"Oh, how I should like to be present when you open that box!"
"Maybe you can be," said Ike.
"Oh, I should go wild in anticipation."
"Some day—not now—but some day I may propose a condition whereby you may earn the privilege of being present when I open that box."
"No doubt it contains some wonderful secret."
"It is possibly a secret concerning me. It may inform me that I am the unknown son of a beggar, or it may tell me that I am a prince, a lord or a duke."
"A prince, Ike! Yes, it will inform you that you are a prince."
"The prince of ventriloquists," said Ike with a laugh—a very merry laugh.
"Oh, Ike, you are really a lord or a duke," cried Sara in tones of great enthusiasm.
Ike observed her enthusiasm, and, for reasons which our readers shall learn when we tell the story of the opening of the mysterious box, our hero was quite pleased, and the girl again said: