the scheme without being compelled to count
railroad ties, in case of ill luck, sailing was good enough for them.
Besides, time was no object, for they had plenty of it to spare.

They were all actors like Handy himself. The stories they could unfold
of barn-storming in country towns in years gone by would fill a volume
as bulky as a census report. Moreover, they could turn their talents to
any line of business and double, treble, quintuple parts as easily as
talk. They were players of the old stock school.

One of the company played a cornet badly enough to compel the
inhabitants of any civilized town to take to the woods until he had made
his departure; another was a flutist of uncertain qualifications, while
a third could rasp a little on the violin; and as for Handy himself, he
could tackle any other instrument that might be necessary to make up a
band; but playing the drum,--the bass drum,--or the cymbals, was his
specialty.

A company was accordingly organized, the day of departure fixed, the
printing got out--and the printer "hung up." The vessel was anchored off
Staten Island, and was provisioned with one keg of beer, a good-sized
box of hardtack, a jar of Vesey Street pickles, a Washington Street ham,
five large loaves and all the fishes in the bay. The company, after some
preliminary preparations, boarded the _Gem of the Ocean_, for such was
the pretentious name of the unpretentious craft that was to carry Caesar
and his fortunes. Perhaps Handy's own description of the first night's
adventure might prove more interesting than if given by another.

CHAPTER II

"What stories I'll tell when my sojerin is o'er."
--LEVER.

"Well, sir, you see," said Handy some weeks after in relating the
adventure to a friend, "we had previously determined to start from
Staten Island, when one of the company got it into his head that we
might show on the island for 'one night only,' and make a little
something into the bargain. Besides, he reasoned, all first-class
companies nowadays adopt that plan of breaking in their people. Some
cynical individuals describe this first night operation as 'trying it on
the dog,' but as that is a vulgar way of putting it we'll let it pass.
We turned the matter over in our minds, and almost unanimously agreed
that it was too near the city to make the attempt, but the strong
arguments of Smith prevailed--he was the one who first advocated it--and
we therefore resolved to set