"Well, maybe some day I can make money enough to git you somethin' to play wif," said their mother.
As she had said, it was not late, though the sun had set. It was a warm, summer night, and the moon was shining brightly. Jim knew the way to the house where Mirabell and Arnold lived, for he had often gone there both with his mother and alone, either to get or bring back the clothes.
With the Calico Clown wrapped in a piece of paper, Jim set off on his trip. He hurried along, thinking how nice it would be if he had a toy like that. He was wondering how long it would be before his mother could earn enough money to buy one when, just as he turned into the yard of the house where Arnold and Mirabell lived, Jim stumbled and fell.
The Calico Clown shot out of his hands, and the poor toy, as he flew along, thought to himself:
"Oh, what is happening now!"
The next moment he fell into a deep hole, and only that he grasped the long grass at the edge of it, Jim would have fallen in himself.
"Fo' de lan' sakes!" exclaimed the little colored boy as he picked himself up. "What have done gone an' happened now?"
You see, he felt about it just as the Calico Clown did.