THE TOY KITCHEN; AND ITS MAKER.
"Which mine, said the Kitchen, will take you, I am afraid, ladies and
gentlemen, into a lower class of society than you are used to. I am not
much of a hand at telling stories, and can't find words to say what I
would, but I'll do my best. My first start in life is very easily
described, for I am the handiwork of an old man who lived in a dark
underground kitchen in one of the back streets of Westminster. Old Joe's
neighbours were not, I am afraid, at all of a respectable kind, setting
apart their poverty; but the old man held himself aloof and earned his
scanty living, troubling no one, and interfering with none. From all I
have heard him mutter to himself in his odd way while he was busy, and
from what I heard his only visitor say, I think he must have been a
paper-hanger or carpenter. But he had been disabled from active work by
a fall from a window which he was cleaning, and after that, had been
sorely put to it, in order to earn a living. I am sure he must have had
two little children at some time or other, and no doubt lost them from
some of the countless illnesses which lie ready in waiting, like great
flocks of wolves, for the _poor_ children in great cities. Perhaps the
wolf in their case was called "Fever," or perhaps "Cholera"; or, more
likely still, "Hunger," or "Want of fresh air"; but all I can tell is
that they were both dead since their mother, who must have died and left
them all early, and poor old Joe then cared no more to exert himself in
seeking the work that was so hard to get, and so difficult to keep.
"The business the old man now took up, his trade, as he called it, was
the making of little toy kitchens, which he hawked about once a week,
and sold for the modest sum of twopence each. They were most ingeniously
made out of pieces of very thin board, something of the same kind they
make hat boxes of. These pieces he bought in large quantities cheap, and
cut to suit his purpose. The floors were made of more solid wood, and
the walls were papered with odd scraps of wall paper, sample patterns
and such like, which some of his old employers gave him. The old man,
with a few bits of wood, and the help of a little rough paint,
constructed the rude likeness of a kitchen range, and a dresser, and
very tidy little affairs we were for the price.
"'I should like to put a kitchen table,' said old Joe, surveying me with
a critical eye, half screwed up; 'it would make it more comferble like,
and make both ends match. But I can't do it for the money no how. I'm
bound to make a penny at least on each one to pay for my time, so the
table must wait till better days.'
"I was a larger and better specimen of Joe's work, for I had been made
at a time when the stock had been rather large, and prices low, and so I
was generally kept as a sort of show article of what Joe _could_ do when
he liked. I had more room than Joe generally measured out to his usual
kitchens, and having been originally papered with an especially neat and
"becoming" hanging, as Joe said, I had become quite a ruling favourite
with the old man. I was now promoted to the place of honour on his tray,
not for selling purposes, but for exhibition.
"'That there chap will cost fourpence,' replied Joe to all his little
customers when they picked me out; 'leastways one like him. This here,
you see, is my adver-_tise_-ment. I couldn't afford to sell one like it
for less than fourpence. The walls are so well papered, you see, and the
bars of the range is shown, with the flames a rushin through 'em!'
"'I should like a nice ittle kishin,' said a fat, roley-poley little
butcher's daughter to her burly father, as he was leisurely wandering
outside his shop, admiring and looking over his nice joints of prime
meat.
"'Like a what, my duck?' said the jolly butcher, lifting up the rosy
little petitioner, and giving her an airy ride on his shoulder; 'what is
it my pussy cat wants to-day of her dad?'
"'A kishin,' said the child, 'a kishin--old man got such lots of
kishins!'
"The butcher gazed about him with a calm, placid, satisfied air, like
one of his own slain bullocks, when grazing peacefully in their meadows,
and then catching sight of Joe in the distance, ran heavily after him
with the delighted child. They soon reached the old man, and turned over
his wares.
"'There's a booful one, dad,' said the fat child, 'a booful one with a
fire lighted! Oh, I like that _so_ much!'
"'I'll bring ye one next week, Miss,' replied old Joe, seeing they were
good customers; 'this here ain't for sale, but I'll bring the fellow to
ye next week.'
"'I want it now,' pouted the child, peevishly.
"'What's the price of him, master?' asked the butcher. 'Don't be cross,
Phoebe, you shall have it.'
"'I can't sell he,' replied the old man, 'but I'll bring you another
just like it to-night, and it will be fourpence; I can't sell 'em no
lower because of the time and trouble they takes.'
"'I want it now, I want a kishin now,' whined Phoebe, hiding her red,
cross face on her father's shoulder.
"'I'll give ye sixpence for that one, old chap,' said her father,
positively, 'and if you won't sell it, you may go to Coventry, if you
like!'
"'I wouldn't sell that one for a shilling for a reason I have,' said
Joe; 'but as little Miss have a set her heart on it so, I'll go back and
fetch t'other one now. Will that do, little Missee? And if you are a
good girl, and don't cry, and wait with patience till I come back, old
Joe will bring you a kitchen table with it into the bargain!'
"Like a sensible child, as she was, Phoebe said she would, and nodding a
half reluctant and doubting farewell to the old man, she saw him set off
at his best pace on his way home to fetch her the fellow kitchen to
myself. And not for any sum of money would old Joe have broken any
promise he had made to a child. When he got back to his dark, cold room,
he found his one friendly visitor waiting for him, but only begged her
to sit down and wait for him a little while so that he could run back to
the child with the toy. He was more than rewarded, even in very
profitable ways, for not only did the little girl, who had been eagerly
watching for him on the steps, rush out clapping her hands for the
promised Kitchen, but the good-natured butcher, seeing how the old man
must have hurried to keep his word to the little one, gave him a nice
bit of steak at the same time with the price of the toy, telling him he
was afraid he would miss his dinner, and so, perhaps, that would make
up.
"'Thank ye, kindly,' replied the old man, 'but you see I ain't no dinner
to lose to speak of, cos I always has a crust of bread and cheese,
leastways, unless any kind soul gives me a old bone or some broken
wittles!'
"'Well, you can have a cosy broil to-day,' laughed the butcher; ''tis
prime meat, and that I'll answer for!'
"Poor old Joe trotted off in high glee with his prize, buying a
"happorth" of onions and a "pennorth of all sorts" to flavour his stew
with. For old Joe, being a handy and sensible sort of fellow, had in
course of time become quite a cook, with the poor scraps his scanty
means furnished. Nor was he the only one to benefit by it, for many a
tea-cupful of what was proudly called "broth" did Joe spare to one or
two starving mothers hard by, for their ailing little ones. But old Joe
had a visitor to-day, his long lost wife's blind sister, and so he was
proud indeed to make a feast in her honour; and while his little scrap
of meat was slowly simmering, with the odds and ends of garden-stuff he
had bought, Joe made his visitor as comfortable as he could, and gave
her his kitchens to "feel," as she could not see.
"'I'm getting quite a hand at making 'em, Liza,' said the old man,
cheerily; 'I've got quite a sight of little customers, and I think I
shall get on by degrees, you know, werry slow, to make some better-most
kinds, and sell the bigger ones at fourpence a-piece! And then I can
throw in a kitchen table into the bargain, you know, which will make 'em
more completer.'
"Poor blind Liza admired to his heart's content, and felt us all over
with her wonderfully sensitive fingers, which almost seemed to find out
what sort of paper we were covered with, and she was not without her bit
of proud satisfaction, too, for she had brought Joe a pretty little
square basket, with a lid to it, which had been the work of her own
poor, unguided fingers. She had been placed by a very charitable lady in
a blind school, where she had learned basket-work, and she now was able
to help her old mother by her work, which was disposed of for her at a
shop established for that especial purpose in the Euston Road.
"Joe was mightily delighted with his basket, and said it was what he had
been wanting all along to keep his coppers in on his tray of toys. And
so, after a merry evening, Joe limped off to see the poor blind woman
safe to her home, about three miles distant. This was old Joe's solitary
holiday for many a month, for he had no friends and few acquaintances,
except the poor women who came thankfully to him now and then for one of
his savoury messes for their sick little ones, and they had no time to
spare, for they were most of them poor hard-working drudges, who were
very grateful for his help, and indeed often brought him their own poor
scraps of food to cook for their little invalids, while they earned a
few pence by washing, or hawking flowers, or fire papers. And the
kind-hearted old man would stir and simmer the scanty scraps in his
solitary saucepan, and take a world of care and pains with the "broth"
to make it relishing for the poor sickly little babes. He would often
put it into the cracked mug or pie-dish, and carry it himself to the
forlorn sufferer, and stay and have a bit of merry chat. There was not a
child in the neighbourhood who did not know and love Joe, and few indeed
who had not received some small kindness from him. He was only a very
poor and infirm old man, and had but little in his power to give or do,
but what he could was all done so cheerfully and kindly, that the very
sight of his old wrinkled, weather-beaten face seemed like sunshine in
the wretched rooms where poverty and want lived so hardly.
"More than one even of his little kitchens had been generously given
away by Joe, and though they were really of no value, to him they were
the produce of hours of labour and pains, and the means by which he
earned his scanty living. Poor little Biddy Doolan, a small child, who
had been wasting away many months in a slow decline, was found by her
mother (who had gone to the dispensary for some medicine for her), lying
back on the heap of straw, cold and lifeless, with the treasured
kitchen, the _one_ toy of a long miserable childhood, cuddled fast in
the thin stiff arms. Old Joe cried over her like a child, and was more
active than ever in his errands among the sick children. He was at last
christened "Dr. Joe," by universal consent, and was really often sent
for after the regular doctor, and he came as regularly, although he had
no fee beyond the thanks of his poor little patients.
"I used always to accompany him in his weekly long journeys, holding the
place of honour on the trays, next to Liza's basket, and many a funny
scene have we witnessed together. Joe's customers were "legion," for
every child that could raise twopence was ready enough to buy one of the
kitchens. And as times did get a little better, Joe _was_ able to add
the long wished-for wooden table, which gave a great finish and air of
reality to his little constructions. His sales rose one third after
this, and Joe's spirits went up with them. On Liza's next visit she
suggested that he might make a parlour too, she thought, and old Joe,
getting quite venturesome, jumped at the idea.
"'I've a cousin in service, Joe,' said Liza, 'she lives nurse at Mrs.
Spenser's, and I'll ask her if she can't save us up a few bits and
scraps of print and muslin. I think I could help you a little too, even
if 'tis only in a small way.'
"'Thankee sure, Liza,' replied Joe, delighted, 'and now I'll tell ye
what, you and mother come up some afternoon, and we'll see what we can
do between us all. I'll see ye safe back at night.'
"And blind Liza and her mother did come, and what between Liza's neat
and clever fingers, her old mother's sharp eyes, and Joe's own handy
work, they had speedily turned out half a dozen little parlours, that
Joe fairly hopped round, shouting with delight. The cousin had been very
generous and set them up with a tolerable hoard of bits and scraps, so
that, what with paper and paint and all, they were, as Joe declared,
"fit for a queen to live in." The walls were papered with Joe's choicest
scraps, and the floor carpeted with a piece of print, while scraps of
muslin stood for curtains. Liza had manufactured some square cushions of
a suitable size, which did duty for ottomans, and a round piece of card
board, glued on a pillar leg, composed of an empty cotton reel painted
brown, did duty for a centre table. Then Joe decorated the centre of the
back wall with what he considered a splendid likeness of a grand drawing
room grate. He looked at his work with great satisfaction, and was never
weary of pointing out the best charms of each parlour to the old lady,
Liza's mother, who really was a very useful and agreeable helper to the
party. She perched her old horn spectacles on the tip of her little
nose, and peeped in, suggesting improvements here and there, and she cut
out the carpets quite tidily. Their only regret was that Liza could not
see them too, but she was so cheerful, and guessed and described what
the parlours were like so well, that they declared she must have eyes in
the tips of her fingers.
"'Now,' said Joe, as they finished the sixth by the dim light of a
halfpenny dip, 'ladies, I'm uncommon obliged to you for your help, which
great it is, and well I shall do by it, I don't doubt, but I'm afraid I
shan't manage 'em so well for myself arterwards.'
"'O yes, you will Joe,' replied Liza, cheerfully; 'you know you always
were a handy man; you can cut the carpets and curtains every bit as well
as mother can. And as for the ottomy's, I'll make you a dozen or two
when I'm home, and I'll bring 'em to you next week, or what's better
still, you can fetch 'em. Don't you think its Joe's turn to return our
visit, mother?'
"'Indeed I do,' replied the old woman, 'and Joseph knows he'll be
welcome.'
"And thus it was arranged, and in about ten days' time Joe went to their
house, and carried them a very glowing account of the remarkable success
that had attended him "along of the parlours;" he also opened his heart
so much, that he actually took me with him, as an offering to Liza. I am
very much afraid the glory of those horrid little new parlours had quite
put him out of conceit with me. Liza had been as good as her word, and
furnished Joe with a pocket full of ottomy's, all covered with gay
shreds of chintz. The nurse at Mrs. Spenser's had sent them a most
bountiful collection of bits, for she had spoken to her mistress, and
told her the purpose she was collecting them for, and Mrs. Spenser, with
her usual kindness, had herself found a good parcel of bits to add to
the store.
"On hearing this, Joe thought he could do no less than to leave me with
his humble and grateful duty to the young ladies at Mrs. Spenser's
house, on his way back to his own underground home. And so this is how I
became a member of your circle, my friends, and have had the honour of
being called on to amuse you in my turn. I believe, from a few words I
heard nurse let fall some time ago, that my old master is still alive,
and doing a flourishing trade in "Kitchens and Parlours!" And I have no
doubt he is still carrying out his less lucrative, but charitable
calling, among the sick children of his wretched neighbourhood."
"We are all much obliged to you for your history," said the Ball, "which
is quite as interesting as any we have heard this evening. And now I
shall call upon our very fair friend the Shuttlecock for the next
story."
[Illustration]
[Illustration]