SEEING THE ELEPHANT

BOSTON:
GEO. M. BAKER & CO.,
149 Washington Street.

KILBURN & MALLORY, Sr.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873 by George M. Baker, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

SEEING THE ELEPHANT.

BY THE AUTHOR OF

“Sylvia’s Soldier;” “Once on a Time;” “Down by the Sea;” “Bread on the
Waters;” “The Last Loaf;” “Stand by the Flag;” “The Tempter;” “A
Drop Too Much;” “We’re All Teetotallers;” “A Little More Cider;”
“Thirty Minutes for Refreshments;” “Wanted, a Male Cook;” “A
Sea of Troubles;” “Freedom of the Press;” “A Close Shave;”
“The Great Elixir;” “The Man with the Demijohn;” “New
Brooms Sweep Clean;” “Humors of the Strike;” “My
Uncle the Captain;” “The Greatest Plague in Life;”
“No Cure, No Pay;” “The Grecian Bend;” “The
War of the Roses;” “Lightheart’s Pilgrimage;”
“The Sculptor’s Triumph;” “Too Late for
the Train;” “Snow-Bound;” “The
Peddler of Very Nice;” “Bonbons;”
“Capuletta;” “An Original
Idea;” &c.

BOSTON:
GEO. M. BAKER & CO.
149 Washington Street.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873,
By GEORGE M. BAKER,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

Stereotyped at the Boston Stereotype Foundry,
19 Spring Lane.

SEEING THE ELEPHANT

CHARACTERS.

• Silas Somerby, a Farmer, occasionally addicted to the bottle.
• Harry Holden, his right-hand Man.
• Bias Black, a Teamster.
• Pat Murphy, a Laborer.
• Johnny Somerby, Silas’s Son.
• Rachel Somerby, his Wife.
• Sally Somerby, his Daughter.

COSTUMES.

Silas, dark pants, short, thick boots, yellow vest, a towel pinned about his neck, gray wig, face lathered.

Harry, gray pants, blue shirt, black neckkerchief, dark coat.

Bias, thick boots, blue frock, woolly wig, black face, long whip.

Pat Murphy, in shirt sleeves, blue overalls, cap, wig.

Johnny, close-cut hair, pants of his father’s, rolled up at bottom, drawn up very high with suspenders, thin coat, short and open, very broad brimmed straw hat.

Rachel and Sally, neat calico dresses.

Scene.—Room in Somerby’s House. Old-fashioned sofa, R.; table, C., laid for breakfast. Harry seated R. of table, eating; rocking-chair, R. C. Sally seated, L., shelling peas or paring apples. Entrances, R., L., and C.

Sally. (Singing.)

Harry. Beautiful, beautiful! “There’s music in that air.” Now take a fresh roll, and keep me company while I take another of your mother’s delicious fresh rolls.

Sally. Making the sixth you have devoured before my eyes!

Harry. Exactly. What a tribute to her cooking! She’s the best bred woman in the country. Her pies are miracles of skill; her rolls are rolls of honor; her golden butter is so sweet, it makes me sweet upon her.

Sally. Well, I declare, Harry Holden, that’s poetry!

Harry. Is it? Then hereafter call me the poet of the breakfast table. My lay shall be seconded with a fresh egg.

Sally. Another? Land sakes! you think of nothing but eating.

Harry. Exactly, when I’m hungry. My hunger once appeased, I think of this good farm—the broad fields, mowing, haying, the well-fed cattle, and sometimes, when I am very hungry, I think of the time when I leaned over the fence, and gazed enchanted upon the pretty girl milking her cow—whose name was Sally.

Sally. Eh—the cow?

Harry. Now, Sally, don’t destroy the poetry of my language.

Sally. Don’t be ungrammatical, Harry; and do stop talking nonsense.

Harry. I will, for my breakfast is finished, and I can talk to you no longer. I’m off. (Sings.)

(Rises.) Ah, I little dreamed, two years ago, when I was playing the fine gentleman at Squire Jordan’s,—a city swell, up in the country here on a vacation,—that I should soon become a farmer.

Sally. Are you sorry it is so, Harry?

Harry. (Comes down, places a cricket beside Sally, and sits on it.) Sorry, you gypsy, when it has made a man of me? No. It has been my salvation. I have a fortune left me, and was in a fair way of squandering it in all the vices of the city; had acquired a taste for hot suppers, fine wines, gambling, and all sorts of dissipation; was on the high road to ruin, when some good angel sent me up here. I saw you, and was saved.

Sally. And you are perfectly contented with your situation?

Harry. Well, no, I’m not. In fact, I’m getting very much dissatisfied.

Sally. Not with me, Harry?

Harry. With you? Bless your dear little heart! you’re the only satisfaction I have. When I asked the old gentleman—your father—to give you to me, two years ago, he said, “No, young man. Though I’ve no doubt you love my Sally, you’ve got too much money. You never worked a day in your life. Suppose your wealth should take to itself wings some day, what’s to become of her? She shall be a farmer’s wife, or die an old maid. You say you would die for her. Go to work, learn to run a farm, bring out your muscle, get some color in that pale face, get rid of your vices, and then, if your money goes, you’ve the power to earn a living, and a smart wife to help you.”

Sally. That’s just what he said, and ’twas good advice.

Harry. It was, though I did not think so at