Next morning as Handy and his host sat together at breakfast, he explained the arrangement he had entered into with the regular Weston impresario. "The deal wasn't quite closed. I wanted, as I told him, to consult you, my partner in the Gotown proposition. I wished to give you a chance to go snacks with me in this new venture, if agreeable, on condition that you be as light as possible on the company for board and lodging while they are not working."
Both of them then set out for the theatre, where they found Smith and the company. Smith was in consultation with the stage manager of the house. Between them they had already selected three drop scenes—a parlor, a drawing-room, and a landscape or wood, two pairs of wings, two fly borders, and a pair of tormentors, the green baize curtain, and the stage carpet.
"Say, Wes, how does this strike you?" asked Handy, in a stage whisper.
"Great! but how did you do it?" he replied, in a manner bordering on amazement.
"Hush! You never can find out how to get out of a hole until you first get into one."
"Big Ed McGowan will be the most surprised man in Pennsylvania when he sees all this landed at the doors of the Academy."
"Oh, Mr. Smith! have you had a talk with the people, and how do they stand?"
"Prepared for anything, and are eager for the fray," answered Smith, in a breezy off-hand manner.
"Good! Now then sit down at the prompt table there and make notes," directed Handy, "of our lay-out. We open with a grand overture by the Handel and Hayden Philharmonic Society; and as a matter of course, on account of their patriotic kindness in volunteering for the celebration of the anniversary of the foundation of Gotown, they will have an encore and will then play a medley of national American airs, 'Yankee Doodle,' 'Hail, Columbia,' 'Patrick's Day,' 'The Watch on the Rhine,' 'The Star Spangled Banner,' and 'Dixie.' Then the curtain will go up on 'Box and Cox.' You'll play Box, Diggins will do Cox, and Cromwell will play Mrs. Bouncer."
"Hold on, sir," said Smith. "Cromwell can't do Mrs. Bouncer—he has a moustache, you know."