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“‘You are a very intelligent little girl, and when you went on alone and unrehearsed the other night, you proved you had both adaptability and courage. I’d like to keep you in the theater. Will you come and be a regular member of the company for the season that begins in September next?’

“I think it must have been my ears that stopped my ever-widening smile, while I made answer that I must ask my mother first.

“‘To be sure,’ said he, ‘to be sure! Well, suppose you ask her then, and let me know whether you can or not.'”

She says, “Looking back and speaking calmly, I must admit that I do not now believe Mr. Ellsler’s financial future depended entirely upon the yes or no of my mother and myself; but that I was on an errand of life or death every one must have thought who saw me tearing through the streets on that ninety-in-the-shade day…. One man ran out hatless and coatless and looked anxiously up the street in the direction from which I came. A big boy on the corner yelled after me: ‘Sa-ay, sis, where’s the fire?’ But, you see they did not know that I was carrying home my first real earnings, that I was clutching six damp one-dollar bills in the hands that had been so empty all my life!

“I had meant to take off my hat and smooth my hair, and with a proper little speech approach my mother, and then hand her the money. But alas! as I rushed into the house I came upon her unexpectedly, for, fearing dinner was going to be late, she was hurrying things by shelling a great basket of peas as she sat by the dining-room window. At sight of her tired face all my nicely planned speech disappeared. I flung my arm about her neck, dropped the bills on top of the empty pods and cried:

“‘Oh, mother, that’s mine and it’s all yours!’

“She kissed me, but to my grieved amazement put the money back into my hand and said, ‘No, you have earned this money yourself–you are to do with it exactly as you please.'”

And that was why, the next morning, a much-excited and very rich young person took a journey to the stores, and as a result bought a lavender-flowered muslin dress which, when paid for, had made quite a large hole in the six dollars. By her expression and manner she plainly showed how proud and happy she was to be buying a dress for the mother who for thirteen years had been doing and buying for two. “Undoubtedly,” says Miss Morris, “had there been a fire just then I would have risked my life to save that flowered muslin gown.”

Up to that time, the only world Clara Morris had known had been narrow and sordid, and lay chill under the shadow of poverty…. Now, standing humbly at the knee of Shakespeare, she began to learn something of another world–fairy-like in fascination, marvelous in reality. A world of sunny days and jeweled nights, of splendid palaces, caves, of horrors, forests of mystery, and meadows of smiling candor. All people, too, with such soldiers, statesmen, lovers, clowns, such women of splendid honor, fierce ambition, thistle-down lightness, as makes the heart beat fast to think of.

That was the era of Shakesperian performances, and out of twenty-eight stars who played with the support of Mr. Ellsler’s company, eighteen acted in the famous classic plays. All stars played a week’s engagement, some two, so at least half of the season of forty-two weeks was given over to Shakespeare’s plays, and every actor and actress had his lines at their tongues’ tips, while there were endless discussions about the best rendering of famous passages.

“I well remember,” says Miss Morris, “my first step into theatrical controversy. ‘Macbeth’ was being rehearsed, and the star had just exclaimed: ‘Hang out our banners on the outward walls!’ That was enough–argument was on. It grew animated. Some were for: ‘Hang out our banners! On the outward walls the cry is still, they come!’ while one or two were with the star’s reading.