And when the answer came--"Well, write one; I should think it is easy enough--you've only got to be amusing, spirited, bright, and life-like. That's all!" "Oh, _that's_ all, is it?" ruefully responded the would-be comedy writer. CHAPTER II FIRST APPEARANCES The first appearances on the stage of Kate and Ellen Terry were in every respect triumphant, and in theatrical history will always be held worthy of record. A time-worn adage tells us not to judge by first appearances, but those experts who discerned the extraordinary promise of these children in the opportunities afforded them under the memorable Charles Kean _régime_, at the Princess's Theatre, proved themselves to be true dramatic critics. As to the very first public appearance of the heroine of these pages there has been much discussion. When any one deserts an avocation to "take to the stage," as the phrase goes, a first performance is a milestone on the road of life and is never forgotten. With children who, coming from a theatrical family, are, as it were, born to the stage, it is almost a matter of indifference, and is apt to become nebulous. Mrs. Kendal, for example, once frankly stated that she remembered little or nothing of her initial professional efforts until she was reminded of them by some of the mature actors who had appeared in the same pieces on those destined to be interesting occasions. There was a general feeling that Ellen Terry's first appearance was as Mamillius, the little son of King Leontes of Sicilia, in Kean's elaborate revival of "The Winter's Tale," until in the June of 1880 the eminent dramatic critic and stage historian, Mr. Dutton Cook, contributed an article to the unhappily defunct _Theatre Magazine_, in which he said:--