than a turtle, but he had stopped the supposed
sanguinary fight, and he was satisfied. Having no one on whom they
could wreak their vengeance without considerable danger to themselves,
the combatants dispersed, and not until then did Mopsey remember that
the very one whom they had been using so roughly was the one upon whom
they depended to close the performance.

When the self-elected manager thought of this, he called to Ben to
help him set the vanquished Macbeth on his feet, and to get him in
dancing condition. It was quite an easy matter to get the tin-encased
hero on his feet, but quite another matter to bolster him up so that
he could dance. Dickey was wearied with long standing, sore from the
effects of the pounding, and so thoroughly cured of his desire to wear
an armor, that all he thought of or wanted was to get where he could
take off the trappings of war, and become a humble boot-blacking
citizen once more. In fact he utterly refused to dance, which would
really have been an impossibility, unless he had been relieved from
the embarrassment of the boiler covers, and Ben and Johnny went on in
a double clog to give a proper finish to the performance.

[Illustration: DICKEY FOUND HIMSELF IN THE MIDST OF A BLOOD-THIRSTY
CROWD.]

Inasmuch as there was no curtain, it was found necessary for Mopsey to
go forward and announce that the evening's entertainment was
finished--an announcement which the audience was not inclined to
accept as a fact. They utterly refused to leave their seats, and it
was not until Nelly had appeared and sung three more songs that they
left the theatre. Then, although they drew some comparisons between
that theatre and others which they had attended, which were certainly
not very favorable to Mopsey, they departed, apparently very well
satisfied that they had received the full worth of their money.

The entertainment had lasted fully two hours, and every one of the
performers, but more especially Dickey, was greatly pleased when the
last one of the audience passed out of the door. It would be stating
it all too mildly to say that Mrs. Green was relieved when they had
gone. The good woman had been in a deplorable condition of fear since
the time the first hearty applause was raised, and she had been
seriously afraid that they would go through the floor of her attic in
some of their more vigorous manifestations of pleasure.

Before the last one of their patrons had left the hall Dickey had