When they have made any debts they cannot pay they simply bolt on the first fine night and go somewhere else." "But don't they leave their decorations or their wardrobe in pledge behind them ?" At this the landlord laughed aloud as if it were a capital joke.
"Decorations, wardrobes, indeed! Why their stage curtain consists of a large piece of threadbare sackcloth pasted over with tricolored paper on which they have painted the national coat of arms.

Their wardrobe too is of the very simplest description.

When they play a piece in which kings and queens appear, they borrow the gold bespangled dresses of the rich Servian women of the district to serve them as royal mantles.

All they require besides is a little tinsel, some spangles and some pasteboard--and there you are! The manager, as I have said, is still but a child, but so ingenious is he that he can make moonshine out of a yellow gourd and produce thunder and lightning,--but that is a professional secret.

It is true they have only six pieces in all, and when they have played these through they begin them all over again.