e time he has heard all these plays, he will
be patronizing that bar, and we shall see him reported in the Police
Court in the morning."

By the time the clock struck one, Nat was at home. His visit to the
theatre was not kept secret. It was soon quite generally known that he
had been to the theatre, and many remarks were elicited by the fact.
Good people did not respect theatres more at that time than they do now,
so that they regarded this step of Nat as taken in the wrong direction.

"I am afraid that all the hopes Nat has raised among his friends will be
dashed now," said one. "When a youth gets to going to the theatre, there
is little hope of his doing well. I hardly thought this of him."

"I thought Nat always wanted things respectable," said a gentleman.
"Does he consider the theatre a respectable place?"

"What has he done with his books?" inquired another. "I supposed that
he thought of little but an education,--does he find the theatre a good
school in which to be educated?"

"It is a good school in which to be educated for evil," replied the
individual to whom the remark was addressed.

One person, however, was heard to say,

"It will not hurt Nat at all. You may be sure that he did not go there
just for the pleasure of the thing. I have no doubt that he went for the
same reason that he went to hear Webster, Everett, and others speak,--to
learn something. He was drawn thither, not by his love of amusement, but
by his desire to learn. Nat learns more by seeing, than half the
scholars do by hard study."

"What in the world could he learn there that is good?" inquired a person
who heard the last remark.

"He could learn how to speak better, if nothing else," was the reply.
"And _that_ he said, in the beginning, was his object in going. When he
has acquired what he thinks he can get there to aid him, you will see
that he will stop."

"And by that time he may be ruined," was the reply.

Nat carried out his resolution, and went to the theatre a number of
times, to hear certain plays, walking to Boston and back each time. One
result of his visits was to increase his interest in Shakspeare, so
that he began to practise reading his plays aloud, and personating the
different characters. He made decided progress in this art, and
subsequently gave public readings of Shakspeare, by which he gained much
applause. The result satisfied nearly every one, that he went to the
theatre simply to observe the manner of