er has gone.
To colour his nose and mine,
We've both been there before,
Many a time, many a time!'
At the conclusion of the singing, Bert turned another picture into view.
''Ere we 'ave another election scene. At each side we see the two
candidates the same as in the last pitcher. In the middle of the road
we see a man lying on the ground, covered with blood, with a lot of
Liberal and Tory working men kickin' 'im, jumpin' on 'im, and stampin'
on 'is face with their 'obnailed boots. The bloke on the ground is a
Socialist, and the reason why they're kickin' 'is face in is because 'e
said that the only difference between Slumrent and Mandriver was that
they was both alike.'
While the audience were admiring this picture, Bert played another
well-known tune, and the children sang the words:
'Two lovely black eyes,
Oh what a surprise!
Only for telling a man he was wrong,
Two lovely black eyes.'
Bert continued to turn the handles of the rollers and a long succession
of pictures passed across the stage, to the delight of the children,
who cheered and sang as occasion demanded, but the most enthusiastic
outburst of all greeted the appearance of the final picture, which was
a portrait of the King. Directly the children saw it--without waiting
for the band--they gave three cheers and began to sing the chorus of
the National Anthem.
A round of applause for Bert concluded the Pandorama performance; the
lamp and the candles of the Christmas tree were relit--for although all
the toys had been taken off, the tree still made a fine show with the
shining glass ornaments--and then they had some more games; blind man's
buff, a tug-of-war--in which Philpot was defeated with great
laughter--and a lot of other games. And when they were tired of these,
each child 'said a piece' or sung a song, learnt specially for the
occasion. The only one who had not come prepared in this respect was
little Rosie, and even she--so as to be the same as the
others--insisted on reciting the only piece she knew. Kneeling on the
hearthrug, she put her hands together, palm to palm, and shutting her
eyes very tightly she repeated the verse she always said every night
before going to bed:
'Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,
Look on me, a little child.
Pity my simplicity,
Suffer me to come to Thee.'
Then she stood up and kissed everyone in turn, and Philpot
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