f his mothers
and sisters; he had heard ladies speak of him as "charming" and "that
delightful child," and little girls had sometimes shown him deference,
but until this moment no boy had ever allowed him, for one moment, to
presume even to equality. Now, in a trice, he was not only admitted
to comradeship, but patently valued as something rare and sacred to be
acclaimed and pedestalled. In fact, the very first thing that Schofield
and Williams did was to find a box for him to stand upon.

The misgivings roused in Roderick's bosom by the subsequent activities
of the firm were not bothersome enough to make him forego his prominence
as Exhibit A. He was not a "quick-minded" boy, and it was long (and
much happened) before he thoroughly comprehended the causes of his new
celebrity. He had a shadowy feeling that if the affair came to be heard
of at home it might not be liked, but, intoxicated by the glamour and
bustle which surround a public character, he made no protest. On the
contrary, he entered whole-heartedly into the preparations for the
new show. Assuming, with Sam's assistance, a blue moustache and
"side-burns," he helped in the painting of a new poster, which,
supplanting the old one on the wall of the stable facing the
cross-street, screamed bloody murder at the passers in that rather
populous thoroughfare.

SCHoFiELD & WiLLiAMS
NEW BIG SHoW
RoDERiCK MAGSWoRTH BiTTS JR
ONLY LiViNG NEPHEW
oF
RENA MAGSWORTH
THE FAMOS
MUDERESS GoiNG To BE HUNG
NEXT JULY KiLED EiGHT PEOPLE
PUT ARSiNECK iN THiER MiLK ALSO
SHERMAN HERMAN AND VERMAN
THE MiCHiGAN RATS DOG PART
ALLiGATOR DUKE THE GENUiNE
InDiAN DoG ADMISSioN 1 CENT oR
20 PINS SAME AS BEFORE Do NoT
MISS THIS CHANSE TO SEE RoDERICK
ONLY LiViNG NEPHEW oF RENA
MAGSWORTH THE GREAT FAMOS
MUDERESS
GoiNG To BE
HUNG

CHAPTER XVII RETIRING FROM THE SHOW-BUSINESS

Megaphones were constructed out of heavy wrapping-paper, and Penrod,
Sam, and Herman set out in different directions, delivering vocally
the inflammatory proclamation of the poster to a large section of the
residential quarter, and leaving Roderick Magsworth Bitts, Junior, with
Verman in the loft, shielded from all deadhead eyes. Upon the return
of the heralds, the Schofield and Williams Military Band played
deafeningly, and an awakened public once more thronged to fill the
coffers of the firm.

Pr