n Charles appeared it was a sad sight.

"You can't meet Jack Haverly in that suit," said Gustave.

"All right," said Charley, "I will go to a tailor and have it fixed in
some way."

The tailor, apparently, worked a miracle with the clothes, for Charles
became presentable and was introduced to the great man, who, like most
other people, readily succumbed to the boy's winning manner.

"You and I will work the public, all right," he said to Charles. What
was more important, Haverly informed him that he was to act as treasurer
of the Mastodons at a salary of ten dollars a week, with an allowance of
one dollar and a half a day for board and lodging.

A serious complication now faced the boy. It was in the middle of July;
the company was not to start until August, and he could draw no salary
until the engagement began. With the assistance of Gustave he rented a
two-dollar-a-week room and existed on a meal-ticket good for twenty-two
fifteen-cent meals that he had bought for three dollars.

Charles sat at rehearsals with Haverly. He had a genius for stage
effects and made many practical suggestions. The big brass-band, an
all-important adjunct of the minstrel show, fascinated him. When the
season opened with a flourish the receipts amazed him.

For the first time he came in contact with real money. The gross income
of the Dillon company had never exceeded a thousand dollars a week; now
he was handling more than that sum every night.

After a brief engagement at the Adelphi Theater in Chicago, which
Haverly owned, the "Forty--Count 'Em--Forty" started on their long tour
which rounded out the amusement apprenticeship of Charles Frohman.

* * *

Charles now made his first real appearance before the public, and in
spectacular fashion. It was the custom of a minstrel company to parade
each day. With their record-breaking organization the Mastodons gave
this feature of minstrelsy perhaps its greatest traditions. Wearing
shining silk hats, frock-coats, and lavender trousers, and headed by
"the world's greatest minstrel band," the "Forty--Count 'Em--Forty"
swayed the heart and moved the imagination of admiring multitudes
wherever they went.

Charles, who to the end of his days despised a silk hat, now wore one
for the first time, but under protest. However, he manfully took his
place in the front set of fours with the ranking officers of the
organization, and marched many a weary mile. So great was his dislike
for a silk h