eemed lifted up over my brain, and I declared that if I were
not an old fellow I would at once visit the Polytechnic Institution,
that I might learn to look at the sunny side of the world, though I am
one of the happiest of men. 'One of the happiest!' said the candidate,
and he seemed to take real pleasure in it. 'Are you happy?' 'Yes,' I
replied, 'and they welcome me in all the towns where I come with my
company; but I certainly have _one_ wish, which sometimes lies like
lead, like an Alp, upon my good humour: I should like to become a real
theatrical manager, the director of a real troupe of men and women!'
'I see,' he said, 'you would like to have life breathed into your
puppets, so that they might be real actors, and you their director;
and would you then be quite happy?' He did not believe it; but I
believed it, and we talked it over all manner of ways without coming
any nearer to an agreement; but we clanked our glasses together, and
the wine was excellent. There was some magic in it, or I should
certainly have become tipsy. But that did not happen; I retained my
clear view of things, and somehow there was sunshine in the room, and
sunshine beamed out of the eyes of the Polytechnic candidate. It made
me think of the old stories of the gods, in their eternal youth, when
they still wandered upon earth and paid visits to the mortals; and I
said so to him, and he smiled, and I could have sworn he was one of
the ancient gods in disguise, or that, at any rate, he belonged to the
family! and certainly he must have been something of the kind, for my
highest wish was to have been fulfilled, the puppets were to be gifted
with life, and I was to be director of a real company. We drank to my
success and clinked our glasses. He packed all my dolls into a box,
bound the box on my back, and then let me fall through a spiral. I
heard myself tumbling, and then I was lying on the floor--I know that
quite well--and the whole company sprang out of the box. The spirit
had come upon all of us: all the puppets had become distinguished
artists, so they said themselves, and I was the director. All was
ready for the first representation; the whole company wanted to speak
to me, and the public also. The dancing lady said the house would fall
down if she did not keep it up by standing on one leg; for she was the
great genius, and begged to be treated as such. The lady who acted the
queen wished to be treated off the stage as a queen, or else s