and in its place
there came a happy smile. He clapped his hands as the little tin top
circled, and whirled, and tripped, and hopped around his feet.

"May I buy the top that sings?" he asked and his mother said that he
might. So they paid a bright ten cent piece for it and the toy man put
the little tin top into Gerald's hands. As they left the toy shop,
Gerald still smiled and he hopped along beside his mother as he
remembered how the little tin top had hopped. And his mother made up
a song about it that they hummed softly together:

"To and fro, on its little tin toe,
Singing and dancing the top will go.
Spinning and singing it seems to say,
'Children should always be glad and gay.'"

So they went on until they came to a big building that was a hospital,
and at one of the front windows a sick-a-bed child was propped up on
pillows and looking out. Gerald looked in; then he motioned for the
nurse who stood near to open the window, and he wound the little tin
top and started it spinning on the sidewalk. It could spin and sing
indoors or outdoors. Round and round it danced and it seemed to be
saying:

"To and fro on my little tin toe,
Singing and spinning, oh, see me go!
This is the song that I sing to-day,
'Children should always be glad and gay.'"

The sick-a-bed child watched the little tin top, its whirling colors
looking like a rainbow in the sunlight. She listened to its sweet,
cheerful, humming song. Then her sick-a-bed, tired face changed to a
happy, smiling face, and she clapped her hands and laughed so loudly
that Gerald could hear her, for she had heard what the little tin top
sang.

Then they went on a little farther and they came to a boy who sold
newspapers on the street corner. He had just seen another boy who sold
newspapers coming and he had decided to have a fight with him, for he
did not want him to sell his papers on that corner. An ugly frown
covered his face, but suddenly he saw Gerald with his little top in
his hands.

"Can you spin it?" he asked of Gerald.

"Watch and see!" Gerald answered.

So Gerald wound the little tin top and started it spinning by the
newsboy's pile of papers. It could spin and sing anywhere, even on a
street curbing. Round and round it danced, and it seemed to be saying
again:

"To and fro on my little tin toe,
Singing and spinning, oh, see me go!
This is the song that I sing to-day,
'Children should always be