[OLAF, _with a fishing-line in his hand, comes running up the street and through the garden-gate._ OLAF. [_Still in the garden._] Uncle Hilmar, I’ve been down seeing the steamboat. BERNICK. Have you been on the pier again? OLAF. No, I was only out in a boat. But just fancy, Uncle Hilmar, a whole circus company came ashore from the steamer, with horses and wild beasts; and there were a lot of passengers besides. MRS. RUMMEL. Oh, are we to have a circus? RÖRLUND. We? Really I should hope not. MRS. RUMMEL. No, of course not _we_, but—— DINA. I should like to see a circus. OLAF. Oh, and me too! HILMAR. You’re a little blockhead. What is there to see? Nothing but trickery and make-believe. Now it would be something worth while to see the gaucho sweeping over the Pampas on his snorting mustang. But, hang it all, here in these little towns—— OLAF. [_Pulling MARTHA’S dress._] Aunt Martha, look, look—there they come! MRS. HOLT. Yes indeed, here we have them. MRS. LYNGE. Oh, what horrid people! [_Many travellers, and a whole crowd of townspeople, come up the street._ MRS. RUMMEL. Aren’t they a regular set of mountebanks! Just look at that one in the grey dress, Mrs. Holt; the one with the knapsack on her back. MRS. HOLT. Yes, see, she has it slung on the handle of her parasol. Of course it’s the manager’s wife. MRS. RUMMEL. Oh, and there’s the manager himself, the one with the beard. Well, he _does_ look a regular pirate. Don’t look at him, Hilda! MRS. HOLT. Nor you either, Netta! OLAF. Oh, mother, the manager is bowing to us. BERNICK. What? MRS. BERNICK. What do you say, child? MRS. RUMMEL. Yes, and I declare the woman is nodding too! BERNICK. Come, this is really too much! MARTHA. [_With an involuntary cry._] Ah——! MRS. BERNICK. What is it, Martha? MARTHA. Oh, nothing—only I thought—— OLAF. [_Shrieks with delight._] Look, look, there come the others, with the horses and wild beasts! And there are the Americans too! All the sailors from the _Indian Girl_—— [_“Yankee Doodle” is heard, accompanied by a clarinet and drum._ HILMAR.