iderations ceased, as they
had begun: my pious emotions toward the sex conquered, and I became not
the base purveyor but the elegant distributor of cabbages, right and
left, only with murmured apologies for gifts so unworthy.

I was now evidently classified as belonging high in the spectacular
drama; when the horse, having finished the meal of cracked corn he had
been enjoying by the roadside, with the reins thrown slack over his
neck, suddenly lifted his head with an air of arriving at some instant
conclusion and started merrily down the road.

Too lame to jump from a moving vehicle, my first emotions of dismay
gradually disappeared, however, as I found that our passage was not
disturbed even by the most untoward outward events. For a base-ball
from the bat of some players in an adjoining field hit the noble animal
full in the flank without occasioning any alarm to his gait or
divergence from his resolved purpose.

He turned down the Artichoke road and went straight to Uncle Coffin's.
"I've come to take you and Aunt Salomy to the show," I said, lifted out
and knocked hither and thither by my friend in his tender ecstasy.

"Cruisin' out on the high seas without no rudder, you--you young spark,
you!" he cried delightedly. "You're 'most too full o' the devil t'
exist!" he exclaimed at last, holding me out at arm's-length admiringly.

Proud now of my wickedness as I had formerly been of my charms, I
steered my friends to the Point by the conventional means of the
rudder. Captain Pharo, who had been so congenially occupied that he
had not even missed me, heaped encomiums upon me, and receiving Uncle
Coffin almost with tears of joy in his eyes, led him away to the tin
shop.

I secured more cracked corn for the horse and shed-room, where I tied
him with retrospective security. There being no restaurant, I obtained
some biscuits and cheese, and with these and six tickets for the very
front row, Aunt Salomy and Mrs. Kobbe and Miss Pray and I stole early
into the hall and sat us down to rest.

There were already figures as for a rehearsal behind the curtain;
indeed, that thin structure revealed angry silhouettes, and loud voices
reached us.

"Sh!" came from that source: "or them fools down there, eatin' crackers
an' cheese, 'll hear ye."

"I don't care if the whole town hears me," replied a passionate female
voice. "You said I could have twenty dollars, and now you won't give
it to me. I won't play to-night till