The members of our company are small, but--[_Calling toward the flies._]
Alexander! [_To the audience._] He is my chief machinist. [_Calling
again._] Let it down!

A VOICE
[_From the flies._] It's coming, sir!

MANAGER
We have lowered between the audience and the stage an invisible screen
of magnifying glass--

But there the violins are tuning up: Scraping of crystal bows, picking
of strings!--Hush! Let the footlights now leap into brightness, for at a
signal from their little leader the crickets' orchestra have briskly
fallen to!

Frrrt! The bumblebee emerges from the flower, shaking the yellow dust--A
Hen comes on the scene as in La Fontaine's fable. A Cuckoo calls, as in
Beethoven's symphony.

Hush! Let the chandelier draw in its myriad lights--for the curious
call-boy of the woods has, airily, to summon us, repeated thrice his
double call--

And since Nature is one of our performers, and feathered notables are on
our staff--Hush! the curtain must go up: A wood-pecker's bill has rapped
out the three strokes!