will look at the
tigers."

They all laughed, but Mrs. Laval put her arm round Matilda and stooped
down and kissed her.

"Judith is a wild animal herself, isn't she, dear? She is a sort of
little wild-cat. But she has soft paws; they don't scratch."

Matilda was not quite so sure of this. However, when they left the
table Judith set about gaining her point in earnest; but Norton was not
to be won over. He was going with Matilda alone, he said, the first
time; and so he did.

It was all enjoyment then, as soon as Matilda and Norton left the house
together. Matilda was in a new world. Her eyes were busy making
observations everywhere.

"How beautiful the houses are, Norton," she said, when they had gone a
block or two. "There are not many poor people in New York, are there?"

"Well, occasionally you see one," said Norton.

"I don't see anything that looks like one. Norton, why do they have the
middle of the street covered with those round stones? They make such a
racket when the carts and carriages go over them. It is very
disagreeable."

"Is it?" said Norton. "You won't hear it after you have been here a
little while."

"Not hear it? But why do they have it so, Norton?"

"Why Pink, just think of the dust we should have, and the mud, if it
was all like Shadywalk, and these thousands of wheels cutting into it
all the time."

Matilda was silenced. One difference brings on another, she was
learning to find out. But now Norton hailed a street car and they got
into it. The warmth of the car was very pleasant after the keen wind in
the streets. And here also the people who filled it, though most of
them certainly not rich people, and many very far from that, yet looked
to a certain degree comfortable. But just as Norton and Matilda got
out, and were about to enter the building, where an enormous painted
canvass with a large brown lion upon it told that the Menagerie was to
be seen, Matilda stopped short. A little ragged boy, about as old as
herself, offered her a handful of black round-headed pins. What did he
mean? Matilda looked at him, and at the pins.

"Come on," cried Norton. "What is that?--No, we don't want any of your
goods just now; at least I don't. Come in, Pink. You need not stop to
speak to everybody that stops to speak to you."

"What did he want, Norton? that boy."

"Wanted to sell hairpins. Didn't you see?"

Matilda cast a look back at the sideway, where the boy was trying
another passenger f