Little Miss Joy

the row, and always seemed to b

pt a curiously mixed assortment of wares, in the little d

d then a large packing-case would excite the inhabitants of the row, as it was borne on one of the Yarmouth carts constructed on purp

t were a wheelbarrow or a truck. And none of these were welcome, as it was d

articles to be sold. But there were endless odds and ends-"curiosities"-bits of carving, two or three old figure-heads of ships, little

few years before the time my story opens, when he heard a

dle, as it seemed to him, tightly tied up in a handkerchief. Stooping to pick it

dropped from? Here, Susan!" he called to his faithful o

through the various articles in the shop, a

, what are you going

lour, where a bright fire was burning and the kettle singing

te check in which the child was wrapped: and then out came, like a butterfly out of a chrysal

fitted his large black-rimmed spectacles on his nose, and while Susan sat with the child on her knee, warming her pin

the centre one, fastened by a little spring, was on

e world Take care of the bearer ti

out this "Christmas-box;" but Uncle Bobo never repented that he had kept the child. She had

, and some looked severely on th

Yarmouth rows, especially opposite neighbours, are very near neighbours indeed; and if it was almost possible to shake hands over the heads of the passers-by fr

cinity, and Mr. Boyd was well aware that she had called him "a foolish old fellow," adding t

y reminded her, "worse than a widow"-a deserted wife-had to pay dearly for the kindness which had been done her. Many a time she had determined to leave the uncongenial roof, and go forth to face the world alone; but then she was penniless, and although she worked, and worked hard too, to kee

his monkey tricks and his impudence. I don't say that I regret taking you in. Blood is thicker than water, and you are my

t intermission, were a trial in themselves; but la

of two years old into a strong, self-willed boy of thirteen, impatient of control, setting all his aunt's rules at defiance, and

es was the dread that Jack would carry his oft-repeated threat into execution, and go to sea. Then, indee

s of tongue and temper. But to his mother he could be gentle and penitent, acknowledging his faults, and showing real sorrow at having grieved her by warfare with his aunt. There was an excellent boys' school in Yarmouth, where he

erson frequently at his aunt's home with whom he waged a perpetual warfare. This person was a tall, meagre-l

ening to the aunt's stories of Jack's misdemeanours, talked of the bad end to which n

he said was correct; but somehow his words seemed to have no effect on those whom he addressed. There was a

iked a chair by her fire in the back parlour, and that the glass of hot gin and water, s

of thankfulness, and how much more any of us had than we deserved-Jack meantime having slices of very stale bread scraped with a little salt butter. The contrast between his own share of the fare and Mr. Skinner's was sufficientl

ht, had been caused not so much by the shower of reproaches heaped on him, as by his aunt's bitter words: "If you g

m up. But, stung to the quick, he had poured out a torrent of angry words; and addressing his aunt as "an old cat,

n had crept downstairs again, and, slipping the bolt off the door, had taken up her position there. And there George Pat