16 History of Gutta-Percha Willie.

 

he came to-morrow, she would soon see whether he
. was old enough and clever enough to learn to knit.
She advised him, however, to say nothing about it
to his mother till she had made up her mind
whether or not he could learn; for if he could,
then he might surprise her by taking her something
of his own knitting—at least a pair of muffetees to
keep her wrists warm in the winter. Willie went
home solemn with his secret.

The next day he began to learn, and although
his fingers annoyed him a good deal at first by
refusing to do exactly as he wanted them, they
soon became more obedient; and before the new
year arrived, he had actually knitted a pair of
warm white lamb’s-wool stockings for his mother.
Iam bound to confess that when first they were
finished they were a good deal soiled by having
been on the way so long, and perhaps partly by
the little hands not always being so clean as they
might have been when he turned from play to
work; but Mrs Wilson washed them herself, and
they looked; if not as white as snow, at least as
white as the whitest lamb you ever saw. I will
not attempt to describe the delight of his mother,
the triumph of Willie, or the gratification of his
father, who saw in this good promise of his boy’s
capacity; for all that I have written hitherto is
only introductory to my story, and I long to begin
and tell it you in a regular straightforward fashion.