I shall never forget how delighted I was at the first sight of the house.  My little friend and I were placed together in the front, while our mammas retired to the back part of the box to chat by themselves, for they had been so kind as to come very early that I might look about me before the performance began.

Frederica had been very often at a play.  She was very useful in telling me what every thing was.  She made me observe how the common people were coming bustling down the benches in the galleries, as if they were afraid they should lose their places.  She told me what a crowd these poor people had to go through, before they got into the house.  Then she shewed me how leisurely they all came into the pit, and looked about them, before they took their seats.  She gave me a charming description of the king and queen at the play, and shewed me where they sate, and told me how the princesses were drest.  It was a pretty sight to see the remainder of the candles lighted; and so it was to see the musicians come up from under the stage.  I admired the music very much, and I asked if that was the play.  Frederica laughed at my ignorance, and then she told me, when the play began, the green curtain would draw up to the sound of soft music, and I should hear a lady dressed in black say,

  “Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast:” 

and those were the very first words the actress, whose name was Almeria, spoke.  When the curtain began to draw up, and I saw the bottom of her black petticoat, and heard the soft music, what an agitation I was in!  But before that we had long to wait.  Frederica told me we should wait till all the dress boxes were full, and then the lights would pop up under the orchestra; the second music would play, and then the play would begin.

This play was the Mourning Bride.  It was a very moving tragedy; and after that when the curtain dropt, and I thought it was all over, I saw the most diverting pantomime that ever was seen.  I made a strange blunder the next day, for I told papa that Almeria was married to Harlequin at last; but I assure you I meant to say Columbine, for I knew very well that Almeria was married to Alphonso; for she said she was in the first scene.  She thought he was dead, but she found him again, just as I did my papa and mamma, when she least expected it.

VII

MARIA HOWE

(By Charles Lamb)

I was brought up in the country.  From my infancy I was always a weak and tender-spirited girl, subject to fears and depressions.  My parents, and particularly my mother, were of a very different disposition.  They were what is usually called gay:  they loved pleasure, and parties, and visiting; but as they found the turn of my mind to be quite opposite, they gave themselves little trouble about me, but upon such occasions generally left me to my choice, which was