...part, been able to buy a wondrous gold and crimson worsted bird suspended from an elastic string—a bird which bobbed up and down to command in the most...away, the baby took upon its wan visage a strange expression,—the expression of worn-out and suffering age. Its blue eyes grew more solemnly speculative...

...manner? And had not her hired baby actually laughed at the clumsy toy —laughed an elfish and weird laugh, the first it had ever indulged in? And Liz...laughed too, for pure gladness in the child's mirth, arid the worsted bird became a sort of uncouth charm to make them both merry. But after Christmas had...