"No, neither have I," answered the sister, "but Billy's Mama says so."
That seemed to be convincing, and they both poked away at the contents of two large ash cans, until a scream from Jimmy caused Sadie to jump almost out of her worn little shoes.
"Look," he said, "is this one of them things?" In his hand he was holding the one remaining blue ball. He had a hole in one side, but he still had courage and tried bravely to shine, even though the dust had enveloped him. Sadie stood spellbound.
"It is one of them," she said. "Oh, who could have thrown it away?"
"Sadie," screamed Jimmy, "could we take it home and put it on a tree for Billy? We could borrow a candle."
"I'm afraid it would look bad all alone, Jimmy," she said sadly, "but," seeing the intense disappointment she had caused, "we can do it. First, let's hunt through the ashes some more. If they throw one away, there may be others."
The diligent search was rewarded beyond their wildest hope, for not only did the entire eleven appear, all very dusty and broken in spirit and thankful to be able to breathe once more, but also the remains of Goldy's lady love, one wing gone, and her golden skirts in ribbons, but still beautiful in the children's eyes.
While they were contemplating their treasures with joy beyond words, a man came out of the area way, dragging a tremendous Christmas tree after him, which he threw into the gutter and then proceeded to chop up. Sadie watched him silently for a minute, and then with her face pink with the effort, approached him timidly.
"Oh, sir, could you chop it so we could have the top?"