to the hall. "You go in and
visit with grandpa, Landy, while we talk shop in the library.

"I talked with the Nazarene preacher and he's very enthusiastic over
the plan and prospects," Adine explained after they were settled in
the workshop. "I told him of the ad, that I was to run in the paper
and he's somewhat of an artist and is putting up signs all over town.
It augurs a good crowd, the biggest ever to assemble in Adot. He plays
an accordion and his wife sings and they have arranged for a quartette
of girls to sing a couple of numbers and then you are to talk. The
meeting is to be held in Joe Burns's big warehouse and it won't hold
the people. Now this is not a church meeting, it's an entertainment.
You can laugh and applaud at will. You can tell funny stories about
circuses or what-have-you, it's informal, go as far as you like!"

"Well, here's how I had mapped out the talk. I'll tell 'em something
about midgets," said Davy, "for midgets seem to be a forgotten subject
in literature. If you will comb your college library down at Boulder,
you'll not find a single book on the subject, and I am not sure that I
know enough about 'em to fill out a talk on the subject."

"That's the very subject you ought to talk on. Why I can hardly wait
to hear it. Who better can tell it? If you are short of facts, just
romance a little, that's allowable where facts are scarce. Tell 'em
personal incidents and don't make 'em too solemn or pathetic. Make 'em
laugh. Personally, I'm going to get a close-up seat, for in that big
barn of a place I doubt if you can reach the outer fringes."

"Well, if the preacher gent can make himself heard, I can too,"
retorted Davy. "I practiced up on that stuff, there's where I
specialized. You see, Miss Adine, when I joined up with the Singer
Midgets at Saint Louis, I didn't have an act, a specialty, anything to
give the public. I just joined up because Baron Singer was collecting
midgets, showing 'em a good time, with no thought of making a profit.
But it did make profit. The public wanted to see midgets.

"It was my first contact with my clan. I noticed that midgets didn't
change their voices when they reached maturity, still spoke in
childish tones. Not having much to do, I practiced voice culture,
deepened and strengthened my speech. I made my voice reach to the back
seats. It earned me a job. I became the announcer; made the
in-front-of-the-curtain talks. In the summer, with the Big Top, I
often