And what--the reader may ask at this stage--what is the Happy Evenings Association? Well, it is a body of kind-hearted ladies and gentlemen--numbering some of the highest and noblest names that you will find in "Burke" or "Debrett"--who take a pleasure in going down amongst the slums of London and teaching the slum waifs how to play. For the London guttersnipe doesn't know how to play. As a rule, he or she can maunder about and fight and scream and exchange badinage and throw stones in the gutter, but of true games the gamin is as ignorant as his parents are of _entrées_ or Euclid. Before the association was started in 1891 there was no one to teach them the mysteries of battledore and shuttlecock, sack races, kiss-in-the-ring, picture-books, dolls, and doll dressmaking. As their motto expressed it, the association, whose first efforts began at the Waterloo Road Schools, was "to put a thought beneath their rags to ennoble the heart's struggle." [Illustration: LADY MARGARET RICE. _As constructed by the children._] [Illustration: THE PRINCESS OF WALES AND HER FAMILY--THE PRINCESS IS THE PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION. _From a Photo. by Wilkinson & Co., Norwich. Published by the London Stereoscopic Co._] The gutters were full--the Board schools after school-hours were empty. Why not get permission to use these empty Board schools for the little ones to play in? And so in a modest fashion the first of the Happy Evenings was carried out by Miss Heather Bigg at Waterloo Road Schools in January, 1891. The association grew and workers came forward until now it is one of the most influential, as it is the "smartest," charity in London. It has for its president that mother of so many little children--the Princess of Wales; its chief of council is the Countess of Jersey, and among its helpers are the Marchioness of Zetland, Lady Ludlow, Lady Cadogan, Lady Iddesleigh, Mrs. Bland-Sutton, etc. Moreover, the children of the rich are brought to serve the children of the poor, the example being set by children no less highly placed than the little Princes and the little Princess at Marlborough House, whose dolls and toys find their way into the Happy Evenings gatherings. When little Prince Edward first heard of the Happy Evenings he turned to his Royal mamma and said:-- [Illustration: MRS. BLAND-SUTTON--HON. SECRETARY OF THE ASSOCIATION. _From a Photo. by E. W. Evans._] "Mayn't I give my helmet and breast-plate? It's such good fun to dress up as a soldier. I'm sure those little boys would like it." And so a little gamin was pointed out to us at a Happy Evening, prancing about in the martial and metallic raiment which had lately enclosed the person of another boy--the future King of England. [Illustration: PRINCE EDWARD'S ARMOUR. _From a Photo. by George Newnes, Ltd._]