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.