ippers, and that I have a Spanish cork
in my body!"

"Yes, but then I am made of mahogany," said the Top; "the Mayor himself
turned me. He has a turning lathe of his own, and he took great pleasure
in making me."

"Can I trust you in this?" asked the Ball.

"May I never be whipped again, if what I tell you is not true," returned
the Top.

"You plead your cause well," said the Ball; "but I am not free to listen
to your proposal. I am as good as engaged to a swallow. As often as I
fly up into the air, he puts his head out of his nest, and says, 'Will
you?' In my heart I have said Yes to him, and that is almost the same as
an engagement; but I'll promise never to forget you."

"A deal of good that will do me," said the Top, and they left off
speaking to each other.

Next day the Ball was taken out. The Top saw it fly like a bird into the
air--so high that it passed quite out of sight. It came back again; but
each time that it touched the earth, it sprang higher than before. This
must have been either from its longing to mount higher, like the
swallow, or because it had the Spanish cork in its body. On the ninth
time the little Ball did not return. The boy sought and sought, but all
in vain, for it was gone.

"I know very well where she is," sighed the Top. "She is in the
swallow's nest, celebrating her wedding."

The more the Top thought of this the more lovely the Ball became to him;
that she could not be his bride seemed to make his love for her the
greater. She had preferred another rather than himself, but he could not
forget her. He twirled round and round, spinning and humming, but always
thinking of the Ball, who grew more and more beautiful the more he
thought of her. And thus several years passed,--it came to be an old
love,--and now the Top was no longer young!

One day he was gilded all over; never in his life had he been half so
handsome. He was now a golden top, and bravely he spun, humming all the
time. But once he sprang too high--and was gone!

They looked everywhere for him,--even in the cellar,--but he was nowhere
to be found. Where was he?

He had jumped into the dustbin, and lay among cabbage stalks, sweepings,
dust, and all sorts of rubbish that had fallen from the gutter in the
roof.

"Alas! my gay gilding will soon be spoiled here. What sort of trumpery
can I have got among?" And then he peeped at a long cabbage stalk which
lay much too near him, and at something strange and round, wh