CHILDREN'S GAMBOLS.
The children soon left off talking, to go and play. Betsey showed them a spot where daisies were growing very thick in the grass, and they all went to gather some to make daisy chains. Betsey was the cleverest in making these garlands, for little girls who go to a sewing school, and learn to sew, and hem, and stitch, and thread needles, can split the stalk of a daisy and fasten the end into it much better than a boy can, who is used only to cut sticks, and play at ball and marbles; but the boys could gather daisies quite as well and as quickly as Betsey. So, in order to get on with their chains as fast as they could, it was settled that the boys should gather the flowers, whilst Betsey sat still and made them into chains. Then, when the chains were all finished, the two boys climbed up the trees and hung them in festoons from bough to bough, and Betsey, who had been so long sitting still, jumped about for joy seeing them look so beautiful. They then fetched their parents to show them how prettily they had ornamented the trees, and Martha explained it all to her blind mother, who could not see the beautiful wreaths of daisies; and having been praised for their work, the children began to consider what they should do next.
"I wish I had my hoop," said Betsey; "and I wish I had my top," said Johnny; "and I wish I had my ball," cried Willy, "my poor pretty ball!"
"Why, what has happened to it?" inquired the children.
Willy then told the whole story of his ball, and ended by saying, "how nicely we should have played with it together!"
Whilst they were standing under their garlands of daisies, consulting together what game they should next play at, a large new ball fell down amongst them. It seemed to come from the skies. They all stared with astonishment; then Willy picked it up, and, as he stooped down, he saw a man's legs behind a bush, and he knew by the chequered trowsers on them that the man was his Papa. Papa wanted to hide himself to make the children wonder where the ball came from, but Willy ran after him and caught him, and then jumped up and kissed him to thank him for the present.
"Why, how did you find me out?" asked his father.
"Oh! because the bush was not so thick of leaves at the bottom as at top; so in stooping down I had a peep of you through the branches."
"Well," cried Betsey, "I really thought the ball fell from the skies."
"How could you be such a goose?" cried Willy. "Balls never fall from the sky, unless they are thrown up first, and then to be sure they must come down again. But now, let us play with it."
So they tossed the ball from Johnny to Betsey, and from Betsey to Willy, and from Willy to Johnny again. After the ball had gone round for some time, Betsey said, "I wish there were a few more of us to catch the ball, for then we should have much better fun."
"You must divide yourself into five," said Willy, "and then we should have four more to catch the ball."
"What nonsense you are talking," cried Betsey.
"Don't you know the funny verses about your name?" asked Willy.
"No, indeed; do tell me them."
Willy then, with as grave a face as he could put on, repeated the following lines:—
"Do you call those pretty verses?" said Betsey: "why, they are quite nonsensical."
"But they are true," said Willy, "only you don't see the fun of them. It's like a riddle; you told me you were sometimes called Elizabeth, and at other times Betsey, and are you never called Bet and Bess?"
"Yes, sometimes," said she; "but not Elsebeth. I never even heard that name."
"But it is your name though," replied Willy, "for all that."
"Well then, suppose that you went one day to rob a bird's nest?"
"But, indeed, I would do no such thing," retorted Betsey, quite offended.
"Don't be angry," cried he; "I only said suppose."
"But I wonder you should suppose I could steal any thing," cried the indignant Betsey.
"I only said so to make you understand the fun."
"Pho, pho, nonsense," cried Johnny, "it's only make-believe. Well, let me be Betsey, and then you may suppose what you please."
But Betsey did not seem to like to give up her name to Johnny; the truth is, that when she found that her eldest brother did not think there was any harm in supposing, she allowed Willy to suppose in her own name.
"Well then," continued Willy, "remember that you went alone to the nest and took out an egg."
"Oh yes," said Betsey, "I by myself, I."
"Then," said Willy, "who was it took out the egg?"
"Why, I, Betsey, to be sure."
"And did not Elizabeth take out one also?"
"Yes, because that's me too."
"And did not Elsebeth, Betsey, and Bess also take out eggs?"
"Yes, but that's all me."
"Well then," continued Willy, "were not five eggs taken out of the nest, and four left in?"
Betsey laughed; she understood the joke pretty well, though she could not explain it. But Johnny said, there was only one person who went to the nest, but she had five names, so when she had taken out one egg there were four left in.
The three children then went to take a stroll on the gravel walks, and see if they could not meet any friends, but they saw nobody they knew, because, as they did not live at Derby, they did not know many people there.
"If it had been Sunday we should have seen many," said Betsey, "but the people on working days are tired after working at the factory, or have other things to do at home. Oh! if you had been here last Easter Monday, what would you have said? Why, there were hundreds and thousands! Were there not, Johnny?"
"Yes," replied Johnny, "for as it was holiday time, there came trains from Nottingham and Leicester and other factory towns, ever so far off. You may think what a treat it is to the children, who often come with their parents; and the trains make them pay very little when there is so many of them, and so both old and young are so glad and so happy. First, you know, they have a long ride in the train, and then such fine gardens to amuse themselves in, and large rooms where they may eat the dinner they bring with them, or drink tea, just as they choose; they have hot water and tea-things for nothing; and if they don't bring tea with them, they may get it there, and bread and butter too, for three-pence. But they cannot buy any beer or spirits; that is not allowed, for fear they should get tipsy, for that would be doing wrong.
"Then in the Easter holidays there comes a fiddler, and the people all dance, that is, all those who like it, and know how. There is a large flat piece of grass like a bowling green, on purpose for them to dance on."