Lom goes to London. 21

oe Reeennneea:

 

 

 

it has no key, but is tied round with a piece
of red string; and outside he has printed,
‘My Treasure-Box,’ so that everybody may
know whose it is. He has five marbles—one
a blue one—and a top, and a penknife, and—I
forget the other things. I like Jack the best
—no, I think I like Bob the best. Mamma,
I’ve really settled now what I want to be when
I'm older. Before I came here I used to
think it would be nicest to be a sailor, and
wear a blue jacket and a round hat, and sail
in a ship all day and all night. But, now that
I’ve seen the dear shoe-blacks at the corners
of the streets, I’ve quite settled to be one of
them. I like their red jackets; and they have
a pot of blacking and two brushes of their
very own to do what they like with. I told
Aunt May so when we went in to dessert last
night. Bob wants to be a general, and Jack
a policeman. Papa often says I can never
begin work too soon. When may I really
wear a red jacket, and have a pot of blacking
and two brushes, and be a shoe-black ? Bob
thinks the country is a stupid place, and that