sed to take great care of me; which he certainly has done by
shutting me up here like this; and so now my friends I think I have
related my whole round of adventures to you, as far as I can myself
remember."

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER IV.

THE FATE OF THE LEADEN TEA-THINGS.

The rest of the Toys having thanked the Hoop for his story, he once more
rolled himself lazily into a comfortable position, and took his rights
by calling upon the leaden Teapot, to entertain them next. But such an
uproar arose among all the leaden Tea-things; the cups and saucers,
clattering and clanking like mad, and the milk jug even mounting on the
sugar basin to be heard the better, that for a few moments no one could
be heard. But the little Teapot set to work vigorously, and soon reduced
her unruly family to order. She rolled one teacup here, and bowled over
another there, piled up the plates before they knew where they were, and
toppled down the milk jug into its proper place, before it recovered
enough to defend itself. Then she sat down and volubly began her story,
while her tribe were temporarily pacified.

"I am afraid," said she, "you will not like my story at all, for it's
not half so lively and entertaining as the Hoop's, in fact there's
nothing merry about it, but quite the reverse. I can tell you nothing of
my birthplace or of my original history, for you see I've had a large
family to keep together, and look after, and I've been so battered and
knocked about in my course through life, that my memory is sadly
impaired. So I can only tell you that we all came from Germany, where we
were made, and were carefully packed in a little pasteboard box, in
which we travelled to the English house to which we were sent, with
numbers of others. We remained for some time in seclusion on the shelf
of the toy warehouse, and were then drafted off to a little toy-shop at
the West end of London. Our present owner was a notable little woman,
the wife of a head workman at a large cabinet manufactory, and as she
had two or three small children, she was glad to make ends meet by
fitting out her front parlour as a little toy-shop. It was a very quiet,
nice street, not far from a large hotel, and as the rents were rather
high, the houses were only let to fairly respectable people. The little
woman let her first floor, neatly, but plainly, furnished, to an elderly
lady; and by all these small helps, added to her husband's wages,