sum of twopence each. They were most ingeniously
made out of pieces of very thin board, something of the same kind they
make hat boxes of. These pieces he bought in large quantities cheap, and
cut to suit his purpose. The floors were made of more solid wood, and
the walls were papered with odd scraps of wall paper, sample patterns
and such like, which some of his old employers gave him. The old man,
with a few bits of wood, and the help of a little rough paint,
constructed the rude likeness of a kitchen range, and a dresser, and
very tidy little affairs we were for the price.

"'I should like to put a kitchen table,' said old Joe, surveying me with
a critical eye, half screwed up; 'it would make it more comferble like,
and make both ends match. But I can't do it for the money no how. I'm
bound to make a penny at least on each one to pay for my time, so the
table must wait till better days.'

"I was a larger and better specimen of Joe's work, for I had been made
at a time when the stock had been rather large, and prices low, and so I
was generally kept as a sort of show article of what Joe _could_ do when
he liked. I had more room than Joe generally measured out to his usual
kitchens, and having been originally papered with an especially neat and
"becoming" hanging, as Joe said, I had become quite a ruling favourite
with the old man. I was now promoted to the place of honour on his tray,
not for selling purposes, but for exhibition.

"'That there chap will cost fourpence,' replied Joe to all his little
customers when they picked me out; 'leastways one like him. This here,
you see, is my adver-_tise_-ment. I couldn't afford to sell one like it
for less than fourpence. The walls are so well papered, you see, and the
bars of the range is shown, with the flames a rushin through 'em!'

"'I should like a nice ittle kishin,' said a fat, roley-poley little
butcher's daughter to her burly father, as he was leisurely wandering
outside his shop, admiring and looking over his nice joints of prime
meat.

"'Like a what, my duck?' said the jolly butcher, lifting up the rosy
little petitioner, and giving her an airy ride on his shoulder; 'what is
it my pussy cat wants to-day of her dad?'

"'A kishin,' said the child, 'a kishin--old man got such lots of
kishins!'

"The butcher gazed about him with a calm, placid, satisfied air, like
one of his own slain bullocks, when grazing peacefully in their meadows,
and then catching sight