Here they
could be found from five in the morning till twelve at night. Here, with
guards set, to give notice of the approach of the children's
joy-destroying Siva--otherwise the policeman--they played ball. Here
"cat" and "one old cat" render bearable many a wilting hour for the
little urchins. Here "Sally in our Alley" and "Skip-rope" made the
little girls forget that the temperature was far above blood-heat. Here
of an evening, Peter smoked and watched them.
At first he was an object of suspicion, and the sport visibly ceased
when he put in an appearance. But he simply sat on one of the benches
and puffed his pipe, and after a few evenings they lost all fear of him,
and went on as if he were not there. In time, an intercourse sprang up
between them. One evening Peter appeared with a stick of wood, and as he
smoked, he whittled at it with a _real_ jack-knife! He was scrutinized
by the keen-eyed youngsters with interest at once, and before he had
whittled long, he had fifty children sitting in the shape of a
semicircle on the stone pavement, watching his doings with almost
breathless Interest.
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