x

THE GIRL WHO COULD NOT WRITE. 59

Poppet climbed to the top of the Magee stove (the fire
happened fortunately to be low), and sat there triumphant.
Poppet’s mother was resting on the mending-basket, and she
sat there, amazed.

If Jem had been a boy, she might have stripped the city
of Chicago of its stock of “ declining-chairs,” and neither
Poppet, nor his mother, nor the world at large would have
given a second thought to it. But she wasn’t. And Poppet
and his mother and the world at large have given several
thoughts to it before now. Indeed, they have given so many
thoughts to it that Jem has got into the newspapers. But
that is no reason why she should not get into the “ Young
Folks” that I can see ; for, in the first place, the people who
read the “ Young Folks ’’ do not, I think I may venture to
affirm, always read the newspapers ; and, in the next place, I
have collected some particulars about Jem with which neither
’ the newspapers nor the “ Young Folks” are acquainted.

Ié was about an hour before Poppet came home to his
mother, that Jem had taken the sign down, and locked her-
self into the store to cry over it. She laid the heavy board
‘across a barrel, and tearfully drew her fingers through the
gilt shade of the massive letters till their shine went out
before her blinded eyes and

H. JASPER.

Furniture Warerooms.