"Papa, I paid another visit last night."
"Another visit? Where did you go, Toddletums?"
"I guess I got a little sleepy after our big dinner. I got up among those spirit chaps in the sky that I played baseball with last summer, and was wondering what became of all the hours we use up during the year, so I thought I would ask them. When I got up there they were awfully glad to see me.
"The whole crowd were bowling, and they were using the tail of a comet for a bowling-alley. Papa I'm so sorry you couldn't see them, it was so funny. At the end of the comet alley they had a lot of things stuck up that looked like those glasses that cookie boils eggs by. One of the spirits told me they were the hours we used up during the year, and that it was their custom to meet every New-Year's eve to bowl them out of existence. As he was telling me, one big chap (say, papa, but those chaps are big!) grasped what they said was a baby world, and, swinging it, smashed down a lot of hours. Well, in a short time all the hours were gone except one. Then they stood around and waited, looking solemnly at a winking, blinking light in the distance that they said was my world. Suddenly every one lifted his hand and pointed at the last hour, and the biggest spirit seized a world, and when the last moment trickled down the glass, they dropped their hands, and he sent the ball smashing along the comet, and knocked out the last hour.
"Some of them rushed over to one side and began piling up what looked like cakes of ice. Every few seconds one chap sent a cake flying smash at our world. Those were the new hours. You see, time moves very quickly up there, and it takes a lot of work to keep the hours moving.
"They invited me to get on the comet and take a ride through the Milky Way. We all perched on it, and some one started it off, and we went skipping along faster than any bob-sled. In a few minutes we got into the Milky Way. After a while we got off and strolled up to a funny-looking world. It was made of pies, cakes, candies, and all sorts of good things mixed. When we stopped, all the spirits looked grave, and when one of them began to talk, I grew frightened.
"He said that when little boys from the world ate such things they were all saved and piled up here. Then if a little boy ate too much he would die, and come up here and commence all over again, and the moment he put the nice things in his mouth they immediately became bitter and nasty. They all looked hard at me when he said this, and shouted, 'Make Toddletums turn over a new leaf.'
"One of them commenced to blow, and a thin vapor formed, and then another blew rents into it, until I could make out the words, 'I promise to turn over a new leaf.'
"'Turn it over!' shouted the spirits; and it sounded like a crash of thunder.
"Well, they thought I'd get frightened at that, but I didn't. I just grasped the edge of that vapor leaf, and I was turning it nicely, when I woke up, and found myself wrapping the bed-sheet around me 'cause it was cold. But, papa, I guess I'll turn over the new leaf as I promised."