AND OTHER SKETCHES 83 



into the green room and begged of them for his sake, and 

 the reputation of the profession, not to kick too high, and 

 above all not to wink at the parson. Full of fear the 

 rehearsal progressed, and old Spack's heart rejoiced to 

 hear the Reverend Mr. Cole express himself: "Mr. Spack- 

 man, I am gratified. Sir, greatly gratified, at what I am 

 seeing now for the first time. The behavior of the whole 

 party. Sir, is most polite, and while the young ladies, Sir, 

 kick higher than I ever thought it possible to accomplish, 

 yet, Sir, they do it so modestly, if I may be allowed the 

 expression, that I cannot take exception to it. I am 

 pleased to have been here." 



These remarks fairly captured old Spack, who straight- 

 way introduced all the members of the company present 

 to the "Eev." Mr. Cole, and begged his clerical friend to 

 honor them all by allowing them to drink his health. The 

 clergyman was willing to take something soft as an evi- 

 dence of his good will, and a call-boy was immediately 

 despatched to Kerby's for liquid refreshments. As soon 

 as they were brought in Spack filled up the glasses, and 

 in a clever little speech proposed the health of the "Rev. 

 Mr. Cole, a gentleman whose broad, liberal views hon- 

 ored the profession he belonged to." The toast was 

 heartily honored by all, and in reply the clerical guest 

 spoke as follows : 



"Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to be here and 

 listen to all the sweet words you have served up to the 

 parson, and if any of you folks ever strike Ottawa, I 

 want you to call around and interview the grave and 

 reverend Doc. Coleman. It won't be his fault if you 

 don't all have a rousing good time of it. Spack, old boy, 

 this is the first of April. You owe me one." As the 

 Doc threw off the clerical sombrero and cut loose with 

 an artistic bit of heel and toe work, poor old Spack 

 fairly choked with laughter at the joke that had been 

 played upon him, but earnestly begged the company to 

 keep it quiet or the cost of setting it up for the boys 

 would be his ruin. 



