d hands before
their Child King. Penrod was conscious of a great uplift; in a moment he
would have to throw aside his mantle, but even so he was protected and
sheltered in the human garment of a man. His stage-fright had passed,
for the audience was but an indistinguishable blur of darkness beyond
the dazzling lights. His most repulsive speech (that in which he
proclaimed himself a "tot") was over and done with; and now at last the
small, moist hand of the Child Sir Galahad lay within his own. Craftily
his brown fingers stole from Maurice's palm to the wrist. The two boys
declaimed in concert:

"We are two chuldrun of the Tabul Round
Strewing kindness all a-round.
With love and good deeds striving ever for the best,
May our littul efforts e'er be blest.
Two littul hearts we offer. See
United in love, faith, hope, and char--OW!"

The conclusion of the duet was marred. The Child Sir Galahad suddenly
stiffened, and, uttering an irrepressible shriek of anguish, gave a
brief exhibition of the contortionist's art. ("HE'S TWISTIN' MY WRIST!
DERN YOU, LEGGO!")

The voice of Mrs. Lora Rewbush was again heard from the wings; it
sounded bloodthirsty. Penrod released his victim; and the Child King
Arthur, somewhat disconcerted, extended his sceptre and, with the
assistance of the enraged prompter, said:

"Sweet child-friends of the Tabul Round,
In brotherly love and kindness abound,
Sir Lancelot, you have spoken well,
Sir Galahad, too, as clear as bell.
So now pray doff your mantles gay.
You shall be knighted this very day."

And Penrod doffed his mantle.

Simultaneously, a thick and vasty gasp came from the audience, as
from five hundred bathers in a wholly unexpected surf. This gasp was
punctuated irregularly, over the auditorium, by imperfectly subdued
screams both of dismay and incredulous joy, and by two dismal shrieks.
Altogether it was an extraordinary sound, a sound never to be forgotten
by any one who heard it. It was almost as unforgettable as the sight
which caused it; the word "sight" being here used in its vernacular
sense, for Penrod, standing unmantled and revealed in all the medieval
and artistic glory of the janitor's blue overalls, falls within its
meaning.

The janitor was a heavy man, and his overalls, upon Penrod, were merely
oceanic. The boy was at once swaddled and lost within their blue
gulfs and vast saggings; and the left leg, too ha