“I might do something better than that,” exclaimed her brother, as a sudden thought struck him. “If mother will give us some paste, and you will let me use some of your pasteboard and bits of colored paper which the paper hanger, next door, gave you, I think I can make something very pretty to hold matches, and light them too.”
The paste and paper were readily supplied, but Ernest soon found that it was quite beyond his skill to carry out the plan which he had formed; and he was delighted when his mother laid aside her work, and offered to assist him.
With her help, a stiff piece of pasteboard, seven or eight inches square, was partly covered with sand paper, and neatly bordered with colored paper. Two little round cases were then fastened upon the upper part of the card, to hold the matches; and a small hole was made in the middle, so that it could be hung upon a nail driven into the wall.
Ernest and Rosy fairly jumped for joy when the first one was completed and placed upon the mantel-piece to dry. The second one was made much quicker than the first; and Mrs. Lawrence soon became so expert, that she had finished half a dozen in a very short time. These were enough for an experiment. Ernest was sure they would sell for sixpence a-piece; and after he went to bed, he could hardly close his eyes, his mind was so busy thinking what a little fortune he should make with this pretty invention.
His expectations were not disappointed. At every house where he called with his basket, the match cases were noticed and admired; and before he had been an hour from home, he had sold the last one, and with a light heart returned to tell his success to his mother.
A fresh supply was soon obtained; and for several days, he was equally successful in disposing of them.
At one house, where a little girl had purchased one of the first cases which had been made, he received an order for half-a-dozen, to be furnished as soon as possible.
“And be sure to make them very pretty, little boy,” said the young girl, as she stood at the door talking with Ernest; “for my father will look at them himself, and he will want them very nice. He was quite pleased when I showed him the one which I bought the other day, and he said you were an ingenious boy.”
“My mother makes the greater part of them, Miss,” replied Ernest, blushing. “We will do our best to please you.”
Rosy had been uncommonly successful, that day, in collecting pretty pieces of colored paper; and the six little cases, far prettier than any which had been made before, were soon completed and placed upon the mantel-piece to dry, that they might be in readiness for Ernest’s morning expedition.