LITMIR.BIZ

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– but healthy from their day's long breathing of pure air. But Sam only exchanged the close city warehouse, with its disagreeable smell of leather, for that of a room in which his mother and sisters breathed most of the day the smoky air among the chimney tops. In he came, only too glad to rest, and thankful for the warm tea his mother had ready for him. And then he showed his treasure of pieces of leather, such a big bundle this time, that little Susan clapped her hands quite gaily; and his mother said that there was enough for a half score dozen of balls at least!

      "The poor widow made leather balls to sell to a toy shop; her eldest girl, Jemima, always called Jemmie, made little toy bedsteads, for she had been lame from her birth. Little Susan, the youngest, helped as well as she could by making the little bolsters and mattresses for the dolls' bedsteads, which were to form the toys of luckier and younger children. She was a grave little morsel, with long thin, thin limbs, and hollow cheeks – but she would have been pretty, with her large soft blue eyes and long yellow hair, if she had been well fed and healthy.

      "Their mother took the box of leather scraps from Sam, and having made him comfortable at his meagre tea, she began at once to arrange her work; for the last week she had quite used up all her scraps, and had been obliged to use her spare time in helping Jemmie with the bedsteads. So she picked out the colours, and laid her card patterns on them, and cut them with as little waste as possible, and as I was the first ball she finished that evening, I saw and heard all that ensued.

      "'Are you very tired Sam,' she asked, 'you're late home to-night. However, to-morrow is blessed Sunday, and you can take your rest with all the other poor creatures God has made His holiday for.'

      "'Oh yes, mother,' said Jemmie, her sallow face quite lighted up, 'and we can have another walk in the Park, you know. Only I wish I could walk better, it is such slow work hopping along.'

      "'So it is, Jemmie,' replied her mother, sighing, 'but thank God, child, you don't keep your bed; that would break my heart. I hope it'll please Him to spare me that sorrow, and then I'll be contented if you can only crawl like a snail.'

      "'I wish it was treat time,' said little Susan; 'oh, how we did enjoy it, mother! if only you had been there! Oh, they were such grand trees in the forest, mother, they seemed to reach up to the clouds; I'm sure the birds couldn't build their nests up there! Why they were three times higher nor these chimbley stacks!'

      "'I liked the ride best,' said Jemmie; 'wasn't it nice to be carried along like that, and resting all the time; and teacher was so kind. She lent me her thick shawl to sit on; and how nice it was. What a lot of flowers we brought you, mother. And how nice and dry our acorns have kept.'

      "'When I'm only a little bit older,' said Sam, 'and earn more money, we'll have such jaunts into the country; won't it be fun to climb a tree, and lie on the grass!'

      "The mother sighed wearily; but she encouraged the children to gossip on cheerfully, for the work went twice as quick, while the memories were living over again the few, few days of fresh air and sunshine they had known. And the work must be done, for the sake of food and shelter, such as it was. As for clothes, they were not thought of; for they were darned, patched, and "tidied up," till they were all darn, and only replaced, when some kind friend gave a cast off garment. Jemmie made pretty little dolls' bedsteads, the frames of which, made of white wire, she bent into shape, and strengthened with slender strips of tin. Sam soldered them neatly together for her in his precious spare time, the wire and tin being sold to her cheap, cut ready into lengths, by a friendly tinman. Then Jemmie trimmed them up with white muslin worked round with gay coloured yarn. They were such pretty little toys that she found a tolerably ready sale for them.

      "'What a sight of work you've got for me, Jemmie!' said Sam, as his mother cleared away the tea, and his sister got out the wires. 'A chap ought to have a lot of strength for such a nigger drivin' missus as you!'

      "'Never mind, Sam,' said Jemmie, cheerfully; 'don't do no more nor you feels inclined for. But Mr. Dobbs had such a lot of bits for me this week, and as mother was slack of work, she turned to and made up all the curtains and valances, and I had only to do the wool work. So we've got a sight of 'em done, and then, if mother has time this week, she thought she'd take a few round and sell 'em.'

      "'So she shall!' said Sam, setting vigorously to work, 'I don't mind, there's lots of work yet in this here feller, all along of your cup of tea, mother, and the holiday to-morrow.'

      "'I think it wouldn't do no harm, Jemmie,' said the widow, as she finished me, and laid me aside, 'if you was to send one of your bedsteads to Mr. Nethersole's little Miss. He's kind to Sam, and it seems only a dutiful way of thanking for all these nice bits. You've got enough and to spare.'

      "'Take one and welcome, Sam,' said Jemmie, limping off to the cupboard and bringing one out; 'you shall have this here for little Miss. It's the king of the lot, and is worked in the last bit of magenter wool I've got.'

      "Sam quite approved of this offering to his ruling powers, and on Monday morning he set off early to his work, refreshed and brightened by his brief holiday, and very proud of the bedstead, which he carried carefully in a paper bag.

      "It was duly presented, and not only admired, but brought Sam a message which made him tear home at headlong speed after his day's work, and face the stairs with the desperate energy that helps a soldier to storm a wall, and that carried Sam, hot and breathless, into the room to tell the good news in gasps that frightened Susan out of her wits, and nearly drove his mother frantic. At last, by patting his back, and making him sit in her low chair by the open window, the calmer Jemmie found out that Mrs. Nethersole had sent to say she liked the doll's bedstead so much that she should be glad to have three dozen like them, for which she would give five-and-twenty shillings a dozen, as she was going to have a stall at a very large bazaar, and had not much time to work for it herself.

      "'And you can make a lot of balls, mother, and she'll try and sell 'em for you, and will guarantee two dozen at sixpence each. She's a jolly brick, mother, that she is! But the best of it is to come, for they had me into the parlour and asked me all about us; and master has riz my wages a shilling a week. I'm the happiest chap in London, and I'll never call him "old skinny" no more, that I won't! Hurray, Jemmie! Up ye goes Sue.'

      "I am sorry, my friends," said the Ball, "I can tell you no more of them; for you see I was packed up with the rest and sent off to the Crystal Palace, where Mrs. Spenser bought me on the bazaar day, and I have lived among you ever since. But I should like to know how Sam, and Jemmie, and little Sue are getting on."

      CHAPTER III.

      THE HOOP'S ROUND OF ADVENTURES

      When the Ball had concluded his story, and had modestly taken a leap backwards out of the way, he was eagerly accorded the warm thanks of the party, and desired in his turn to call upon some one else.

      "I am sure I feel deeply honoured that you should be amused with my poor story, and hope sincerely that my successors will have something more interesting to relate. I will now call upon our merry friend the Hoop, to give us his experiences in life."

      "O dear me," cried the Hoop, rolling slowly out of his corner, but contriving in his course to scatter the Marbles to all the corners of the room, and to knock down the Doll also. "My dear Doll, how sorry I am, alas! alas! I am so very unlucky in always doing awkward things."

      "Oh," sighed the Doll, "I can't bear much more! I am almost gone now!"

      "Come and sit on my roof," said the Noah's Ark, very compassionately, "it is not at all rickety, I can assure you, for your light weight; and I will keep you out of all harm." And so he carefully consoled and took care of the poor old Doll.

      "I don't think awkwardness goes by luck," snapped the Shuttlecock; "people need not be clumsy unless they choose. It is carelessness, and giddiness, that cause all these mishaps!"

      "I daresay you are right," said the Hoop, candidly, "I always was a giddy young thing. But where are all the Marbles gone! poor little fellows; I must go and help them back!"

      "You had much better stay where you are!" whispered the Ball, "you'll only get into fresh scrapes; there's the Kite just in your way, and if you poke a hole in his head, you won't hear the last of it in a hurry, I'll promise you!"

      So

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