Professor. Ah! Now then! Now!
(From a corner rack behind him the Professor snatches a large green butterfly net, and for a few moments you have the degrading spectacle of an eminent scientist, pursuing on the material plane something which he does not really believe to exist. But the pursuit soon ends. The imp is too agile, the pace is too killing, and the Professor in his stumbling course has knocked over a number of things that he did not intend to. Exhausted, he sits down again to breathe. Once more the creature has disappeared. Thus momentarily relieved, he perceives the disarray into which the chamber has been thrown, and proceeds to pick things up. Apparently from its place of concealment the creature is watching him, for almost immediately he hears its voice.)
Bird-in-Hand. Pick-it-up! Pick-it-up!
(To be thus ordered about by an apparition is trying to the Professor’s temper. He slaps down his gleanings on the table, and makes a second grab for the butterfly net.)
Professor. No—no, I mustn’t do that: it’s no good. I must think!
Bird-in-Hand. Think—think—think—think—think!
Professor. I will just go on with my writing——
Bird-in-Hand. Do it!—do it!—do it!
Professor.—as if nothing had happened at all—Perhaps it hasn’t! (But again the creature has reappeared) Oh, do get away!
Bird-in-Hand. Chich-a-wee! Che-wee! (Realizing it is not wanted, it roams off and begins once more to inspect the room. Before long it runs its finger down a pile of papers high up on a shelf, and the papers tip over and fly out across the floor. Fleeing before them) Che-wee—Che-wee—Che-wee, Che-wee—Che-wee!