44 THE LOVE-CHILD. 



when Lavolta, lifting me on his arm, exposed me to the gazing mul- 

 titude, protesting that I was the greatest prodigy the world had ever 

 produced that I lived on fire, and slept on a bed of boiling water 

 that I could squeeze myself through the eye of a needle, and dance 

 barefooted on its point that I was stone-blind, yet never wanted a 

 guide, a stick, or a little dog, to thread my way through populous 

 cities which I had never visited before that I had no idea whatever 

 of time, space, or eternity that young as I seemed I had seven black 

 sons in Morocco, all by one mother, who was a mermaid, each of 

 them seven feet high, and all cannibals except the youngest Ben 

 Bohomo Bibbitti von Egg, an honest and well-known knife-grinder 

 in the town of Tripoli. This, with slight variations, was frequently 

 repeated in the course of the morning, by Lavolta, Mr. Merryman, 

 and the gentleman in the brimstone boots, and I was far from liking 

 it. Lavolta played a principal, but very short character in the piece 

 performed within, and he amazed me by the dexterity with which 

 he enacted it. Once in every half hour, a woolly-headed white 

 negro would thrust his head through a slit in the front canvas, just 

 between the legs of Jupiter, and exclaim, " Now massa." At this 

 signal, Lavolta gradually drew back from the front of the platform, 

 inviting more vehemently as he retired, the public to walk up at two- 

 pence each : on reaching the slit he would suddenly dash in utter 

 on the stage two or three very heroic lines, in the character of a 

 mighty monarch, with sufficient energy to be heard by those who 

 stood on the platform, and rapidly emerge again, exclaiming as he 

 advanced towards the front, " Only two-pence, ladies and gentle- 

 men at the small charge of one-sixth of a shilling." 



About three o'clock I began to feel very sore, stiff, and weary. 

 My walk to Caddiscombe the drubbing I had received from the 

 Merry- Andrew the blows inflicted on me by Llewellyn the goat 

 rny exertions to escape from the poney, and the pranks I had played, 

 after I became a little bold, on the platform, had now completely 

 worn me out. After sitting down and falling asleep for a quarter of 

 an hour, I could scarcely move all my joints seemed to be in fetters 

 I was in pain from top to toe. Lavolta told me to " go down ;" and 

 the boy-father, who filled the post of harlequin, carried me to his 

 little wife. This darling little creature, though hagged and depraved 

 in appearance, had a delicious heart. Her hobgoblin was asleep, and 

 she became lavish in her attentions to me. When stripped she 

 rubbed me with her soft palms, moistened with almond oil, until I 

 besought her to let me sleep. She then pinned me up in a blanket, 

 placed me on a temporary shelf, and it was not until long after sun- 

 rise the next day that I awoke. I was in a profuse perspiration, but 

 I felt vigorous and more free from pain than I had a right to expect. 

 The kind young creature brought me a cup of tea with a deal of gin 

 in it, so that when I got up, for the first time in my life, I felt nearly 

 drunk. Her husband threshed her severely for this well-meant act of 

 kindness, alleging that Lavolta intended to make me stand on my 

 head on a pole sixteen feet high, and that through her silliness I 

 might fall and break my head as the boy Green had, two days before,, 

 from the same reason. 



