Chapter 84
The Puppet-Show ManON board a steamer I once met an elderly man, with such a
merry face that, if it was really an index of his mind, he must
have been the happiest fellow in creation; and indeed he considered
himself so, for I heard it from his own mouth. He was a Dane, the
owner of a travelling theatre. He had all his company with him in a
large box, for he was the proprietor of a puppet-show. His inborn
cheerfulness, he said, had been tested by a member of the
Polytechnic Institution, and the experiment had made him completely
happy. I did not at first understand all this, but afterwards he
explained the whole story to me; and here it is:—
"I was giving a representation," he said, "in the hall of
the posting-house in the little town of Slagelse; there was a
splend
