The footlights were aided by a "spot-light" from the rear of the hall;
and the children were revealed in a blaze of glory.

A hushed, multitudinous "O-OH" of admiration came from the decorous and
delighted audience. Then the children sang feebly:

"Chuldrun of the Tabul Round,
Lit-tul knights and ladies we.
Let our voy-siz all resound
Faith and hope and charitee!"

The Child King Arthur rose, extended his sceptre with the decisive
gesture of a semaphore, and spake:

"Each littul knight and lady born
Has noble deeds TO perform
In THEE child-world of shivullree,
No matter how small his share may be.
Let each advance and tell in turn
What claim has each to knighthood earn."

The Child Sir Mordred, the villain of this piece, rose in his place
at the table round, and piped the only lines ever written by Mrs. Lora
Rewbush which Penrod Schofield could have pronounced without loathing.
Georgie Bassett, a really angelic boy, had been selected for the role of
Mordred. His perfect conduct had earned for him the sardonic sobriquet,
"The Little Gentleman," among his boy acquaintances. (Naturally he had
no friends.) Hence the other boys supposed that he had been selected for
the wicked Mordred as a reward of virtue. He declaimed serenely: