ew-York, I see so many things to make me sigh, that my hooks
and eyes keep flying off like Peggotty's buttons. There--run along,
now, and don't you come this way again, with that little glib tongue,
and those bright eyes, or you'll empty my purse entirely!

* * *

Oh dear! oh dear, he is knocked down crossing the street; he's killed!

No he is not!--

Yes he is!--

No--he's up--safe and sound. Now he rubs the mud out of his eyes, and
says, just as coolly as if he had not barely escaped with his skin.

"Where's my box?"

"Never mind the box," say the crowd, "as long as _you_ are not hurt."

"But I _do_," said the little Dutchman, "for that's the way I get my
living, selling these things. Oh dear--the box is broke, and everything
is spoiled."

"Make up a purse for him," says a gentleman, passing round his hat.

Coppers, and shillings, and quarters, and half dollars flow into the
hat, and finally a dollar bill.

"There," said the gentleman, smiling, "now take that home to your
mother, my boy."

"My mother is dead," sobbed the child.

"Pass round the hat _again_," said the gentleman--a tear in his eye.

The crowd responded with another handful of coppers and shillings and
quarters.

Ah, little Hans, who is it who saith, "Leave thy fatherless children
with me; I will preserve them alive?"

THE NEW COOK.

"What a funny new cook Mamma has!"

"Yes, and how she starts every time the bell rings, as if somebody were
coming to catch her, and what a wild look she has in her eyes. She
makes good cake, though, don't she, Louise? a great deal better than
black Sally's;--and then Sally had such a temper! Do you remember how
she sent the gridiron across the kitchen, after the chamber-maid,
because she had mislaid the dish-cloth?--how I _did_ laugh!"

"I remember it. But what do you suppose makes this new cook act so
oddly when the bell rings? I heard Mamma say she was 'one of the
nervous sort.' It would be good fun to play a trick on her and frighten
her; wouldn't it? You know the dark entry by the parlor door, Louise?"

"Yes."

"Well, you know there are plenty of old clothes, and things, hanging up
there, and she has to pass by them, when she goes up and down stairs."

"Yes."

"Well, suppose we hide behind those coats, and just as she comes along,
both of us make a spring at her?--won't that be fun?"

"Capital!" said Louise, "but won't Mamma punish us?"