she was allowed to carry me home, and played with me
for some days. My reign, however, did not last very long, for when her
aunt gave her a very grand new wax baby, I was cast aside, and have
lived here ever since in the deepest seclusion, as you are all aware.
And now, my friends, I have done my poor best in your service, and have
finished."

And the Doll sank back with a weary sigh.

The Ball, who, by virtue of having been the first story teller, seemed
to have taken on himself the office of spokesman, made the Doll an
elaborate compliment on her story, and then, as her representative,
requested the Toy Kitchen to take up the next story.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER VII.

THE TOY KITCHEN; AND ITS MAKER.

"Which mine, said the Kitchen, will take you, I am afraid, ladies and
gentlemen, into a lower class of society than you are used to. I am not
much of a hand at telling stories, and can't find words to say what I
would, but I'll do my best. My first start in life is very easily
described, for I am the handiwork of an old man who lived in a dark
underground kitchen in one of the back streets of Westminster. Old Joe's
neighbours were not, I am afraid, at all of a respectable kind, setting
apart their poverty; but the old man held himself aloof and earned his
scanty living, troubling no one, and interfering with none. From all I
have heard him mutter to himself in his odd way while he was busy, and
from what I heard his only visitor say, I think he must have been a
paper-hanger or carpenter. But he had been disabled from active work by
a fall from a window which he was cleaning, and after that, had been
sorely put to it, in order to earn a living. I am sure he must have had
two little children at some time or other, and no doubt lost them from
some of the countless illnesses which lie ready in waiting, like great
flocks of wolves, for the _poor_ children in great cities. Perhaps the
wolf in their case was called "Fever," or perhaps "Cholera"; or, more
likely still, "Hunger," or "Want of fresh air"; but all I can tell is
that they were both dead since their mother, who must have died and left
them all early, and poor old Joe then cared no more to exert himself in
seeking the work that was so hard to get, and so difficult to keep.

"The business the old man now took up, his trade, as he called it, was
the making of little toy kitchens, which he hawked about once a week,
and sold for the modest