Little Pollie | Page 5

with mud and
dust from the feet of the different lodgers; but when Pollie reached the
last landing she felt it was home indeed. The stairs were as clean and
white as hands could scrub them--no dirt was to be seen here,--and
outside her mother's door was a little mat on which to rub the shoes
before entering. It was quite a relief to reach this part of the house.
There were only two rooms at the top part of the tenement--one
inhabited by good Mrs Flanagan, the other by Pollie and her mother;

and though the apartments were small, and the narrow windows
overlooked the chimney-pots and tiles, yet they felt it such an
advantage to be up here, removed, as it were, from the noisy people
who lived in the same dwelling; each room, in fact, was let out to
separate families, some of them very rough and boisterous.
Pollie tapped at her mother's door, and then peeped merrily in. There
sat that good and gentle woman, busily working close by the narrow
window, so as to get as much light as possible for her delicate
needlework.
The tea-things were already on the table, which was spread with a clean
white cloth, and the kettle sang a cheery welcome to little Pollie; for
though it was only three o'clock, it was tea-time for them, since dinner
was an almost unknown luxury to this poor mother and child.
"Here I am, mother dear!" she cried, putting in her bright face, which
was as sunshine to the lonely widow's heart.
"O Pollie, I am so glad you have come home; I was getting so anxious
and afraid, and the time seemed so long without you, my child."
Then the little girl ran in and threw her arms around her mother's neck.
"Only look here!" she cried delightedly, when after a loving kiss she
proceeded to display her riches; "see, mother," she said, arranging the
money all in a row on the table, the bright shilling flanked on either
side by five brown pennies; "are we not rich now? sixpence must be
paid to kind Mrs. Flanagan for the sweet violets she got for me, and
then we shall have one shilling and fourpence left, and I shall buy lots
of things for you, mother darling," she concluded, clapping her hands in
glee.
The widow smiled cheerfully as she folded up her work, and prepared
to get their simple meal of tea and bread, listening the while as the
child related the events of the morning.
"And now, mother," she pursued, "I must divide these dear sweet

violets between you and Mrs. Flanagan."
"Then here are two little cups which will be just the thing for them,"
said the happy mother, whose pale face grew brighter as she gazed on
the delighted child.
With the greatest care Pollie divided the flowers equally, and when
putting theirs in the window, so that they might still see some of the
blue sky, as she expressed it, she looked across the Court towards
Lizzie Stevens' home. Yes, there she was, Pollie could see, busy plying
her needle, and there were the violets also, in a broken jam jar close by
her as she sat at work; and raising her pale face towards them, as
though they were old friends returned to her, she caught sight of little
Pollie arranging her bouquet in the window; so with a bright smile
(unwonted visitor to those wan lips) kissed her hand in token of
recognition, and then pointed to the flowers. Pollie quite understood
this little pantomime, and nodded her curly head a great many times to
her opposite neighbour in proof of her so doing.
"Come to tea, my child," said the mother, who had cut some slices of
bread for the frugal repast, but which she had no appetite to eat.
"Wait a bit, mammie dear, I must do some shopping first," exclaimed
Pollie; "I shall not be long." And away she ran, gaily laughing at her
mother's look of surprise.
Down the stairs she went, then out into the Court; and just round the
corner in Drury Lane was a greengrocer's shop, in the window of which
hung a label "New-laid Eggs."
I fear that label told a fiction, but Pollie believed in it, and thought the
eggs were laid by the identical hens she saw earning a scanty living by
pecking in the gutters and among the cabs and carts; so with a feeling
of being very womanly, and tightly grasping the precious shilling in her
hand, she took courage to approach the shopkeeper, who stood with
arms akimbo in the doorway, flanked on one side by potatoes in bins,
and on the other by cabbages and turnips in huge baskets.

"Please, ma'am," said Pollie, "will