Small sisters, by the way, may be made to serve a variety of useful purposes of a dramatic or semi-dramatic nature.  They may safely be cast for the unpleasant or uninteresting characters of the nursery drama.  They form convenient targets for the development of their brothers’ marksmanship; and they make excellent horses for their brothers to drive, and, it may be added, for their brothers to flog.

When the subjects afforded by its immediate surroundings are exhausted, Theatre Royal Nursery turns to fiction or history for materials.  And here, too, the perversity of childhood is displayed.  It is not the virtuous, the benevolent, the amiable, that your child delights to imitate, but rather the tyrant and the destroyer, the ogre who subsists in rude plenty on the peasantry of the neighborhood, or the dragon who is restricted by taste or convention to one young lady per diem, till the national stock is exhausted, or the inevitable knight turns up to supply the proper dramatic finale.

The varied incident of the “Pilgrim’s Progress,” its romance, and the weird fascination of its goblins and monsters, make it a favorite source of dramatic adaptations.  And here, if any man doubt the doctrine of original sin, let him note the fierce competition among the youngsters for the part of Apollyon, and put his doubts from him.  With a little care a great many scenes may be selected from this inimitable work.  Christian’s entry into the haven of refuge in the early part of his pilgrimage can be effectively reproduced in the nursery.  It will be remembered that the approach was commanded by a castle of Beelzebub’s, from which pilgrims were assailed by a shower of arrows.  It is this that gives the episode its charm.  One child is of course obliged to sacrifice his inclinations and personate Christian.  The rest eagerly take service under Beelzebub and become the persecuting garrison.  The “properties” required are of the simplest kind.  The nursery sofa or settee—­a position of great natural strength—­is further fortified with chairs and other furniture to represent the stronghold of the enemy.  Christian should be equipped with a wide-awake hat, a stick, and a great-coat (papa’s will do, or, better still, a visitor’s), with a stool wrapped up in a towel and slung over his shoulders to do duty as the bundle of sins.  He is then made to totter along to a “practical” gate (two chairs are the right thing) at the far end of the room, while the hosts of darkness hurl boots, balls, and other suitable missiles at him from the sofa.  Sometimes the original is faithfully copied, and bows and arrows are employed; but this is, on the whole, a mistake:  there is some chance of Christian being really injured, and this, though of course no objection in itself, is apt to provoke a summary interference by the authorities.  Christian’s passage through the Valley of the Shadow of Death is another favorite piece.  Here, too, there are great opportunities for an enterprising demon.  It will be necessary, however, for the success of the performance that Christian should abandon his strictly defensive attitude in the narrative and lay about him with sufficient energy to produce a general scrimmage.