Who heeds the poor organ-grinder ? None but myself and little Annie , whose feet begin to move in unison with the lively tune , as if she were loth that music should be wasted without a dance . But where would Annie find a partner ? Some have the gout in their toes or the rheumatism in their joints ; some are stiff with age , some feeble with disease ; some are so lean that their bones would rattle , and others of such ponderous size that their agility would crack the flagstones ; but many , many have leaden feet because their hearts are far heavier than lead . It is a sad thought that I have chanced upon . What a company of dancers should we be ! For I too am a gentleman of sober footsteps , and therefore , little Annie , let us walk sedately on . It is a question with me whether this giddy child or my sage self have most pleasure in looking at the shop-windows . We love the silks of sunny hue that glow within the darkened premises of the spruce dry-goods men ; we are pleasantly dazzled by the burnished silver and the chased gold , the rings of wedlock and the costly love-ornaments , glistening at the window of the jeweller ; but Annie , more than I , seeks for a glimpse of her passing figure in the dusty looking-glasses at the hardware-stores . All that is bright and gay attracts us both . Here is a shop to which the recollections of my boyhood as well as present partialities give a peculiar magic . How delightful to let the fancy revel on the dainties of a confectioner -- those pies with such white and flaky paste , their contents being a mystery , whether rich mince with whole plums intermixed , or piquant apple delicately rose-flavored ; those cakes , heart-shaped or round , piled in a lofty pyramid ; those sweet little circlets sweetly named kisses ; those dark majestic masses fit to be bridal-loaves at the wedding of an heiress , mountains in size , their summits deeply snow-covered with sugar ! Then the mighty treasures of sugarplums , white and crimson and yellow , in large glass vases , and candy of all varieties , and those little cockles -- or whatever they are called -- much prized by children for their sweetness , and more for the mottoes which they enclose , by love-sick maids and bachelors ! Oh , my mouth waters , little Annie , and so doth yours , but we will not be tempted except to an imaginary feast ; so let us hasten onward devouring the vision of a plum-cake . Here are pleasures , as some people would say , of a more exalted kind , in the window of a bookseller . Is Annie a literary lady ? Yes ; she is deeply read in Peter Parley 's tomes and has an increasing love for fairy-tales , though seldom met with nowadays , and she will subscribe next year to the Juvenile Miscellany . But , truth to tell , she is apt to turn away from the printed page and keep gazing at the pretty pictures , such as the gay-colored ones which make this shop-window the continual loitering-place of children . What would Annie think if , in the book which I mean to send her on New Year 's day , she should find her sweet little self bound up in silk or morocco with gilt edges , there to remain till she become a woman grown with children of her own to read about their mother 's childhood ? That would be very queer .
Little Annie is weary of pictures and pulls me onward XXXXX the hand , till suddenly we pause at the most wondrous shop in all the town .
as by from if on than though to upon within