"Yes," said Jennie, "I have seen all such things in the shop windows in the Palais Royal and in the Boulevards."
"Ah, those are the shops where they sell the things," said Rollo; "but these shops that uncle George and I went to see are where they make them. We went to one place where they were making artificial flowers, and such beautiful things you never saw. The rooms were full of girls, all making artificial flowers."
"Why did not you bring me home some of them?" asked Jennie.
"Why—I don't know," replied Rollo. "I did not think to ask if I could buy any of them.
"Then, after we had gone about in the workshops till we had seen enough, we went to the Louvre to see the paintings; though on the way we stopped to see a crèche."
Rollo pronounced the word very much as if it had been spelled crash.
"A crash!" exclaimed Jennie. "Did a building tumble down?"
"O, no," said Rollo, "it was not that. It was a place where they keep a great many babies. The poor women who have to go out to work all day carry their babies to this place in the morning, and leave them there to be taken care of, and then come and get them at night. There are some nuns there, dressed all in white, to take care of the babies. They put them in high cradles that stand all around the room."
"Were they all crying?" asked Jennie.
"O, no," said Rollo, "they were all still. When we went in they were all just waking up. The nuns put them to sleep all at the same time. Every cradle had a baby in it. Some were stretching their arms, and some were opening their eyes, and some were trying to get up. As fast as they got wide awake, the nuns would take them up and put them on the floor, at a place where there was a carpet for them to creep upon and play."