COL. (with an air of great importance) Some sausage!
PAR. (faintly in the distance) Who'll buy some pretty toys from
Parpignol?
(Boys and girls running out from the shops and adjoining streets.)
BOYS and GIRLS. Parpignol! Parpignol!
(Enter PARPIGNOL from the Rue Dauphin, pushing a barrow festooned with foliage, flowers and paper lanterns.)
PAR. (crying) Who'll buy some pretty toys from Parpignol?
CHILDREN, (crowding and jumping round the barrow)
Parpignol! Parpignol!
With his pretty barrow bright with flowers!
(admiring the toys)
I want the horn! and I the horse!
Get away, they are mine!
I want the gun! and I the whip!
No, the drum shall be mine!
(At the cries of the children, the mothers try, but without success, to lead them away from PARPIGNOL, scolding loudly.)