capable of making a fortune. “Who am I?” he used to say. “I don’t know who I am, or where I came from. I never had father or mother that I know of.... What little I can read I picked up myself after I was eighteen years old; and as for writing I used at first to make my mark, but being a poor devil I had to give my note so often that I finally learned to write my name.”