Fred Brown.
Johnny Gray.
Ned White.
Scene.—Recitation-Room at a Public School.
Enter Fred.
Fred. A pretty task Master Green has given me this time! He calls me to his desk, and says, "Brown, those boys, Gray and White, have been very inattentive during the music lesson: take them into the recitation-room, and keep them there until they can sing four stanzas of 'The Battle-cry of Freedom.'" A nice music-master I am! I can't read, sing, or growl a note, and I don't know a single line of "The Battle-cry of Freedom." But I must not let them know that. Here they are. (Enter Gray and White; they get in a corner of the stage, and whisper together.) Now, what conspiracy is hatching? Hem! Here, you fellows, do you know what you came here for?
Gray. To take a music lesson, I suppose.
Fred. Well, you had better commence.
White. Certainly, after you.
Fred. After me! What do you mean?