Читать книгу Frank Merriwell's Own Company; Or, Barnstorming in the Middle West онлайн

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By the time Prof. Pombal had played two selections, Frank was ready to go on.

Naturally Merriwell was nervous, but he braced himself for the task before him. Having practiced amateur magic and studied the famous feats of noted conjurers and necromancers, he believed himself capable of amusing and pleasing the audience, even though not capable of giving such a finished performance as one who was practicing the feats night after night.

Frank walked out onto the stage immediately upon the rising of the curtain. He started in at once by telling a story about two Irishmen, one of whom was down in a well, into which he had fallen while looking at the reflection of the moon, which he had mistaken for a cheese, being slightly intoxicated. His friend at the mouth of the well was trying to get him out, and the talk of the two was very laughable. The voice of the intoxicated man in the well seemed to issue from deep down beneath the stage floor, and was a very clever piece of ventriloquism. A good portion of the audience was amused, but some pretended to be bored at the very start.