Page:Stories told to a child.djvu/113



NCE upon a time, Could went out to take a walk on a winterly morning; he was very much out of spirits, and he was made more so by the necessity under which he found himself to be frequently repeating his own name. 'O, if I could,' and 'O that I were rich and great, for then I could do so and so.'

About the tenth time that he said this, Can opened the door of her small house, and set out on an errand. She went down a back street and through a poor neighborhood; she was not at all a grand personage, not nearly so well dressed, or lodged, or educated, as Could; and, in fact, was altogether more humble, both in her own esteem and that of others. She opened her door and went down the street, neither sauntering nor looking about her, for she was in a hurry.

All on a sudden, however, this busy little Can stopped and picked up a piece of orange peel. 'A dangerous trick,' she observed, 'to throw orange peel about, particularly in frosty weather, and in such a crowded thoroughfare;' and she bustled on till she Rh