Gerald listened. Then the ugly frown left his face and in its place
there came a happy smile. He clapped his hands as the little tin top
circled, and whirled, and tripped, and hopped around his feet.
"May I buy the top that sings?" he asked and his mother said that he
might. So they paid a bright ten cent piece for it and the toy man put
the little tin top into Gerald's hands. As they left the toy shop,
Gerald still smiled and he hopped along beside his mother as he
remembered how the little tin top had hopped. And his mother made up
a song about it that they hummed softly together:
"To and fro, on its little tin toe,
Singing and dancing the top will go.
Spinning and singing it seems to say,
'Children should always be glad and gay.'"
So they went on until they came to a big building that was a hospital,
and at one of the front windows a sick-a-bed child was propped up on
pillows and looking out. Gerald looked in; then he motioned for the
nurse who stood near to open the window, and he wound the little tin
top and started it spinning on the sidewalk. It could spin and sing
indoors or outdoors. Round and round it danced and it seemed to be
saying:
"To and fro on my little tin toe,
Singing and spinning, oh, see me go!
This is the song that I sing to-day,
'Children should always be glad and gay.
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