Old Gent.—"Oh, my leg!"
Doctor.—"Your nerves are in a very excited state; you must have perfect quiet." (Here the street door is heard to bang loudly, making the house shake.)
Old Gent.—"Keep quiet, do you say! You might as well tell me to cut my leg off. There is no such thing as quiet in this house. That little good-for-nothing of a maid never comes into the room without shutting the door with a bang."
Doctor.—"Be calm, my dear friend, and I will order you a soothing mixture, and as I leave the house I will insist upon perfect quiet being maintained." (Then rebandaging the gentleman's leg, and placing him comfortably in the arm-chair, the doctor retires.)
Scene 3.—Bringing in the whole word, Go-bang.
Inside a coffee-room. Two or three friends are seated with their coffee and pipes, when one, who has just returned from foreign lands, begins relating some of his adventures.
Smith.—"Yes, my boys, glad as I am to get back to my own country, I should not like to be without the remembrance of all that I have witnessed in the far-off lands I have been visiting."
Brown.—"Yes, friend, you must have had a brave heart to face the thousand dangers to which no doubt you have been exposed. But though it's getting late, we must, before parting, hear one of your adventures. So proceed, comrade."
Smith.—"Well, it's not worth while beginning a long tale when there's not time to finish it, so I'll just sketch the sort of risk one often runs in the wilds of the backwoods. My mates and I had been out one day on a hunting expedition, when, returning home late at night, I unfortunately got left behind. The darkness was so great that my absence was not noticed, and before very long I found I had taken the wrong track. I came to this conclusion because I heard nothing but the tramp of my own horse's hoofs, when suddenly I felt that danger was at hand. Almost before I could put my thoughts into words, I felt something go bang close past my ear; then three Indians rushed upon me. Instead of feeling fear, a kind of supernatural strength took possession of me. I lifted my pistol and shot the man nearest to me, the next I felled; when, strange to say, the third man just at this moment turned round and fled. I suppose he heard the voices and footsteps of my friends, who were, at last, coming in search of me. At any rate he disappeared, when we all made the best of our way home, truly thankful that my life had been spared."