left. She set it for
the third time over the fire, and both she and the maid-servant
watched it to see that nothing happened to it.

Then, before their very eyes, the milk burned and boiled over for a
third time. It was hopelessly spoiled. The housewife began to cry at
the waste. "I never had anything like this befall me in my life!" she
bemoaned. "I have wasted three quarts of milk for one meal!"

"And that's sixpence," said the voice that seemed now to be right at
her elbow. "You didn't save the price of the tinkering after all."

She turned and there was the Hillman, standing right beside her, his
little green cap in his hand, and laughing with all his might. Before
she could catch him, he was off and out through the kitchen door.

But after that the saucepan was just as good as any other one.

TOYS

THE TOP THAT COULD SING

Once upon a time there was a little painted tin top that lay in a toy
shop window. It was a most beautiful tin top with a painted stripe of
red, and a painted stripe of yellow, and a painted stripe of green.
The tin of which it was made was as bright and shining as silver, and
it had one little pointed toe upon which it could dance most merrily
when its string was unwound.

But more wonderful than the colors of the tin top, or the shine of it,
or its one little tin toe, was its voice. The very moment that it
began to dance it began, too, to sing in a sweet, cheerful humming
kind of way. And it kept on singing as long as it kept on dancing, and
its voice was never less sweet or less cheerful.

One day Gerald came to the toy shop with his mother because it was his
birthday and he was to select a new toy. A boy who is to have a new
toy should smile, but Gerald frowned. He had so many toys at home
that he could not decide which new one to choose.

"Will you have a box of toy soldiers?" asked his mother.

"No, I'm tired of soldiers," Gerald said crossly.

"Will you have a new ball?" asked the toy man.

"I don't want any more balls," Gerald replied quite crossly.

"Oh, see this game!" said his mother.

"Games are stupid," Gerald answered most crossly.

"Then, listen!" said the toy man taking the little tin top from its
place, winding it up, pulling off the string and then setting it down
upon the floor. Away danced the bright little top upon its one little
tin toe and as it danced it sang its sweet, cheerful, humming song.

Gerald listened. Then the ugly frown left his face