not take with him all
drama. One can laugh and suffer without him. [_He listens again._]

Ardently humming, a velvety bumblebee hovers--then is still; he has
plunged into a flower--Let us begin. Pray note that Aesop's hump
to-night does duty as prompter's box!

The members of our company are small, but--[_Calling toward the flies._]
Alexander! [_To the audience._] He is my chief machinist. [_Calling
again._] Let it down!

A VOICE
[_From the flies._] It's coming, sir!

MANAGER
We have lowered between the audience and the stage an invisible screen
of magnifying glass--

But there the violins are tuning up: Scraping of crystal bows, picking
of strings!--Hush! Let the footlights now leap into brightness, for at a
signal from their little leader the crickets' orchestra have briskly
fallen to!

Frrrt! The bumblebee emerges from the flower, shaking the yellow dust--A
Hen comes on the scene as in La Fontaine's fable. A Cuckoo calls, as in
Beethoven's symphony.

Hush! Let the chandelier draw in its myriad lights--for the curious
call-boy of the woods has, airily, to summon us, repeated thrice his
double call--

And since Nature is one of our performers, and feathered notables are on
our staff--Hush! the curtain must go up: A wood-pecker's bill has rapped
out the three strokes!

ACT I

THE EVENING OF THE PHEASANT-HEN

_A farmyard such as the sounds from behind the curtain have described.
At the right, a house over-clambered with wistaria. At the left, the
farmyard gate, letting on to the road. A dog-kennel. At the back, a low
wall, beyond which distant country landscape. The details of the setting
define themselves in the course of the act._

SCENE FIRST

_The whole barnyard company,_ HENS, CHICKENS, CHICKS, DUCKS, TURKEYS,
_etc.;_ THE BLACKBIRD _in his cage_, THE CAT _asleep on the wall, later_
A BUTTERFLY _on the flowers._

THE WHITE HEN
[_Pecking._] Ah! Delicious!

ANOTHER HEN
What are you eating?

ALL THE HENS
[_Rushing to the spot._] What's she eating?

THE WHITE HEN
A small green beetle, crisp and nice, tasting of the rose-leaves he had
lived on.

THE BLACK HEN
[_Standing before the_ BLACKBIRD'S _cage._] Really, the Blackbird
whistles amazingly!

THE WHITE HEN
Any little street urchin can do as much!

THE TURKEY
[_Solemnly._] An urchin who had learned of a shepherd in Sicily!

THE DUCK
He never whistles his tune to the end--

THE TURKEY
That's too easy, carrying it to