Page:On a pincushion.djvu/190

Little Jack sat alone by the fire, watching it sadly. He was seven years old, but so small and pale that he looked little more than five, for he was a cripple, He had no brothers or sisters, and he was nearly always alone, for his mother, who was a widow, went out all day to teach music, and often in the evening also to play dance-music at children’s parties. They lived on the third floor of a small house in a dull old street in London, and Jack spent nearly all day in the little lonely sitting-room by himself, sitting by the fire. To-