A Peep Behind the Scenes | Page 5

last audience had left, the brilliant stars
disappeared, and Rosalie was at liberty to creep back to her mother. So
weary and exhausted was she, that she could hardly drag herself up the
caravan steps. She opened the door very gently, that she might not
disturb her mother, and then she tried to undress herself. But she was
aching in every limb, and, sitting down on the box beside her mother's
bed, she fell asleep, her little weary head resting on her mother's pillow.
Poor little woman! She ought to have been laid in a quiet little nest
hours ago, instead of being exposed to the close, hot, stifling air of the
theatre through all the long hours of a weary night.
In about an hour's time her mother woke, and found her little girl
sleeping in her uncomfortable position, her white dress unfastened, and
the pink roses from her hair fallen on the ground. Weak as she was, the
poor mother dragged herself out of bed to help her tired child to
undress.
'Rosalie, dear,' she said tenderly, 'wake up!'
But for some time Rosalie did not stir, and, when her mother touched
her, she sat up, and said, as if in her sleep--
'"Rejoice with Me, for I have found My sheep which was lost."'

'She is dreaming of her picture, poor child,' said the mother to herself.
Then Rosalie woke, and shivered as she felt the cold night air on her
bare neck and arms. Very gently the poor weak mother helped her to
take off her white dress and her small ragged petticoats; and then the
child crept into bed and into her mother's arms.
'Poor little tired lamb!' said the mother, as the weary child nestled up to
her.
'Am I the lamb?' said Rosalie, in a sleepy voice.
The mother did not answer, but kissed her child passionately, and then
lay awake by her side, weeping and coughing by turns till the morning
dawned.

CHAPTER III
THE DAY AFTER THE FAIR
The next morning Rosalie was waked by a rap at the caravan door. She
crept out of bed, and, putting her dress over her shoulders, peeped out
between the muslin curtains.
'It's Toby, mammie,' she said; 'I'll see what he wants.'
She opened the door a crack, and Toby put his mouth to it, and
whispered--
'Miss Rosie, we're going to start in about half an hour. Master has just
sent me for the horses; we've been up all night packing; three of the
waggons is loaded, and they've only some of the scenery to roll up, and
then we shall start.'
'Where are we going, Toby?' asked the child.
'It's a town a long way off,' said Toby; 'we've never been there before,

master says, and it will take us nearly a week to get there. But I must be
off, Miss Rosie, or master will be coming.'
'Aren't you tired, Toby?' said the child kindly.
Toby shrugged his shoulders, and said, with a broad grin--
'I wonder if any one in this concern is ever anything else but tired!'
Then he walked away into the town for the horses, which had been put
up in the stables of an inn, and Rosalie returned to her mother. There
were several things to be done before they could start; the crockery had
all to be taken from the shelf and stowed away in a safe place, lest the
jolting over the rough and uneven field should throw it down. Besides
this, Rosalie had to dress herself and get her mother's breakfast ready,
that she might eat it in peace before the shaking of the caravan
commenced.
When all was ready, Rosalie stood at the window and looked out. The
fair looked very different from what it had done the night before. Most
of the show-people had been up all night, taking their shows to pieces,
and packing everything up. Though it was not yet nine o'clock, many of
them had already started, and the field was half empty. It was a dreary
scene of desolation; all the little grass it had once possessed, which had
given it a right to the name of field, had entirely disappeared, and the
bare, uneven ground was thickly strewn with dirty pieces of paper,
broken boxes, and old rags, which had been left behind by the
show-people; besides a quantity of orange-peel and cocoa-nut and
oyster shells, which had been thrown into the mud the night before.
Very dirty and untidy and forlorn it looked, as Rosalie gazed at it from
the door of the caravan. Then a waggon jolted past, laden with the
largest of the numerous whirligigs, the wooden horses and elephants
peeping out from the waterproof covering which had been thrown over
them. Then a