[MIFFLIN helps NORA to take off the front of the piano,
     which is still mildly smoking; a wreckage of wires is seen.]

MIFFLIN [smiling]:  It must have been an accident!

FRANKEL AND MRS. SIMPSON [coming out from under the table]:  Accident!

MIFFLIN:  Of course it’s unfortunate, because it might be misconstrued.

RILEY:  Yes, it might.

MIFFLIN [confidently]:  Let me go talk to these new comrades!

RILEY:  Comrades?  Frankel’s wops?  Ha, ha!

SALVATORE:  Aw, them ain’t comrades; them’s just Frankel’s hired workers.

MIFFLIN:  They are comrades in the best sense of the word.  I am in touch with all the groups.  A moment’s reasoning from one they know to be sympathetic—­

     [He goes out into the factory.]

SALVATORE:  Hey, let’s get that stuff divided up.  I got an engagement.

FRANKEL:  Yes; let’s hurry.  You can’t tell what they got planted round here.

CARTER [rapping]:  The meeting will please come to—­

SALVATORE:  Here, cut that out!  We ain’t got no time to—­

SHOMBERG:  No.  Come to business; come to business!

NORA:  The only way, comrades, to know how much we have gained since the last division is to read the bookkeeper’s report.

FRANKEL:  Well, for heaven’s sakes, go on—­read it!

CARTER:  Well, I did want to a long while ago, when we first set down and begun the meeting.  I says then, I report on my committee and—­

VARIOUS MEMBERS:  Oh, for heaven’s sake!  Go ahead!  Cut it out!

CARTER [picking up the sheets]:  On the first page is says Soomary.

RILEY:  What’s that mean?

MRS. SIMPSON:  Oh, my goodness!

FRANKEL:  Git to the figures!

CARTER:  Well, here, on one side it says gross receipts—­

SHOMBERG [rubbing his hands]:  Ah!

CARTER:  What?

SIMPSON [shouting]:  Read it!

CARTER:  Gross receipts $2,162.43.  On the other side it says:  “Cash paid out $19,461.53.”

     [All are puzzled.]

It didn’t sound right to me, even the first time I read it.  Looks like he’s got the wrong words, crossed over.

FRANKEL:  Why, gross receipts last month was over twenty-four thousand dollars!

SHOMBERG:  Yes, and that was a fall off from the month before.

CARTER [rubbing his head]:  Well, I don’t pretend to understand it, but he told me all them was mostly payments on old sales anyhow.

RILEY:  Read it again, read it again!

SIMPSON:  Yes, let’s see if we can’t get what the sense of it is.

CARTER:  It says “Gross receipts, $2,162.43”—­that’s over here.  “Cash paid out, $19,461.53.”

     [All seem dazed.]

RILEY:  What else you got there?