 in no time, what was going on.
    »The Royal Hippodrome Performance of Turpin's Ride to York and the Death of
Black Bess,« replied the man promptly, without turning his eyes or leaving off
tying.
    As soon as the tent was completed the band struck up highly stimulating
harmonies, and the announcement was publicly made, Black Bess standing in a
conspicuous position on the outside, as a living proof, if proof were wanted, of
the truth of the oracular utterances from the stage over which the people were
to enter. These were so convinced by such genuine appeals to heart and
understanding both that they soon began to crowd in abundantly, among the
foremost being visible Jan Coggan and Joseph Poorgrass, who were holiday keeping
here to-day.
    »That's the great ruffen pushing me!« screamed a woman in front of Jan over
her shoulder at him when the rush was at its fiercest.
    »How can I help pushing ye when the folk behind push me?« said Coggan, in a
deprecating tone, turning his head towards the aforesaid folk as far as he could
without turning his body, which was jammed as in a vice.
    There was a silence; then the drums and trumpets again sent forth their
echoing notes. The crowd was again ecstasied, and gave another lurch in which
Coggan and Poorgrass were again thrust by those behind upon the women in front.
    »O that helpless feymels should be at the mercy of such ruffens!« exclaimed
one of these ladies again, as she swayed like a reed shaken by the wind.
    »Now,« said Coggan, appealing in an earnest voice to the public at large as
it stood clustered about his shoulder-blades, »did ye ever hear such a
onreasonable woman as that? Upon my carcase, neighbours, if I could only get out
of this cheesewring, the damn women might eat the show for me!«
    »Don't ye lose yer temper, Jan!« implored Joseph Poorgrass, in a whisper.
»They might get their men to murder us, for I think by the shine of their eyes
that they be a sinful form of womankind.«
    Jan held his tongue, as if he had no objection to be pacified to please a
friend, and they gradually reached the foot of the ladder, Poorgrass being
flattened like a jumping-jack, and the sixpence, for admission, which he had got
ready half-an-hour earlier, having become so reeking hot in the tight squeeze of
his excited hand that the woman in spangles, brazen rings set with glass
diamonds,
