THE SEVEN LITTLE BASKETS. 31

said, “Send me seven of those, if you please.” Next he
pointed to a box of bricks and said, “And seven boxes of
bricks like that, and seven balls, and seven Noah’s arks, seven
hoops, seven trumpets, and seven drums; and let me see, seven
monkeys climbing up sticks, without which I couldn't be happy
when / was a child, though I don’t see any of them nowadays.
Never mind! Seven Jacks-in-the-box (Uncle Sam was getting
quitercomtused) sand ==="

Here he looked all round the shop to find something else,
not too grown-up (for the eldest of all the little people with the
long names was only eight years old), and something that the
shopman had seven of, for he remembered what Mrs Rummage
had said about making them happy and treating them all alike.

Just as Uncle Sam was coming out of the toy-shop he
caught sight of a pretty little basket, one of a dozen, hanging
up on a nail.

“And seven of those, if you please,” said he, pointing at it
with his walking-stick.

“Yes, sir,” said the shopman, answering quite politely, but
at the same time thinking that the old gentleman who lived all
alone at the Manor House must be going a little crazy to be
ordering bushels of toys for himself in that way. It was a
good thing that Uncle Sam did not ask for seven of any other
article just then, for the shopman had made up his mind that
he had better call his wife to take a look at Uncle Sam and
give her opinion about him.

However, the toys came home all right, and the time
dragged very slowly along—at least so Uncle Sam and Mrs
Rummage thought—until the day when the children were to
arrive.

On that morning Uncle Sam was quite in a flurry and
a flutter.