e filled, have just dropped down
to see "London Assurance"--intending to quit before the pantomime, but
forgetting to do so after all.

[Illustration]

During the play, Master Tommy disposes of a vast quantity of oranges and
sponge-cakes--vanishing between each act to obtain a fresh
supply;--making butterflies of the bill, and causing the
double-barrelled _lorgnette_ (which was hired for the occasion from an
adjacent oyster-shop) to slip off the cushion, falling upon a bald
gentleman in the pit:--the excited little pest remarking everything, and
fairly shouting at the discovery of Alphonso below, until chid by his
mother. Oh! that we could participate in thy youthful enthusiasm, or
feel pleased at that hotch-potch--the overture; or, a thrill when the
muffin-bell tinkles, causing the lovely drop-scene--that combined the
grandeur of the pretty Parthenon with the sublimity of Virginia
Water--to vanish into its own intensely blue sky; disclosing the
"Harlequin House that Jack built," and Mr. John Bull's huge paste-board
thick head, snoring like thunder, in a "property" summer-house--an
elephantine blue-bottle on his proboscis, and a sleeping bull-dog, the
size of an Alderney steer, at his feet;--here Master Brown, with a grin,
calls the house Victoria Villa, and the paste-board mask his papa. Now
enters the rat, to eat the good things that lay in the house that John
built, represented by a stealthy seedy gentleman, who, after reading a
board intimating that apartments were to let, crept slyly past the
sleepy Bull, to mount the house-steps; and there deliver himself of the
following doggerel, in a mellifluous voice:--

"I search for lodgings--here's the very thing,--
Though I've not got a _rap_, I think I'll _ring_;
For all I want is to be _taken in_,--
As I would others _take_--sure 'tis no sin
To do to others--only tit for tat--
So here goes--Rat--tat, tat--a tat!!!!!"

[Illustration: HERE WE ARE AGAIN!]

The orchestra, loud in wishing to know "who's dat knocking at de door?"
and Master Tom, deep in the bill, with Mr. Rat, who is there described
as a "scamp"--an unknown term to Tom, for he asked its meaning;
observing that Uncle Brick said Captain de Camp was a scamp. This
question remained unanswered; for no one heard it except the Captain,
who felt a great itching to pull a young monkey's ears, but did not. The
cat (a sort of Puss in Boots, with a short stick and strip of paper)
entering, to catch