about this!"

"But how can there be? You know, Sanford, it's easy enough to
say 'poppycock' and 'fiddle-dee-dee!' and 'gammon' and
'spinach!' But just tell me how it's done--how it can be done by
trickery? Suggest a means however complicated or difficult--"

"Oh, of course, I can't. I'm no charlatan or prestidigitateur!
But you know as well as I do, that the thing is a trick--"

"I don't! And anyway, that isn't the point. I want to go to see
it. I'm not asking your opinion of the performance, I'm asking
you to let me go. May I?"

"No, indeed! Why, Aunt Abby, it will be a terrible crowd--a
horde of ragamuffins and ruffians. You'd be torn to pieces--"

"But I want to, Sanford," and the old lady was on the verge of
tears. "I want to see Hanlon--"

"Hanlon! Who wants to see Hanlon?"

The expected Hendricks came into the room, and shaking hands as
he talked, he repeated his question: "Who wants to see Hanlon?
Because I do, and I'll take any one here who is interested."

"Oh, you angel man!" exclaimed Aunt Abby, her face beaming. "I
want to go! Will you really take me, Alvord?"

"Sure I will! Anybody else? You want to see it, Eunice?"