They have been at work during the week, and, having commenced work, their Sunday-school days are at an end.

And having a few halfpence they can indulge their long-continued and fervent hope of discarding "buttons" and playing the man by using halfpence.
But how they enjoy it! how intent they are upon it.

Sunday morning will turn to midday, and midday to evening before they are tired of it! Meal times, or the substitute for meal times, pass, and they remain at it! always supposing their halfpence last, and the police do not interfere, the latter being the most likely.
It takes an interminably long time to dispossess a lad of six halfpence at this game; fortune is not so fickle as may be supposed.

The unskilled "pitcher" may have luck in "tossing," while the successful "pitcher" may be an unlucky "tosser." If at the end of a long day they come off pretty equal, they have had an ideal day.
But they have had their ups and downs, their alternations of joy and despair.

Sometimes a boy may win a penny; if so, it is evident that another boy has lost one, and this is sad, though I expect they lose more coppers to the police than they do to their companions, for the police harry them and hunt them.