"What-fer show is it?" asked Jim Borum.
"Somethin' like a circus on'y 'tain't one," said Anderson. "They don't pertend to have animals."
"Don't carry a menagerie, I see," remarked Gregory.
"'Pears that way," said Anderson, slowly analysing the word.
"I understand it is a stage performance under a tent," volunteered the postmaster.
"That's what it is," said Harry Squires, the editor, with a superior air. "They play 'As You Like It,' by Shakespeare. It's a swell show. We got out the hand bills over at the office. They'll be distributed in town to-morrow, and a big batch of them will be sent over to the summer places across the river. The advance agent says it is a high-class performance and will appeal particularly to the rich city people up in the mountains. It's a sort of open-air affair, you know." And then Mr. Squires was obliged to explain to his fellow-townsmen all the known details in connection with the approaching performance of "As You Like It" by the Boothby Company, set for Tinkletown on the following Thursday night. Hapgood's Grove had been selected by the agent as the place in which the performance should be given.
"Don't they give an afternoon show?" asked Mrs. Williams.
"Sure not," said Harry curtly. "It isn't a museum."
"Of course not," added Anderson Crow reflectively. "It's a troupe."
The next morning, bright and early, Mark Riley fared forth with paste and brush. Before noon, the board fences, barns and blank walls of Tinkletown flamed with great red and blue letters, twining in and about the portraits of Shakespeare, Manager Boothby, Rosalind, Orlando, and an extra king or two in royal robes. A dozen small boys spread the hand bills from the Banner presses, and Tinkletown was stirred by the excitement of a sensation that had not been experienced since Forepaugh's circus visited the county seat three years before. It went without saying that Manager Boothby would present "As You Like It" with an "unrivalled cast." He had "an all-star production," direct from "the leading theatres of the universe."