8 ELSTE.

“if your father had kicked you out into the street, and if you
were cold, and hungry, and sore all over.”

The shadow people all stopped dancing. “ Poor little girl,”
they whispered, “I wonder if we can do anything for you; we
will try, try, try,” they all said, bobbing again. “Get farther
from the tree, and farther under the bench, or the policeman
will see you.”

So the little girl dragged herself farther along, and the
shadows bobbed all over the bench. She stretched out an arm
toward them, and they put their fingers on her hand.

“Take care!” they whispered, “take care! Don’t put your
hand out again till we tell you. We have an idea, if we can
only use it when the New Year is coming in. Go to sleep till
we waken you.” -

She went to sleep, and slept for nearly two hours, then she
was awakened, and she heard the sound of feet and the murmur
of voices. People were coming from the theatre; it was so
light that, at first, the little girl thought it must be daylight,
but when she saw the shadow people she knew better, and lay
quite still.

“How bright it is!” she heard some one say. “ Do look
at these dancing shadows, Philip; are they not beautiful? Let
us stop and look at them a moment; one could almost fancy
there were little faces among them. Are they the shadows
of the Old Year’s follies, or are they the elves who come to
attend the birth of the New Year?”