68 MY LIFE 



shaped pieces of calf -skin which were of just the size required 

 for a small-sized cricket-ball. These were stretched over the 

 ball, stitched up closely on the one side, the joint rubbed 

 down smooth, and by its partial contraction when drying, an 

 excellent leather-covered ball was made, which at first was 

 hairy outside, but this soon wore off. In this way, at a cost 

 of about twopence or threepence, we had as good a ball as one 

 which cost us a shilling to buy, and which served us well for 

 our boyish games at cricket. 



Other house occupations which employed much of our 

 spare time in wet weather and in winter were the making 

 of cherry-stone chains and bread-seals. For the former we 

 collected some hundreds of cherry-stones in the season. These, 

 with much labour and scraping of fingers, were ground down 

 on each side till only a ring of suitable thickness was left. 

 The rings were then soaked in water for some days, which 

 both cleaned and softened them, so that with a sharp pen- 

 knife they could be cut through, and by carefully expanding 

 them the next ring could be slipped in, the joint closing up 

 so as to be scarcely, if at all, visible. When nicely cleaned, 

 and if from stones of nearly uniform size, these chains made 

 very pretty and useful watch-guards, or even necklaces for 

 little girls of our acquaintance. 



Bread-seals were easier to make, and were more interesting 

 in their results. In those ante-penny-postage days envelopes 

 were unknown, as one of the rules of the post-office was 

 that each letter must consist of a single sheet, any separate 

 piece of paper either enclosed or outside constituting it a 

 double letter with double postage. Almost every letter, there- 

 fore, was sealed, and many of them had either coats-of-arms, 

 crests, heads, or mottoes, so that besides the contents, which 

 were, perhaps, only of importance to the recipient, the seal 

 would often interest the whole family. In such a case we 

 begged for the seal to be carefully cut round so that we might 

 make a copy of it. To do this we required only a piece of 

 the crumb of new bread, and with cleanly washed hands we 

 worked this up with our fingers till it formed a compact stiff 

 mass. Before doing this, we begged a little bright water- 



