ACT II
Scene 2: Same as in Act I, only more so.
The snow is still snowing. Nothing is heard but the howling of the audience—howling of the wind. Enter the villain and Mickey the Mouse. Villain bribes The Mouse to kidnap the heroine, tie her to the cold, cold snow, go down to the river, bring it back, and make the heroine take a cold plunge—to death.
Mickey the Mouse accepts. Enter Chasem Cheese, the brave detective. He has been on the trail of the mouse so long that he has grown stale.
The Mouse smells Mr. Cheese. Exit The Mouse. Cheese follows closely, still strong on the scent.
Heroine enters.
“Hot roses! Red-hot roses! Please buy my roses!”
Enter The Mouse. Womanlike, she screams at sight of The Mouse. He seizes her and is just about to splash her into the river, which the property-man has just pushed on. She begs him not to throw her into the cold, cold water, but to wait until it’s warmer. “You had a mother once,” she cries.
He did happen to have a mother once, and he relents; he waits until the ice thaws, then he throws her in.
She is about to swallow the river, when the hero comes on and does a song and dance. One more swallow and the river would vanish forever, but the hero does not wait. He plunges in and gets his feet wet—all for the love of her.
“Shaved—saved!” she cries; “you have saved my golden hair from being lost forever!”
O, joy! exceeding joy! Exit sorrow until act third.