This roar of laughter, coming as it did at a solemn and pathetic point in the play, was most startling. Uncle Tom came near collapsing on the stage, and the other actors were so disturbed that they got tangled in their lines.
The students caught on, and there was an immediate burst of applause that swelled louder and louder. This died away most suddenly and unexpectedly, and Joe Gamp was heard to shout in his endeavor to make Griswold hear:
"By jiminy! that was a good one! A-haw! a-haw! a-haw! a-haw!"
The lad from the country went off into another paroxysm of laughter, pressing his hands to his sides, and shutting his eyes, utterly unconscious for the moment of his surroundings.
Of a sudden Joe remembered that he was at the theatre. His mouth came together with a snap, his eyes
flew open, and he ceased to laugh and stiffened up, with a frightened look on his face.
The change was so ludicrous that the entire audience was convulsed, and the actors could not help laughing.
From that moment the play progressed under difficulties. In the scene where the slaves were being sold at auction some of the students began to pepper the actors with pea-shooters, doing it cautiously, so that they would not be spotted in the act. Every time Marks would open his mouth to say "seventy-five" he would be struck by one or more peas, which were fired with force sufficient to make them sting like hornets.
"Seventy——Wow! Whoop!" yelled Marks, clapping a hand to the side of his face, and suddenly dancing an original can-can.
"Five hundred," cried Legree.