e day of
receiving, for the first time, one-fourth part of his annual income of Six
Pounds. It was to be a half-holiday, devoted to a whirl of entertainments,
and little Jacob was to know what oysters meant, and to see a play.

The day arrived, and wasn't Mr. Garland kind when he said to
him,--"Christopher, here's your money, and you have earned it
well;"--which praise in itself was worth as much as his wages.

Then the play itself! The horses which little Jacob believed from the
first to be alive,--and the ladies and gentlemen, of whose reality he
could be by no means persuaded, having never seen or heard anything at all
like them--the firing, which made Barbara (who had a holiday too)
wink--the forlorn lady who made her cry--the tyrant who made her
tremble--the clown who ventured on such familiarities with the military
man in boots--the lady who jumped over the nine-and-twenty ribbons and
came down safe upon the horse's back--everything was delightful, splendid,
and surprising! Little Jacob applauded until his hands were sore; Kit
cried "an-kor" at the end of everything; and Barbara's mother beat her
umbrella on the floor, in her ecstasies, until it was nearly worn down to
the gingham.

What was all this though--even all this--to the extraordinary dissipation
that ensued, when Kit, walking into an oyster-shop, as bold as if he lived
there, led his party into a box--a private box, fitted up with red
curtains, white tablecloth, and cruet-stand complete--and ordered a fierce
gentleman with whiskers, who acted as waiter, and called him "Christopher
Nubbles, sir," to bring three dozen of his largest-size oysters, and look
sharp about it! Then they fell to work upon the supper in earnest; and ate
and laughed and enjoyed themselves so thoroughly that it did Kit good to
see them, and made him laugh and eat likewise, from strong sympathy. But
the greatest miracle of the night was little Jacob, who ate oysters as if
he had been born and bred to the business. There was the baby, too, who
sat as good as gold, trying to force a large orange into his mouth, and
gazing intently at the lights in the chandelier,--there he was, sitting in
his mother's lap, and making indentations in his soft visage with an
oyster-shell, so contentedly that a heart of iron must have loved him! In
short, there never was a more successful supper; and when Kit proposed the
health of Mrs. and Mr. Garland, there were not six happier people in the
world. Bu