“I ken put up with always bein’ like er specimei iv er Indian famine,” he said, confiding in Mahdi the Missing Link, through the bars of the latter cage, “knowing the missus and the kids has plenty.  You noticed ’ow fat Jane was when she brought the fam’ly t’ see the show the other day?  Well, I give you my word, the wife was thin enough t’ take on this billet ’erself when the Perfesser engaged me.”

Nickie’s sentimental side was quite stirred by the affection existing between Bonypart and his small family, and the anguish of Jane and the kiddies at parting with Matty when the show was on the eve of starting on a provincial tour so wrought upon him that he shed two large tears down his Simian cheeks, and handed a shilling to Mat, the fat baby.

The show opened at Bunkers, a small Gippsland town.  The Museum of Marvels was conveyed in a two-horse caravan, and was displayed in a small circus tent, Mahdi’s cage, as usual, being thrown into shadow by an ingenious device of the Professor’s.

Professor Thunder was more at his ease in the bush towns.  There patrons are neither so inquisitive nor so exacting as in the metropolis.  The Museum of Marvels was opened to the public of Bunkers in the afternoon, admission sixpence, children half-price, special concessions to schools and other educational institutions.

Nickie found his sphere of usefulness enlarged in the country, since he expected to assist in pitching the tent and striking it again, and had to do his share of the camp work, cooking, &c.  The quick changes prevented outsiders from noticing that the absence of Nicholas Crips was always coincident—­with the appearance of Mahdi, the Missing Link; but, still, nice judgment and caution had to be observed in effecting the transformation.

Business at Bunkers was only moderate—­for the first afternoon and evening, but Professor Thunder had so worked his “splendid living realisation of the Darwinian theory, the descent of man,” as to induce the proprietress of a local young ladies’ school to bring her pupils on the second afternoon.

There were twenty-five young ladies in all, daughters of the superior families of Bunkers and the surrounding district.  Miss Arnott, their teacher, was a tall, bony spinster, with austere glasses and sharp elbows that looked like weapons of defence.

The Professor had several manners adapted for various audiences, and possessed costumes to Suit.  He met Miss Arnott and her pupils in his splendid impersonation of the studious naturalist and reverent authority on the wonders of creation.  A long black coat, a somewhat dingy belltopper, and a pair of smoked spectacles went with the part.  So equipped, the boss conducted the seminary through his Museum of Marvels, educating and edifying the pupils, first with the astonishing mathematical calculations of Ephraim, the educated pig, then with Madame Marve’s amazing acts of mysticism and legerdemain.