“Yes, my dear,” said his mamma, “and I wish you many happy returns of the day.”

“Thank you, mamma, but I have a great favour to ask you.”

“What is it?  Charles.”

“I am afraid you will not do it.”

“If it is any thing very unreasonable, perhaps I shall not,” said his mamma; “but if it is not very unreasonable, I think, as it is your birth-day, I may venture to promise that I will do it.”

“Then this is it,” said Charles; “Peter has never been to the play in his life, and he said yesterday, he should like to go with me; so I wish you would take him with us; he would be so pleased.”

“Well then, we will take him with us,” said Mrs. Barker; “and I am glad to find that you think of other people’s pleasure, as well as your own; it shows that you are not selfish.”

A message was then sent to Peter’s uncle, who readily gave his consent, which made Charles happier than he was before.

At six o’clock Peter came; and very much delighted he looked, as well he might, for he had not expected so great a pleasure; and then both the boys watched at the window for Mr. Barker, who had not yet come home; but he soon came, when they all got into a coach, and away they drove.

The play was to be Macbeth, which Charles said was very fortunate, because he had read about him in ‘Tales of a Grandfather,’ but Peter had never read ‘Tales of Grandfather,’ nor any history of Scotland, so he did not know who Macbeth was, therefore Mr. Barker was kind enough to tell him the whole story as they went along; that he might be able to understand what he was going to see.  Perhaps some other little boys would like to hear it too, so I will tell it.

“There was once a king of Scotland, named Duncan, who was a good man, and much beloved by his subjects.  This king had a cousin named Macbeth, who being the bravest general in Scotland, was employed by Duncan to fight all his battles for him, when he was too old to fight them himself; but Macbeth, although a brave man, was not a good man, and besides that, he had a very wicked wife, who wanted to be a queen, and therefore she tried to persuade her husband to kill Duncan, that he might be made king in his stead.

“At this time the Danes, who came from Denmark, invaded Scotland; that is, they came there to fight the Scots, and try to conquer the country:  but they were disappointed, for Macbeth went with a large army to the place where they had landed, and having killed a great number of them in a battle, he forced the rest to return to Denmark.