The next week the children's teacher said that he would take them to the "Theatre," for they had behaved so well! I thought differently.

There was nothing talked of but the "Theatre" from morning till night; and I am sorry to say that this was a subject of dispute too. One said they would get the first bill and have theirs read through first, and the other was going to hear the bell jingle first, and sit in the front seat; one was going to be looked at the most, and be dressed first; and the other was going to get into the carriage first, and get the best seat, and so on. The day at length arrived. I felt happy, too, though there was such dispute, for I remembered when I went to the "Opera" with my late mother, Celeste Belmont, and how I enjoyed myself. The children were in high spirits, and kept incessantly talking of what a nice time they would have if they were only there now. I longed to tell them to have a little patience, but I was afraid I should get my neck broke if I did so. At length the maid arrived to dress them, and in their hurry to get up stairs before each other, Madge tumbled down stairs, but did not hurt herself much. Such dressing, why you would almost think their clothes flew off, as did their buttons, in their hurry to get dressed before each other. Martha got dressed first, and then she went for me. I was in a pink muslin, with blue roses in my hair, and my mother thought I looked splendidly. We lived out of town, and had to ride into the city, so we had a very nice ride. We went to the "Covent Garden Theatre." It is a splendid place, but not so pretty as the "Royal Italian Opera House," where I went with my mother, Celeste Belmont. There was some scrambling to get the front seat between Madge and Martha, but at last it was settled. We sat in a stage box, which was beautiful. The play began. There was once a beautiful young girl, and she had two lovers; she liked one, and the other she didn't like; and there were meetings, and tumbling-down places, and all that sort of thing. At last this pretty young girl married the lover she liked, and the other lover went away, when I tumbled on to the stage in a bouquet which they threw, though they did not know that they had thrown me.