All this was well known to Cap'n Cod; but twenty years of absence from
the stage had caused him to lose sight of his first and only
humiliating appearance before an audience, and had restored all his
youthful confidence in his own abilities. He was therefore to be the
lecturer of his own show, while Winn and Solon were to enter the
treadmill, and supply, as well as they could, the place of a mule in
furnishing power to move the heavy roll of paintings. Sabella was also
to remain out of sight, but was to grind out music from the hand-organ
whenever it might be needed. This was only a temporary position, and
would be filled by either Winn or Solon after a mule had been obtained
for the treadmill. Sabella's real duty was to dress Don Blossom, and
see that he went on the stage at the proper time.
The hour for giving these arrangements a public test finally arrived.
By eight o'clock the exhibition hall of the _Whatnot_ was packed with
an audience that contained a number of raftsmen and steamboat hands
from the water-front. These were good-naturedly noisy, and indulged in
cat-calls, stampings, and other manifestations of their impatience for
the curtain to rise. An occasional lull in the tumult allowed the
droning notes of the "Sweet By-and-By," then new and extremely popular,
to be heard, as they were slowly ground out from the hand-organ by the
invisible Sabella.
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