ls' dressmaker laughed very
heartily indeed. So they both laughed till they were tired.

"There, there, there!" said Miss Wren. "For goodness sake, stop, Giant,
or I shall be swallowed up alive, before I know it. And to this minute
you haven't said what you've come for?"

"I have come for little Miss Harmonses' doll," said Sloppy.

"I thought as much," remarked Miss Wren, "and here is little Miss
Harmonses' doll waiting for you. She's folded up in silver paper, you
see, as if she was wrapped from head to foot in new banknotes. Take care
of her--and there's my hand--and thank you again."

"I'll take more care of her than if she was a gold image," said Sloppy,
"and there's _both_ my hands, Miss, and I'll soon come back again!"

Here we leave the little dolls' dressmaker, under the protecting care of
her "godmother," the first real guardian she has ever known, and with a
new friendship to supply her life with that youthful intercourse which
has never been hers. And so in leaving her our hearts are light, for
Miss Jenny Wren is brighter now, and happier now, and younger now, than
ever before.

SISSY JUPE

[Illustration: SISSY JUPE AND HER FATHER]

SISSY JUPE

"Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but
Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out
everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon
Facts: nothing else will be of any service to them. This is the
principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle
on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!"

The scene was a bare, plain, monotonous vault of a schoolroom, and the
speaker's square forefinger emphasized his observation. The emphasis was
helped by his square wall of a forehead, by his thin and hardset mouth,
by his inflexible and dictatorial voice, and by the hair which bristled
on the skirts of his bald head, as if the head had scarcely warehouse
room for the hard facts stowed inside. The speaker's obstinate carriage,
square coat, square legs, square shoulders,--nay, his very neckcloth,
trained to take him by the throat with an unaccommodating grasp, like a
stubborn fact, as it was,--all helped the emphasis.

"In this life, we want nothing but Facts, sir! Nothing but Facts!"

The speaker, Mr. Thomas Gradgrind, and the schoolmaster, Mr.
M'Choakumchild, and the third grown person present, all backed a little,
and swept with their eyes th