Lady Florence Eveleen Eleanore Olliffe Bell

“ Jack.—I've seen the most terrible monster in the garden.
M. and Jan.—A monster!
Jack.—A monster, in the garden.
Jan.—Oh, Mabel, hold my hand! (To Jack.) Did you see him?
Jack.—Well, I did not see him exactly, because he was inside that clump of laurels, but I certainly heard him growl.
M.— (Getting very close to Janet.) Growl? Oh dear! ”

“ R.—And the jam. We must ask Mammy what we may have. Mammy!
M.—What is it now?
R.—We may have some biscuits and some cakes, as well as bread and butter, mayn't we?
M.—Oh yes, you may look in the dining-room cupboard for what you want, if you don't take too much.
R.—Oh, how delightful! Come, Janet.
M.— (Alone.) Perhaps in the meantime I shall be able to add up my accounts!
(Writes intently. After a minute the children burst in again, carrying spoons, and knives, and plates.)
R.—Oh, Mammy, there are such a lot of things in the dining-room cupboard, we don't know which to choose. ”

“ M.—Oh, here comes the princess, leaning on the prince's arm.
(Enter the Prince and Cinderella. Lucy, Mabel, and the Mother make sweeping curtseys.)
Cinderella.—What strange-looking ladies!
(Mother and daughters start.)
Prince.—They are, indeed! But let us talk of yourself, princess. (They go on speaking in low voices.) ”

“ H.—Oh no, Mammy! it's so babyish to stay in the nursery! It's much nicer to stay in the drawing-room by ourselves, as if we were you and Pappy.
Mrs. M.—Only Pappy and I don't get into mischief when we are left in the drawing-room.
H.—We won't either. You tell us what we mustn't do in here, and we will be the best children in the world.
Mrs. M.—Well, now, let me see: you are not to have a pillow fight with the sofa cushions.
H.—Of course not.
P.—What an idea!
Mrs. M.—You are not to play with my reels of cotton, or to throw them about. ”

“ LITTLE PETSY.
LITTLE PETSY.
Mrs. Roberts discovered, in walking things.
Mrs. R.—I wish Mrs. Simonds would appear! It is so rude to keep people waiting in this way when they come to see you. (Looks at books, etc.) Well, I wonder how much longer she's going to be. I would not have come if I had not wanted to explain to her about that bazaar we are getting up.
Enter Petsy with toys.
Ah, how do you do, darling? How are you? Will you shake hands? (Petsy turns away.) You don't know my name, do you?
P.—I do, then.
Mrs. R.—You do? Who am I? ”

“ M.—And we are so dreadfully afraid he will kill Tiny.
A. M.—Oh no! He won't find Tiny—Tiny is hidden behind the laurels near the conservatory, eating a mouse which he has just caught.
Jack.—Behind the laurels near the conservatory! Then he will certainly be killed! The monster is there too! That is where the growls came from!
A. M.—Ha! ha! Now I see it all! Why, the monster that Jack saw and heard, is simply Tiny, who was growling because he feared his mouse would be taken away from him. ”

“ L.— (Jumping up with joy.) Oh, how delightful! Come along, Mabel!
Mab.— (Delighted.) Oh, what fun it will be!
M.—Now, Peggy, what are you doing? Go and help them to dress, you know their frocks lace behind.
P.— (Going.) Very well. (Stopping at door.) Mamma!
M.—Well, what is it? What a long time you waste in chattering always!
P.—I suppose I might not go to the ball for a little while?
M.—You, Peggy, you at the ball? (Laughs.) I never heard anything so absurd. ”

“ R.—And jam and cakes, perhaps—because, as it is our own tea-party, it ought to be a grand one.
J.—Of course.
R.—I've got some sugar that I put in my pocket this morning for the raven.
(Feels in his pocket, and brings out string, knife, etc., finally four lumps of sugar, one at a time.)
J.—Four lumps, will that be enough?
R.—I wonder how many Mammy will want. Mammy, do you like your tea very, very sweet?
M.—No, I don't like sugar in it at all.
R.—Oh, that's capital. Now, Janet, we can have two lumps each, one in each cup of tea. You can't have more. It's horrid to be greedy, you know. ”

“ M.—I can't get away. (Father tries to drag them away.)
M.—Go away, Father!
F.—I can't, I'm stuck fast.
M.—I knew something stupid would happen if Jack went into the wood! bringing birds you stick to like fly-paper instead of proper faggots.
J.— (Smiling.) You shouldn't have tried to take my goose away from me.
T.—Well, now, you have had your joke, call your goose off, please.
J.—I can't call it off! I don't know how.
(Enter Grey Man.)
G. M.—I am the only person who can do it, because I am a powerful magician, and that golden goose is mine. ”

“ People walking about. Lucy and Mabel, in ball-dresses, sitting one on each side of their mother.
L.—How very odd it is that nobody comes and asks us to dance!
Mab.—I can't understand it at all.
L.—It isn't as if we were not beautiful.
Mab.—It seems so strange we are not singled out.
M.—My dear girls, the fact is, you are so beautiful, and so well dressed, that people don't dare to ask you. I am sure that is what it is.
L.—I saw the prince looking longingly at me a little while ago, but just as he was going to invite me to dance, he was called away to meet a foreign princess. ”

“ A mutton cutlet, a sausage, an apple tart—a hamper full of nice things.
M.—Of course you shall, my pretty dear.
F.—Well, I don't think there will be much work done—he will be much too busy with his sausage and apple tart.
T.—Well, Father, you don't want me to starve, I suppose!
F.—I think it would do you a great deal of good.
M.—Oh, fie! How can you be so cruel with the darling child!
F.—We'll wait and see how much work he can do, and if he doesn't succeed, Jack will have to go. ”

“ The prince has commanded that the said slipper shall be carried through the length and breadth of his dominions, until he finds the owner of it. When the owner of it is discovered, that said owner shall become the Princess Charming, and shall share our lord and master's throne."
M.—My dear girls, what a chance for you! If you can put on the shoe, you will become the princess.
Mab.—The herald is stopping before this door. Quick! quick! Let us sit in pretty attitudes.
(Lucy and Mabel group themselves picturesquely.) ”

“ M.—That is what gives her such a springy, graceful walk.
(Mabel tries to walk round the room, clattering the shoe behind her.)
P.—No, I am afraid that won't do at all.
Mab.— (Shaking it off.) It's very hard not being allowed to have my own shoe back again.
P.— (To the Mother.) Are there no more young girls in this house, whom the shoe would be likely to fit?
M.—Alas, these two fair ones are my only joys.
P.—Yet, I thought, as I passed the window, I saw another.
M.—Oh, your highness, I beg your pardon—that was only our scullion, looking out to see you. Naughty thing!
P.—I wish to see her. ”

“ G. M.—You seem to be having a picnic all by yourself.
T.—Yes, fortunately I am all alone. I don't like picnics with other people.
G. M.—That's a pity. I was just going to ask if I might join you.
T.—You!
G. M.—Yes, the fact is I am a long way from my home, and I am hungry, and seeing that large hamper I thought you might be able to spare some food for the tired wayfarer.
T.—Well, I am sorry to say I can't; there happens to be just enough for myself in that hamper. ”

“ You don't know in the least how tall you will be when you grow up.
J.—Well, if girls are stupid, they are not so rude as boys.
R.—Girls are rude sometimes. It was very rude of you to talk about my dropping the cutlet into my lap.
M.— (Mother coming in with two tea-pots.) You don't mean to say you are still discussing that cutlet! Now, which of the tea-pots is it to be?
R.—Oh, Mammy, I have such a good idea! Let's have them both, one at each end, and then we can both pour out tea.
M.—Very well.
(They put tea-pots on table. They walk round the table looking at them. The Mother goes on writing.) ”

“ So, Cinderella, if you will step into that dark cupboard while I recite a magic spell, you shall be changed into a beautiful princess.
(Cinderella enters the cupboard. The Fairy Godmother recites spell, waves wand. Cinderella comes out dressed as she was at the ball. Mother and daughters start.)
G.—Now, my child, no one can say you look like a scullion. ”

“ Tom alone, a large hamper by his side.
T.—Well, this isn't such bad fun after all, as long as one can rest. I haven't chopped much wood yet, I thought I'd do it after luncheon. I shall feel so much stronger then, and be able to work twice as hard. Let me see, it must be time to lay the table. (Opens lid of hamper and looks in.) Ah, this does look good! Sausage rolls, chicken sandwiches, a salad, jam tarts, all kinds of nice things! I am so glad there is no one to share it with me! I How much nicer it is to lunch by one's self. ”

“ Mrs. Vernon.— (Alone at writing table.) What a long time it is since the children have been into the room! It must be nearly five minutes! They don't seem to be having as many "good ideas" to-day as they generally do. So I may as well do my accounts. (Begins to add up.) Ah! there they come.
Enter Ralph and Janet, hurriedly.
Janet.—Mammy! Mammy!
Ralph.—We have such a good idea.
Mother.— (I thought so!) What is it?
J.—We're going to surprise you very much.
M.—Are you? How delightful!
R.—We're going to invite you to a tea party of our very own! ”

“ There she sits in her high chair, and keeps me alive with her prattle.
Mrs. R.— (Aside.) Ah, that quite decides me. (Aloud.) I am afraid I can hardly do that to-day. I have an appointment at five. (Looking at watch.)
P.—Ma! (Twitching Mrs. S.'s gown.) May I have butter as well as jam on my toast?
Mrs. S.—Oh, oh! my dear child! Really! (she knows her own mind, I assure you!)
Mrs. R.— (Aside.) So it appears. (Aloud.) I am afraid I can't stay longer to-day. Good-bye.
Mrs. S.—Good-bye. I'm so sorry you can't stay to tea.
P.—I'm so glad!
Mrs. S.—Oh! Oh! really, dear Petsy. ”

“ Boys are never as stupid as girls. But I'll look it out in the dictionary.
(Puts a sofa cushion on a chair and stands on it to get down the dictionary. Jumps down and knocks down chair, and falls down with books.)
P.—Great clumsy creature you are!
H.—You are not to call me names.
(Throws the sofa cushion at her.)
P.—Naughty boy!
(Jumps up, reels fall off her lap, and picks up the cushion. He tries to drag it away from her. While struggling, they knock over the box their mother told them not to touch. It drops. It is full of sugar plums. They are all spilt on the ground.) ”

“ M.—You had better! (Exit Fanny r.) Come, Elsie, let us go to the wigwam.
(They go out L.)
FOOLISH JACK.
FOOLISH JACK.
Mother.— (Alone.) Jack! Jack! Where is the boy? He can never stay in the house. He must always be running round to all the neighbours. Ah, there he is at last!
Enter Jack.
J.—Well, mother, how are you?
M.—I was getting anxious about you. Where have you been all this time? ”

“ G. M.—I daresay, yes, but you will find it more useful as you go through life to be civil to strangers, even when you don't know who they are. And now Jack, come with me and you shall live in a beautiful palace, where you shall marry a princess. As for you, you may let go the golden goose for ever (they all fall back) , for you will remain humble wood-cutters all your lives. And, remember, it is only the deserving—especially the polite—who find the Golden Goose.
Curtain.
CINDERELLA. A Play in Four Scenes.
CINDERELLA.
Scene I.
(The mother sitting with daughters.) ”

“ Prince jumps up and bows very low. Lucy, Mabel, and Mother, turn away their eyes in disgust.)
H.—Sit down here, fair maiden, and try on this silver shoe.
P.—Nay, no one shall kneel here but me. (Kneels in front of Cinderella, who puts on the shoe without difficulty.) There, I think, is the foot it fits, there is no doubt about that.
M.—I fear your highness is being imposed upon—that shoe could never have belonged to that ragged Cinderella.
C.—Indeed it did—I have the fellow to it.
(Pulls the other out of her pocket. Gets up and dances round in it.) ”

“ T.—Of course I could if I liked, but I don't choose. I think you ought to make up your mind either to have claws, or not to have them: not to be popping them in and out as you do.
P.—But it's so convenient when I walk about at night, to be able to steal about gently and then shoot out my claws when I see a mouse.
T.—Oh, how tempting that sounds! Then it's always at night you hunt?
P.—Oh, always. There is no one to see or to disturb you. ”

“ M.—Oh, I daresay I can manage it. (Gets up.)
R.— (Who is laying the table.) You know really, Mammy, the best thing would be that you should look into the dining-room cupboard, while Janet and I finish the table; we are so very busy, you see.
M.— (Smiling.) I will go and look in the cupboard and see what I can find. (Exit Mother.)
R.—Now, this is getting on splendidly, isn't it Janet? Let me see, have we remembered everything?
J.—I think so. The cook is making the tea and getting the milk.
R.—Susan is cutting the bread and butter. ”

“ Don't let any one see you.
C.—May I not stay to see the silver shoe?
M.—You! Of course not! Why the very look of you would spoil all our chances. (Pushing her.) Quick! quick! they are just coming in.
(Bundles Peggy out of door l. just as the Herald comes in r. He blows trumpet.)
H.—His Royal Highness, Prince Charming.
(Enter Prince. Mother, Lucy, and Mabel curtsey.)
M.—Oh, your highness, this is too kind, pray sit down.
(She advances a chair. The other two curtsey, one on each side of him.)
H.—We wish to know if any lady in this house lost a shoe at the ball last night? ”

“ P.—Oh, Godmother, how delightful! Let me get into it and drive off!
G.—One moment, Cinderella! I must make a condition before you start. You must promise not to remain at the ball after midnight. If you are there after the last stroke of twelve, your beautiful silver clothes will disappear, and you will have on your rags again.
P.—Oh, I promise, dear Godmother. Of course I will leave before twelve.
G.—Then come, Princess Cinderella! your glass coach stops the way.
Curtain.
Scene III.
A ball-room. ”