rod Schofield!" Mrs. Lora Rewbush had come out into the hallway.

And now, in this extremity, when all seemed lost indeed, particularly
including honour, the dilating eye of the outlaw fell upon the blue
overalls which the janitor had left hanging upon a peg.

Inspiration and action were almost simultaneous.

CHAPTER V THE PAGEANT OF THE TABLE ROUND

"Penrod!" Mrs. Lora Rewbush stood in the doorway, indignantly gazing
upon a Child Sir Lancelot mantled to the heels. "Do you know that you
have kept an audience of five hundred people waiting for ten minutes?"
She, also, detained the five hundred while she spake further.

"Well," said Penrod contentedly, as he followed her toward the buzzing
stage, "I was just sitting there thinking."

Two minutes later the curtain rose on a medieval castle hall richly done
in the new stage-craft made in Germany and consisting of pink and blue
cheesecloth. The Child King Arthur and the Child Queen Guinevere were
disclosed upon thrones, with the Child Elaine and many other celebrities
in attendance; while about fifteen Child Knights were seated at a
dining-room table round, which was covered with a large Oriental rug,
and displayed (for the knights' refreshment) a banquet service of silver
loving-cups and trophies, borrowed from the Country Club and some local
automobile manufacturers.

In addition to this splendour, potted plants and palms have seldom been
more lavishly used in any castle on the stage or off.

The footlights were aided by a "spot-light" from the rear of the hall;
and the children were revealed in a blaze of glory.

A hushed, multitudinous "O-OH" of admiration came from the decorous and
delighted audience. Then the children sang feebly:

"Chuldrun of the Tabul Round,
Lit-tul knights and ladies we.
Let our voy-siz all resound
Faith and hope and charitee!"

The Child King Arthur rose, extended his sceptre with the decisive
gesture of a semaphore, and spake:

"Each littul knight and lady born
Has noble deeds TO perform
In THEE child-world of shivullree,
No matter how small his share may be.
Let each advance and tell in turn
What claim has each to knighthood earn."

The Child Sir Mordred, the villain of this piece, rose in his place
at the table round, and piped the only lines ever written by Mrs. Lora
Rewbush which Penrod Schofield could have pronounced without loathing.
Georgie Bassett, a really angelic