healthful work, good food, and the absence of that heavy burden,
poverty.

Demi was his little friend, Tommy his patron, and Daisy the
comforter of all his woes; for, though the children were younger
than he, his timid spirit found a pleasure in their innocent society,
and rather shrunk from the rough sports of the elder lads. Mr.
Laurence did not forget him, but sent clothes and books, music and
kind messages, and now and then came out to see how his boy was
getting on, or took him into town to a concert; on which occasions
Nat felt himself translated into the seventh heaven of bliss, for he
went to Mr. Laurence's great house, saw his pretty wife and little
fairy of a daughter, had a good dinner, and was made so
comfortable, that he talked and dreamed of it for days and nights
afterward.

It takes so little to make a child happy that it is a pity, in a world so
full of sunshine and pleasant things, that there should be any
wistful faces, empty hands, or lonely little hearts. Feeling this, the
Bhaers gathered up all the crumbs they could find to feed their
flock of hungry sparrows, for they were not rich, except in charity.
Many of Mrs. Jo's friends who had nurseries sent her they toys of
which their children so soon tired, and in mending these Nat found
an employment that just suited him. He was very neat and skillful
with those slender fingers of his, and passed many a rainy
afternoon with his gum-bottle, paint-box, and knife, repairing
furniture, animals, and games, while Daisy was dressmaker to the
dilapidated dolls. As fast as the toys were mended, they were put
carefully away in a certain drawer which was to furnish forth a
Christmas-tree for all the poor children of the neighborhood, that