Page:A Picture-book without Pictures and Other Stories (1848).djvu/135

 gave rise to sweet, but alas! false hopes of our destination. The person to whom we were thus brought, pulled us on by the ears, until we fitted to his legs, and then he went down stairs in us. We creaked for joy! When we got out of doors it rained—we kept creaking on, however; but only for the first day.

“Ah! there is a great deal of bad weather to go through in this world! We were not made for water boots, and therefore did not feel happy. No brushing ever gave us again the polish of our youth; the polish which we possessed when the shoemaker’s apprentice carried us through the streets in his hand. Who can describe our joy, therefore, when we heard it said one morning, that we were going into foreign parts! yes, were even going to Italy, to that mild, warm country, where we should only tread upon marble and classic ground; drink in the sunshine, and, of a certainty, recover the brightness of our youth.

“We set out. Through the longest part of our journey we slept in the trunk, and dreamed about the warm countries. In the