h is supposed to represent the inside of the Beast's Castle,
and where he himself has already disappeared. And this is the end of the
first scene, the "act" being divided into two scenes.

The audience all clap their hands in applause.

"Capital!" and "Bravo!" they call out, so that Ted and Cissy feel their
cheeks quite red, even behind the screen.

"Let's get it done quick, Cissy," said Ted; "it makes me feel so silly
when they call out like that."

And the last scene is hurried on. It is not a very long one. Beauty
has been away. She has gone, as everybody knows, on a visit to her old
home, and on her return poor Beast is nowhere to be found. At last she
discovers him lying quite still in a corner of the garden.

"Oh, poor Beast!" she exclaims, "Cis--Booty, I mean, is so sorry. Oh,
poor Beast! I is afraid you is kite deaded, and I do love zoo, poor
Beast," at which up jumps poor Beast, Beast no longer, for his rough
skin rolls off as if by magic, and lo and behold there is Ted, got up
ever so fine, with a scarlet scarf round his waist and an elegant old
velvet smoking-cap with a long tassel on his head, and goodness knows
what more.

"Oh, you bootiful P'ince," cries Beauty, and then they take hands
and bow most politely to the audience, and then in a sudden fit of
shamefacedness and shyness, they both scurry off behind the screen, Ted
toppling over Cissy's long train on the way, at which there is renewed
applause, and great laughter from the actors themselves. But the manager
is quite up to his business. "That's all," calls out a little voice from
behind the screen; "zoo may all go now, and _pay at the door_." And sure
enough as the big people make their way out, there is Ted in his usual
attire standing at the door, with a little basket in his hand,
gracefully held out for contributions.

"Why, how did you get here already?" asks his father.

"I slipped round by the other side of the screen while you were all
laughing and clapping," says Ted, looking up with a beaming face. And
the pennies and sixpennies that find their way into the basket are
several. When the actors count up their gains before they go to bed,
they are the happy possessors of two shillings and sevenpence. Far more
than enough to pay for the wood for the seat in the tree!

CHAPTER VIII.

"STATISTICS."

"Are they not busy?--the creatures!
Wanting to go to their beds?--not they!"

How delightful it was to wake the next morn