now
given to table croquet, and we lay idle and disused. At last one day we
were coolly given away to little Rosie Herbert, a small friend of hers,
who carried us exultingly off at once. Unluckily our new owner was a
mere raw school girl, and having no mother, and more of her own way than
was good for her, we were taken by her to school, and there we ran the
gauntlet of twenty or thirty school girls, and never knew ten minutes'
peace through the day, except at meal times. We now became acquainted
with rough treatment, for we were usually sent rolling on the floor into
all corners of the room half a dozen times a day, and many of my friends
were lost entirely by these means. What became of them eventually I do
not know, as we never met all together again, the vacant place in the
board being filled up by Rosie with _beans_, neighbours, I need hardly
say, not by any means acceptable to the poor remainder of us! What we
underwent at that dreadful school, or even a tithe of the mischievous
pranks we saw there, would take too long a time to describe; and the
only wonder is, that any of us escaped to tell the tale, for when our
novelty wore off, the value for us lessened also. One unscrupulous girl
made frequent use of us to torment her enemies by putting some of us in
their beds, others in their shoes, nay, even one girl narrowly escaped
choking by nearly swallowing _me_ in a cup of tea, into which I had been
slily slipped. One or two of us broke a few window panes, and we were
frequently sent rolling about the writing table, until at last Miss
Blunt desired Rosie to collect us all, and keep us in her play-box till
the holidays, on pain of entire confiscation.

"We then, or at least the few survivors of our once numerous band, hoped
we had now at last a little interval of peace, before we retired into
private life. On once more emerging from obscurity, and accompanying
Rosie home, we found that our chance was not much improved, for we were
continually being slily purloined to replenish her brother Robert's
marble bag. For a long time I had seen my companions gradually
disappearing one by one, and dreaded the time when I too must follow,
and at last the terrible moment arrived. I was carried off, and once
more became a haunter of a school, but this time it was one for boys,
and from my former experience, I was in utter despair at the fate before
me. Fortunately, however, in the first game of marbles in which Robert
indulged af