The entertainment was pretty well concluded, but on the platform was a box, bottom up, not more than eight inches high, but perhaps twice eight inches square. Upon this box Merry, his eyes shining with excitement, knocked.
"Hello, Jack," said he.
"What do you want?"
How everybody started, and leaned forward, and stared at everybody else then!
"I want my cat," said Merry.
"I ain't got yer cat."
"Yes you have. Hear that?" and Merry turned triumphantly to his audience, as there sounded an unmistakable "Me-ow."
"I tell you that boy's a genius," whispered Mr. Colley, excitedly, to Mr. Quipp. "He might make a fortune. He beats Wagner all to pieces."
The mock dialogue went briskly on; and Merry's eyes sparkled as his demand for his cat grew more and more eager, and Jack's refusal grew more and more decided, and the cat added her voice to the general tumult, and the whole small audience got upon its feet with a rustling, excited murmur, and at last—
"You're a coward," cried Merry, with a great deal of make-believe anger. "Take it up, if you dare."