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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12172 ***
+
+                             Alone in London
+
+                            By Hesba Stretton
+
+      Author of "Jessica's First Prayer," "Little Meg's Children," etc.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+CHAPTER
+
+      I. NOT ALONE
+
+     II. WAIFS AND STRAYS
+
+    III. A LITTLE PEACEMAKER
+
+     IV. OLD OLIVER'S MASTER
+
+      V. FORSAKEN AGAIN
+
+     VI. THE GRASSHOPPER A BURDEN
+
+    VII. THE PRINCE OF LIFE
+
+   VIII. NO PIPE FOR OLD OLIVER
+
+     IX. A NEW BROOM AND A CROSSING
+
+      X. HIGHLY RESPECTABLE
+
+     XI. AMONG THIEVES
+
+    XII. TONY'S WELCOME
+
+   XIII. NEW BOOTS
+
+    XIV. IN HOSPITAL
+
+     XV. TONY'S FUTURE PROSPECTS
+
+    XVI. A BUD FADING
+
+   XVII. A VERY DARK SHADOW
+
+  XVIII. NO ROOM FOR DOLLY
+
+    XIX. THE GOLDEN CITY
+
+     XX. A FRESH DAY DAWNS
+
+    XXI. POLLY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+NOT ALONE.
+
+
+It had been a close and sultry day--one of the hottest of the
+dog-days--even out in the open country, where the dusky green leaves had
+never stirred upon their stems since the sunrise, and where the birds had
+found themselves too languid for any songs beyond a faint chirp now and
+then. All day long the sun had shone down steadily upon the streets of
+London, with a fierce glare and glowing heat, until the barefooted
+children had felt the dusty pavement burn under their tread almost as
+painfully as the icy pavement had frozen their naked feet in the winter.
+In the parks, and in every open space, especially about the cool splash
+of the fountains at Charing Cross, the people, who had escaped from the
+crowded and unventilated back streets, basked in the sunshine, or sought
+every corner where a shadow could be found. But in the alleys and slums
+the air was heavy with heat and dust, and thick vapours floated up and
+down, charged with sickening smells from the refuse of fish and
+vegetables decaying in the gutters. Overhead the small, straight strip of
+sky was almost white, and the light, as it fell, seemed to quiver with
+the burden of its own burning heat.
+
+Out of one of the smaller thoroughfares lying between Holborn and the
+Strand, there opens a narrow alley, not more than six or seven feet
+across, with high buildings on each side. In the most part the ground
+floors consist of small shops; for the alley is not a blind one, but
+leads from the thoroughfare to another street, and forms, indeed, a short
+cut to it, pretty often used. These shops are not of any size or
+importance--a greengrocer's, with a somewhat scanty choice of vegetables
+and fruit, a broker's, displaying queer odds and ends of household goods,
+two or three others, and at the end farthest from the chief thoroughfare,
+but nearest to the quiet and respectable street beyond, a very
+modest-looking little shop-window, containing a few newspapers, some
+rather yellow packets of stationery, and two or three books of ballads.
+Above the door was painted, in very small, dingy letters, the words,
+"James Oliver, News Agent."
+
+The shop was even smaller, in proportion, than its window. After two
+customers had entered--if such an event could ever come to pass--it would
+have been almost impossible to find room for a third. Along the end ran a
+little counter, with a falling flap by which admission could be gained to
+the living-room lying behind the shop. This evening the flap was down--a
+certain sign that James Oliver, the news agent, had some guest within,
+for otherwise there would have been no occasion to lessen the scanty size
+of the counter. The room beyond was dark, very dark indeed, for the time
+of day; for, though the evening was coming on, and the sun was hastening
+to go down at last, it had not yet ceased to shine brilliantly upon the
+great city. But inside James Oliver's house the gas was already lighted
+in a little steady flame, which never flickered in the still, hot air,
+though both door and window were wide open. For there was a window,
+though it was easy to overlook it, opening into a passage four feet wide,
+which led darkly up into a still closer and hotter court, lying in the
+very core of the maze of streets. As the houses were four stories high,
+it is easy to understand that very little sunlight could penetrate to
+Oliver's room behind his shop, and that even at noonday it was twilight
+there. This room was of a better size altogether than a stranger might
+have supposed, having two or three queer little nooks and recesses
+borrowed from the space belonging to the adjoining house; for the
+buildings were old, and had probably been one large dwelling in former
+times. It was plainly the only apartment the owner had; and all its
+arrangements were those of a man living alone, for there was something
+almost desolate about the look of the scanty furniture, though it was
+clean and whole. There had been a fire, but it had died out, and the
+coals were black in the grate, while the kettle still sat upon the top
+bar with a melancholy expression of neglect about it.
+
+James Oliver himself had placed his chair near to the open door, where he
+could keep his eye upon the shop--a needless precaution, as at this hour
+no customers ever turned into it. He was an old man, and seemed very old
+and infirm by the dim light. He was thin and spare, with that peculiar
+spareness which results from the habit of always eating less than one
+can. His teeth, which had never had too much to do, had gone some years
+ago, and his cheeks fell in rather deeply. A fine network of wrinkles
+puckered about the corners of his eyes and mouth. He stooped a good deal,
+and moved about with the slowness and deliberation of age. Yet his face
+was very pleasant--a cheery, gentle, placid face, lighted up with a smile
+now and then, but with sufficient rareness to make it the more welcome
+and the more noticed when it came.
+
+Old Oliver had a visitor this hot evening, a neat, small, dapper woman,
+with a little likeness to himself, who had been putting his room to
+rights, and looking to the repairs needed by his linen. She was just
+replacing her needle, cotton, and buttons in an old-fashioned housewife,
+which she always carried in her pocket, and was then going to put on her
+black silk bonnet and coloured shawl, before bidding him goodbye.
+
+"Eh, Charlotte," said Oliver, after drawing a long and toilsome breath,
+"what would I give to be a-top of the Wrekin, seeing the sun set this
+evening! Many and many's the summer afternoon we've spent there when we
+were young, and all of us alive. Dost remember how many a mile of country
+we could see all round us, and how fresh the air blew across the
+thousands of green fields? Why, I saw Snowdon once, more than sixty miles
+off, when my eyes were young and it was a clear sunset. I always think of
+the top of the Wrekin when I read of Moses going up Mount Pisgah and
+seeing all the land about him, north and south, east and west. Eh, lass!
+there's a change in us all now!"
+
+"Ah! it's like another world!" said the old woman, shaking her head
+slowly. "All the folks I used to sew for at Aston, and Uppington, and
+Overlehill, they'd mostly be gone or dead by now. It wouldn't seem like
+the same place at all. And now there's none but you and me left, brother
+James. Well, well! its lonesome, growing old."
+
+"Yes, lonesome, yet not exactly lonesome," replied old Oliver, in a
+dreamy voice. "I'm growing dark a little, and just a trifle deaf, and I
+don't feel quite myself like I used to do; but I've got something I
+didn't use to have. Sometimes of an evening, before I've lit the gas,
+I've a sort of a feeling as if I could almost see the Lord Jesus, and
+hear him talking to me. He looks to me something like our eldest brother,
+him that died when we were little. Charlotte, thee remembers him? A
+white, quiet, patient face, with a smile like the sun shining behind
+clouds. Well, whether it's only a dream or no I cannot tell, but there's
+a face looks at me, or seems to look at me out of the dusk; and I think
+to myself, maybe the Lord Jesus says, 'Old Oliver's lonesome down there
+in the dark, and his eyes growing dim. I'll make myself half-plain to
+him.' Then he comes and sits here with me for a little while."
+
+"Oh, that's all fancy as comes with you living quite alone," said
+Charlotte, sharply.
+
+"Perhaps so! perhaps so!" answered the old man, with a meek sigh; "but I
+should be very lonesome without that."
+
+They did not speak again until Charlotte had given a final shake to the
+bed in the corner, upon which her bonnet and shawl had been lying. She
+put them on neatly and primly; and when she was ready to go she spoke
+again in a constrained and mysterious manner.
+
+"Heard nothing of Susan, I suppose?" she said.
+
+"Not a word," answered old Oliver, sadly. "It's the only trouble I've
+got. That were the last passion I ever went into, and I was hot and
+hasty, I know."
+
+"So you always used to be at times," said his sister.
+
+"Ah! but that passion was the worst of all," he went on, speaking
+slowly. "I told her if she married young Raleigh, she should never darken
+my doors again--never again. And she took me at my word though she might
+have known it was nothing but father's hot temper. Darken my doors! Why,
+the brightest sunshine I could have 'ud be to see her come smiling into
+my shop, like she used to do at home."
+
+"Well, I think Susan ought to have humbled herself," said Charlotte.
+"It's going on for six years now, and she's had time enough to see her
+folly. Do you know where she is?"
+
+"I know nothing about her," he answered, shaking his head sorrowfully.
+"Young Raleigh was wild, very wild, and that was my objection to him;
+but I didn't mean Susan to take me at my word. I shouldn't speak so
+hasty and hot now."
+
+"And to think. I'd helped to bring her up so genteel, and with such
+pretty manners!" cried the old woman, indignantly. "She might have done
+so much better with her cleverness too. Such a milliner as she might have
+turned out! Well good-bye, brother James, and don't go having any more of
+those visions; they're not wholesome for you."
+
+"I should be very lonesome without them," answered Oliver. "Good-bye,
+Charlotte, good-bye, and God bless you. Come again as soon as you can."
+
+He went with her to the door, and stayed to watch her along the quiet
+alley, till she turned into the street. Then, with a last nod to the back
+of her bonnet, as she passed out of his sight, he returned slowly into
+his dark shop, put up the flap of the counter, and retreated to the
+darker room within. Hot as it was, he fancied it was growing a little
+chilly with the coming of the night, and he drew on his old coat, and
+threw a handkerchief over his white head, and then sat down in the dusk,
+looking out into his shop and the alley beyond it. He must have fallen
+into a doze after a while, being overcome with the heat, and lulled by
+the constant hum of the streets, which reached his dull ear in a softened
+murmur; for at length he started up almost in a fright, and found that
+complete darkness had fallen upon him suddenly, as it seemed to him. A
+church clock was striking nine, and his shop was not closed yet. He went
+out hurriedly to put the shutters up.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+WAIFS AND STRAYS.
+
+
+In the shop it was not yet so dark but that old Oliver could see his way
+out with the shutters, which during the day occupied a place behind the
+door. He lifted the flap of the counter, and was about to go on with his
+usual business, when a small voice, trembling a little, and speaking from
+the floor at his very feet, caused him to pause suddenly.
+
+"Please, rere's a little girl here," said the voice.
+
+Oliver stooped down to bring his eyes nearer to the ground, until he
+could make out the indistinct outline of the figure of a child, seated on
+his shop floor, and closely hugging a dog in her arms. Her face looked
+small to him; it was pale, as if she had been crying quietly, and though
+he could not see them, a large tear stood on each of her cheeks.
+
+"What little girl are you?" he asked, almost timidly.
+
+"Rey called me Dolly," answered the child.
+
+"Haven't you any other name?" inquired old Oliver
+
+"Nosing else but Poppet," she said; "rey call me Dolly sometimes, and
+Poppet sometimes. Ris is my little dog, Beppo."
+
+She introduced the dog by pushing its nose into his hand, and Beppo
+complacently wagged his tail and licked the old man's withered fingers.
+
+"What brings you here in my shop, my little woman?" asked Oliver.
+
+"Mammy brought me," she said, with a stifled sob; "she told me run in
+rere, Dolly, and stay till mammy comes back, and be a good girl always.
+Am I a good girl?"
+
+"Yes, yes," he answered, soothingly; "you're a very good little girl, I'm
+sure; and mother 'ill come back soon, very soon. Let us go to the door,
+and look for her."
+
+He took her little hand in his own; such a little hand it felt, that he
+could not help tightening his fingers fondly over it; and then they stood
+for a few minutes on the door-sill, while old Oliver looked anxiously up
+and down the alley. At the greengrocer's next door there flared a bright
+jet of gas, and the light shone well into the deepening darkness. But
+there was no woman in sight, and the only person about was a ragged boy,
+barefoot and bareheaded with no clothing but a torn pair of trousers,
+very jagged about the ankles, and a jacket through which his thin
+shoulders displayed themselves. He was lolling in the lowest window-sill
+of the house opposite, and watched Oliver and the little girl looking
+about them with sundry signs of interest and amusement.
+
+"She ain't nowhere in sight," he called across to them after a while,
+"nor won't be, neither, I'll bet you. You're looking out for the little
+un's mother, ain't you, old master?"
+
+"Yes," answered Oliver; "do you know anything about her, my boy?"
+
+"Nothink," he said, with a laugh; "only she looked as if she were up to
+some move, and as I'd nothink particular on hand, I just followed her.
+She was somethink like my mother, as is dead, not fat or rosy, you know,
+with a bit of a bruise about her eye, as if somebody had been fighting
+with her. I thought there'd be a lark when she left the little 'un in
+your shop, so I just stopped to see. She bolted as if the bobbies were
+after her."
+
+"How long ago?" asked Oliver, anxiously.
+
+"The clocks had just gone eight," he answered; "I've been watching for
+you ever since."
+
+"Why! that's a full hour ago," said the old man, looking wistfully down
+the alley; "it's time she was come back again for her little girl."
+
+[Illustration: THE LITTLE STRANGER.]
+
+But there was no symptom of anybody coming to claim the little girl, who
+stood very quietly at his side, one hand holding the dog fast by his ear,
+and the other still lying in Oliver's grasp. The boy hopped on one foot
+across the narrow alley, and looked up with bright, eager eyes into the
+old man's face.
+
+"I say," he said, earnestly, "don't you go to give her up to the p'lice.
+They'd take her to the house, and that's worse than the jail. Bless yer!
+they'd never take up a little thing like that to jail for a wagrant. You
+just give her to me, and I'll take care of her. It 'ud be easy enough to
+find victuals for such a pretty little thing as her. You give her up to
+me, I say."
+
+"What's your name?" asked Oliver, clasping the little hand tighter, "and
+where do you come from?"
+
+"From nowhere particular," answered the boy; "and my name's Antony; Tony,
+for short. I used to have another name; mother told it me afore she died,
+but it's gone clean out o' my head. Tony I am, anyhow, and you can call
+me by it, if you choose."
+
+"How old are you, Tony?" inquired Oliver, still lingering on the
+threshold, and looking up and down with his dim eyes.
+
+"Bless yer! I don't know," replied Tony; "I weren't much bigger nor
+her when mother died, and I've found myself ever since. I never had
+any father."
+
+"Found yourself!" repeated the old man, absently.
+
+"Ah, it's not bad in the summer," said Tony, more earnestly than before:
+"and I could find for the little 'un easy enough. I sleep anywhere, in
+Covent Garden sometimes, and the parks--anywhere as the p'lice 'ill let
+me alone. You won't go to give her up to them p'lice, will you now, and
+she so pretty?"
+
+He spoke in a beseeching tone, and old Oliver looked down upon him
+through his spectacles, with a closer survey than he had given to him
+before. The boy's face was pale and meagre, with an unboyish sharpness
+about it, though he did not seem more than nine or ten years old. His
+glittering eyes were filled with tears, and his colourless lips quivered.
+He wiped away the tears roughly upon the ragged sleeve of his jacket.
+
+"I never were such a baby before," said Tony, "only she is such a nice
+little thing, and such a tiny little 'un. You'll keep her, master, won't
+you? or give her up to me?"
+
+"Ay, ay! I'll take care of her," answered Oliver, "till her mother comes
+back for her. She'll come pretty soon, I know. But she wants her supper
+now, doesn't she?"
+
+He stooped down to bring his face nearer to the child's, and she raised
+her hand to it, and stroked his cheek with her warm, soft fingers.
+
+"Beppo wants his supper, too," she said, in a clear, shrill, little
+voice, which penetrated easily through old Oliver's deafened hearing.
+
+"And Beppo shall have some supper as well as the little woman," he
+answered. "I'll put the shutters up now, and leave the door ajar, and the
+gas lit for mother to see when she comes back; and if mother shouldn't
+come back to night, the little woman will sleep in my bed, won't she?"
+
+"Dolly's to be a good girl till mammy comes back," said the child,
+plaintively, and holding harder by Beppo's ear.
+
+"Let me put the shutters up, master," cried Tony, eagerly; "I won't
+charge you nothink, and I'll just look round in the morning to see how
+you're getting along. She is such a very little thing."
+
+The shutters were put up briskly, and then Tony took a long, farewell
+gaze of the old man and the little child, but he could not offer to touch
+either of them. He glanced at his hands, and Oliver did the same; but
+they both shook their heads.
+
+"I'll have a wash in the morning afore I come," he said, nodding
+resolutely; "good-bye, guv'ner; goodbye, little 'un."
+
+Old Oliver went in, leaving his door ajar, and his gas lit, as he had
+said. He fed the hungry child with bread and butter, and used up his
+half-pennyworth of milk, which he bought for himself every evening. Then
+he lifted her on to his knee, with Beppo in her arms, and sat for a long
+while waiting. The little head nodded, and Dolly sat up, unsteadily
+striving hard to keep awake; but at last she let Beppo drop to the floor,
+while she herself fell upon the old man's breast, and lay there without
+moving. It chimed eleven o'clock at last, and Oliver knew it was of no
+use to watch any longer.
+
+He managed to undress his little charge with gentle, though trembling
+hands, and then he laid her down on his bed, putting his only pillow
+against the wall to make a soft nest for the tender and sleepy child. She
+roused herself for a minute, and stared about her, gazing steadily, with
+large, tearful eyes, into his face. Then as he sat down on the bedstead
+beside her, to comfort her as well as he could, she lifted herself up,
+and knelt down, with her folded hands laid against his shoulder.
+
+"Dolly vewy seepy," she lisped, "but must say her prayers always."
+
+"What are your prayers, my dear?" he asked.
+
+"On'y God bless gan-pa, and father, and mammy, and poor Beppo, and make
+me a good girl," murmured the drowsy voice, as Dolly closed her eyes
+again, and fell off into a deep sleep the next moment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+A LITTLE PEACEMAKER.
+
+
+It was a very strange event which had befallen old Oliver. He went back
+to his own chair, where he smoked his Broseley pipe every night, and sank
+down in it, rubbing his legs softly; for it was a long time since he had
+nursed any child, and even Dolly's small weight was a burden to him. Her
+tiny clothes were scattered up and down, and there was no one beside
+himself to gather them together, and fold them straight. In shaking out
+her frock a letter fell from it, and Oliver picked it up wondering
+whoever it could be for. It was directed to himself, "Mr. James Oliver,
+News-agent," and he broke the seal with eager expectation. The contents
+were these, written in a handwriting which he knew at first sight to be
+his daughter's:--
+
+"DEAR FATHER,
+
+"I am very very sorry I ever did anything to make you angry with me. This
+is your poor Susan's little girl, as is come to be a little peacemaker
+betwixt you and me. I'm certain sure you'll never turn her away from your
+door. I'm going down to Portsmouth for three days, because he listed five
+months ago, and his regiment's ordered out to India, and he sails on
+Friday. So I thought I wouldn't take my little girl to be in the way, and
+I said I'll leave her with father till I come back, and her pretty little
+ways will soften him towards me, and we'll live all together in peace and
+plenty till his regiment comes home again, poor fellow. For he's very
+good to me when he's not in liquor, which is seldom for a man. Please do
+forgive me for pity's sake, and for Christ's sake, if I'm worthy to use
+his name, and do take care of my little girl till I come home to you both
+on Friday, From your now dutiful daughter,
+
+"POOR SUSAN."
+
+The tears rolled fast down old Oliver's cheeks as he read this letter
+through twice, speaking the words half aloud to himself. Why! this was
+his own little grandchild, then--his very own! And no doubt Susan had
+christened her Dorothy, after her own mother, his dear wife, who had died
+so many years ago. Dolly was the short for Dorothy, and in early times he
+had often called his wife by that name. He had turned his gas off and
+lighted a candle, and now he took it up and went to the bedside to look
+at his new treasure. The tiny face lying upon his pillow was rosy with
+sleep, and the fair curly hair was tossed about in pretty disorder. His
+spectacles grew very dim indeed, and he was obliged to polish them
+carefully on his cotton handkerchief before he could see his
+grand-daughter plainly enough. Then he touched her dimpled cheek
+tremblingly with the end of his finger, and sobbed out, "Bless her! bless
+her!" He returned to his chair, his head shaking a good deal before he
+could regain his composure; and it was not until he had kindled his pipe,
+and was smoking it, with his face turned towards the sleeping child, that
+he felt at all like himself again.
+
+"Dear Lord!" he said, half aloud, between the whiffs of his pipe, "dear
+Lord! how very good thou art to me! Didst thee not say, 'I'll not leave
+thee comfortless, I'll come to thee?' I know what that means, bless thy
+name; and the good Spirit has many a time brought me comfort, and cheered
+my heart. I know thou didst not leave me alone before. No, no! that was
+far from thee, Lord. Alone!--why, thou'rt always here; and now there's
+the little lass as well. Lonesome!--they don't know thee, Lord, and they
+don't know me. Thou'rt here, with the little lass and me. Yes,
+yes,--yes."
+
+He murmured the word "yes" in a tone of contentment over and over again,
+until, the pipe being finished, he prepared for sleep also. But no sleep
+came to the old man. He was too full of thought, and too fearful of the
+child waking in the night and wanting something. The air was close and
+hot, and now and then a peal of thunder broke overhead; but a profound
+peace and tranquillity, slightly troubled by his new joy, held possession
+of him. His grandchild was there, and his daughter was coming back to him
+in three days.
+
+Oh, how he would welcome her! He would not let her speak one word of her
+wilfulness and disobedience, and the long, cruel neglect which had left
+him in ignorance of where she lived, and what had become of her. It was
+partly his fault, for having been too hard upon her, and too hasty and
+hot-tempered. He had learnt better since then.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+OLD OLIVER'S MASTER.
+
+
+Very early in the morning, before the tardy daylight could creep into the
+darkened room, old Oliver was up and busy. He had been in the habit of
+doing for himself, as he called it, ever since his daughter had forsaken
+him, and he was by nature fastidiously clean and neat. But now there
+would be additional duties for him during the next three days; for there
+would be Dolly to wash, and dress, and provide breakfast for. Every few
+minutes he stole a look at her lying still asleep; and as soon as he
+discovered symptoms of awaking, he hastily lifted Beppo on to the bed,
+that her opening eyes should be greeted by some familiar sight. She
+stretched out her wonderful little hands, and caught hold of the dog's
+rough head before venturing to lift her eyelids, while Oliver looked on
+in speechless delight. At length she ventured to peep slyly at him, and
+then addressed herself to Beppo.
+
+"What am I to call ris funny old man, Beppo?" she asked.
+
+"I am your grandpa, my darling," said Oliver, in his softest voice.
+
+"Are you God-bless-gan-pa?" inquired Dolly, sitting up on her pillow, and
+staring very hard with her blue eyes into his wrinkled face.
+
+"Yes, I am," he answered, looking at her anxiously.
+
+"Dolly knows," she said, counting upon her little fingers; "rere's
+father, and mammy, and Beppo; and now rere's gan-pa. Dolly'll get up
+now."
+
+She flung her arms suddenly about his neck and kissed him, while old
+Oliver trembled with intense joy. It was quite a marvel to him how she
+helped him to dress her, laughing merrily at the strange mistakes he made
+in putting on her clothes the wrong side before; and when he assured her
+that her mother would come back very soon, she seemed satisfied to put up
+with any passing inconvenience. The shop, with its duties, and the
+necessity of getting in his daily stock of newspapers, entirely slipped
+his memory; and he was only recalled to it by a very loud rapping at the
+door as he was pouring out Dolly's breakfast. To his great surprise he
+discovered that he had forgotten to take down his shutters, though it was
+past the hour when his best customers passed by.
+
+The person knocking proved to be none other than Tony, who greeted the
+old man's appearance with a prolonged whistle, and a grave and
+reproachful stare.
+
+"Come," he said, in a tone of remonstrance, "this'll never do, you know.
+Business is business, and must be minded. You pretty nearly frightened
+me into fits; anybody could have knocked me down with a straw when I see
+the shutters up. How is she?"
+
+"She's very well, thank you, my boy," answered Oliver, meekly.
+
+"Mother not turned up, I guess?" said Tony.
+
+"No; she comes on Friday," he replied.
+
+Tony winked, and put his tongue into his cheek; but he gave utterance to
+no remark until after the shutters were in their place. Then he surveyed
+himself as well as he could, with an air of satisfaction. His face and
+hands were clean, and his skin looked very white through the holes in his
+tattered clothes; even his feet, except for an unavoidable under surface
+of dust, were unsoiled. His jacket and trousers appeared somewhat more
+torn than the evening before; but they bore every mark of having been
+washed also.
+
+"Washed myself early in the morning, afore the bobbies were much about,"
+remarked Tony, "in the fountains at Charing Cross; but I hadn't time to
+get my rags done, so I did 'em down under the bridge, when the tide were
+going down; but I could only give 'em a bit of a swill and a ring out.
+Anyhow, I'm a bit cleaner this morning than last night, master."
+
+"To be sure, to be sure," answered Oliver. "Come in, my boy, and I'll
+give you a bit of breakfast with her and me."
+
+"You haven't got sich a thing as a daily paper, have you?" asked Tony, in
+a patronizing tone.
+
+"Not to-day's paper, I'm afraid," he said.
+
+"I'm afraid not," continued Tony; "overslept yourself, eh? Not as I can
+read myself; but there are folks going by as can, and might p'raps buy
+one here as well as anywhere else. Shall I run and get 'em for you, now
+I'm on my legs?"
+
+Oliver looked questioningly at the boy, who returned a frank, honest
+gaze, and said, "Honour bright!" as he held out his hand for the money.
+There was some doubt in the old man's mind after Tony had disappeared as
+to whether he had not done a very foolish thing; but he soon forgot it
+when he returned to the breakfast-table; and long before he himself could
+have reached the place and returned, Tony was back again with his right
+number of papers.
+
+Before many minutes Tony was sitting upon an old box at a little distance
+from the table, where Oliver sat with his grandchild. A basin of coffee
+and a large hunch of bread rested upon his knees, and Beppo was sniffing
+round him with a doubtful air. Dolly was shy in this strange company,
+and ate her breakfast with a sedate gravity which filled both her
+companions with astonishment and admiration. When the meal was finished,
+old Oliver took his daughter's letter from his waistcoat pocket and read
+it aloud to Tony, who listened with undivided interest.
+
+"Then she's your own little 'un," he said, with a sigh of disappointment.
+"You'll never give her up to me, if you get tired of her,--nor to the
+p'lice neither," he added, with a brightening face.
+
+"No, no, no!" answered Oliver, emphatically. "Besides, her mother's
+coming on Friday. I wouldn't give her up for all the world, bless her!"
+
+"And he's 'listed!" said Tony, in a tone of envy. "They wouldn't take me
+yet a while, if I offered to go. But who's that she speaks of?--'for
+Christ's sake, if I am worthy to use his name.' Who is he?"
+
+"Don't you know?" asked Oliver.
+
+"No, never heard tell of him before," he answered. "Is he any friend o'
+yours?" [A]
+
+[Footnote A: It may be necessary to assure some readers that this
+ignorance is not exaggerated. The City Mission Reports, and similar
+records, show that such cases are too frequent.]
+
+"Ay!" said Oliver; "he's my only friend, my best friend. And he's my
+master, besides."
+
+"And she thinks he'd be angry if you turned the little girl away?"
+pursued Tony.
+
+"Yes, yes; he'd be very angry," said old Oliver, thoughtfully; "it 'ud
+grieve him to his heart. Why, he's always loved little children, and
+never had them turned away from himself, whatever he was doing. If she
+hadn't been my own little girl, I daren't have turned her out of my
+doors. No, no, dear Lord, thee knows as I'd have taken care of her, for
+thy sake."
+
+He spoke absently, in a low voice, as though talking to some person
+whom Tony could not see, and the boy was silent a minute or two,
+thinking busily.
+
+"How long have you worked for that master o' yours?" he asked, at last.
+
+"Not very long," replied Oliver, regretfully. "I used to fancy I was
+working for him years and years ago; but, dear me! it was poor sort
+o'work; and now I can't do very much. Only he knows how old I am, and he
+doesn't care so that I love him, which I do, Tony."
+
+"I should think so!" said the boy, falling again into busy thought, from
+which he aroused himself by getting up from his box, and rubbing his
+fingers through his wet and tangled hair.
+
+"He takes to children and little 'uns?" he said, in a questioning tone.
+
+"Ay, dearly!" answered old Oliver.
+
+"I reckon he'd scarcely take me for a man yet," said Tony, at the same
+time drawing himself up to his full height; "though I don't know as I
+should care to work for him. I'd rather have a crossing, and be my own
+master. But if I get hard up, do you think he'd take to me, if you spoke
+a word for me?"
+
+"Are you sure you don't know anything about him?" asked Oliver.
+
+"Not I; how should I?" answered Tony. "Why, you don't s'pose as I know
+all the great folks in London, though I've seen sights and sights of 'em
+riding about in their carriages. I told you I weren't much bigger nor her
+there when mother died, and I've picked up my living up and down the
+streets anyhow, and other lads have helped me on, till I can help 'em on
+now. It don't cost much to keep a boy on the streets. There's nothink to
+pay for coals, or rent, or beds, or furniture, or anythink; only your
+victuals, and a rag now and then. All I want's a broom and a crossing,
+and then shouldn't I get along just? But I don't know how to get 'em."
+
+"Perhaps the Lord Jesus would give them to you, if you'd ask him," said
+Oliver, earnestly.
+
+"Who's he?" inquired Tony, with an eager face.
+
+"Him--Christ. It's his other name," answered the old man.
+
+"Ah! I see," he said, nodding. "Well, if I can't get 'em myself,
+I'll think about it. He'll want me to work for him, you know. Where
+does he live?"
+
+"I'll tell you all about him, if you'll come to see me," replied Oliver.
+
+"Well," said the boy, "I'll just look in after Friday, and see if the
+little 'un's mother's come back. Goodbye,--good-bye, little miss."
+
+He could take Dolly's hand into his own this morning, and he looked down
+curiously at it,--a small, rosy, dimpled hand, such as he had never seen
+before so closely. A lump rose in his throat, and his eyelids smarted
+with tears again. It was such a little thing, such a pretty little thing,
+he said to himself, covering it fondly with his other hand. There was no
+fear that Tony would forget to come back to old Oliver's house.
+
+"Thank you for my breakfast," he said, with a choking voice; "only if
+I do come to see you, it'll be to see her again--not for anythink as
+I can get."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+FORSAKEN AGAIN.
+
+
+The next three days were a season of unmixed happiness to old Oliver. The
+little child was so merry, yet withal so gentle and sweet-tempered, that
+she kept him in a state of unwearied delight, without any alloy of
+anxiety or trouble. She trotted at his side with short, running
+footsteps, when he went out early in the morning to fetch his daily stock
+of newspapers. She watched him set his room tidy, and made believe to
+help him by dusting the legs and seats of his two chairs. She stood with
+folded hands and serious face, looking on as he was busy with his
+cooking. When she was not thus engaged she played contentedly with Beppo,
+prattling to him in such a manner, that Oliver often forgot what he was
+about while listening to her. She played with him, too, frolicsome little
+games of hide-and-seek, in which he grew as eager as herself; and
+sometimes she stole his spectacles, or handkerchief, or anything she
+could lay her mischievous fingers upon to hide away in some unthought-of
+spot; while her shrewd, cunning little face put on an expression of
+profound gravity as old Oliver sought everywhere for them.
+
+As Friday evening drew near, the old man's gladness took a shade of
+anxiety. His daughter was coming home to him, and his heart was full of
+unutterable joy and gratitude; but he did not know exactly how they
+should go on in the future. He was averse to change; yet this little
+house, with its single room, to which he had moved when she forsook him,
+was too scanty in its accommodation. He had made up a rude sort of bed
+for himself under the counter in the shop, and was quite ready to give up
+his own to Susan and his little love, as he called Dolly; but would Susan
+let him have his own way in this, and many other things? He provided a
+sumptuous tea, and added a fresh salad to it from the greengrocer's next
+door; but though he and Dolly waited and watched till long after the
+child's bed-time, taking occasional snatches of bread and butter, still
+Susan did not arrive. At length a postman entered the little shop with a
+noise which made Oliver's heart beat violently, and tossed a letter down
+upon the counter. He carried it to the door, where there was still light
+enough to read it, and saw that it was in Susan's handwriting.
+
+"MY DEAR AND DEAREST FATHER,
+
+"My heart is almost broke, betwixt one thing and another. His regiment
+is to set sail immediate, and the colonel's lady has offered me very
+handsome wages to go out with her as lady's maid, her own having
+disappointed her at the last moment; which I could do very well, knowing
+the dressmaking. He said, 'Do come, Susan, and I'll never get drunk
+again, so help me God; and if you don't, I shall go to the bad
+altogether; for I do love you, Susan.' I said, 'Oh my child!' And the
+colonel's lady said, 'She's safe with her grandfather; and if he's a
+good man, as you say he is, he'll take the best of care of her. I'll
+give you three pounds to send him from here, and we'll send more from
+Calcutta.' So they overpersuaded me, and there isn't even time to come
+back to London, for we are going in a few hours. You'll take care of my
+little dear, I know, you and aunt Charlotte. I've sent a little box of
+clothes for her by the railway, and what more she wants aunt Charlotte
+will see to, I'm sure, and do her mending, and see to her manners till I
+come home. Oh! if I could only hear you say 'Susan, my dear, I forgive
+you, and love you almost as much as ever,' I'd go with a lighter heart,
+and be almost glad to leave Dolly to be a comfort to you. She will be a
+comfort to you, though she is so little, I'm sure. Tell her mammy says
+she must be a good girl always till mammy comes back. A hundred thousand
+kisses for my dear father and my little girl. We shall come home as soon
+as ever we can; but I don't rightly know where India is. I think it's my
+bounden duty to go with him, as things have turned out. Pray God take
+care of us all.
+
+"Your loving, sorrowful daughter,
+
+"SUSAN RALEIGH."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE GRASSHOPPER A BURDEN.
+
+
+It was some time before the full meaning of Susan's letter penetrated
+to her father's brain; but when it did, he was not at first altogether
+pained by it. True, it was both a grief and disappointment to think
+that his daughter, instead of returning to him, was already on her way
+across the sea to a very distant land. But as this came slowly to his
+mind, there came also the thought that there would now be no one to
+divide with him the treasure committed to his charge. The little child
+would belong to him alone. They might go on still, living as they had
+done these last three days, and being all in all to one another. If he
+could have chosen, his will would certainly have been for Susan to
+return to them; but, since he could not have his choice, he felt that
+there were some things which would be all the happier for him because
+of her absence.
+
+He put Dolly to bed, and then went out to shut up the shop for the night.
+As he carried in his feeble arms a single shutter at a time, he heard
+himself hailed by a boy's voice, which was lowered to a low and
+mysterious whisper, and which belonged to Tony, who took the shutter out
+of his hands.
+
+"S'pose the mother turned up all right?" he said, pointing with his thumb
+through the half open door.
+
+"No," answered Oliver. "I've had another letter from her, and she's
+gone out to India with her husband, and left the little love to live
+alone with me."
+
+"But whatever'll the Master say to that?" inquired Tony.
+
+"What master?" asked old Oliver.
+
+"Him--Lord Jesus Christ. What'll he say to her leaving you and the
+little 'un again?" said Tony, with an eager face.
+
+"Oh! he says a woman ought to leave her father, and keep to her husband,"
+he answered, somewhat sadly. "It's all right, that is."
+
+"I s'pose he'll help you to take care of the little girl," said Tony.
+
+"Ay will he; him and me," replied old Oliver; "there's no fear of that.
+You never read the Testament, of course, my boy?"
+
+"Can't read, I told you," he answered. "But what's that?"
+
+"A book all about him, the Lord Jesus," said Oliver, "what he's done, and
+what he's willing to do for people. If you'll come of an evening, I'll
+read it aloud to you and my little love. She'll listen as quiet and good
+as any angel."
+
+"I'll come to-morrow," answered Tony, readily; and he lingered about the
+doorway until he heard the old man inside fasten the bolts and locks, and
+saw the light go out in the pane of glass over the door. Then he
+scampered noiselessly with his naked feet along the alley in the
+direction of Covent Garden, where he purposed to spend the night, if left
+undisturbed.
+
+Old Oliver went back into his room, where the tea-table was still set
+out for his Susan's welcome; but he had no heart to clear the things
+away. A chill came over his spirit as his eye fell upon the preparations
+he had made to give her such a cordial greeting, that she would know at
+once he had forgiven her fully. He lit his pipe, and sat pondering
+sorrowfully over all the changes that had happened to him since those
+old, far-away days when he was a boy, in the pleasant, fresh, healthy
+homestead at the foot of the Wrekin. He felt all of a sudden how very old
+he was; a poor, infirm, hoary old man. His sight was growing dim even,
+and his hearing duller every day; he was sure of it. His limbs ached
+oftener, and he was earlier wearied in the evening; yet he could not
+sleep soundly at nights, as he had been used to do. But, worst of all,
+his memory was not half as good as it had been. Sometimes, of late, he
+had caught himself reading a newspaper quite a fortnight old, and he had
+not found it out till he happened to see the date at the top. He could
+not recollect the names of people as he did once; for many of his
+customers to whom he supplied the monthly magazines were obliged to tell
+him their names and the book they wanted every time, before he could
+remember them. And now there was this young child cast upon him to be
+thought of, and cared and worked for. It was very thoughtless and
+reckless of Susan! Suppose he should forget or neglect any of her tender
+wants! Suppose his dull ear should grow too deaf to catch the pretty
+words she said when she asked for something! Suppose he should not see
+when the tears were rolling down her cheeks, and nobody would comfort
+her! It might very easily be so. He was not the hale man he was when
+Susan was just such another little darling, and he could toss her up to
+the ceiling in his strong hands. It was as much as he could do to lift
+Dolly on to his feeble knee, and nurse her quietly, not even giving her a
+ride to market upon it; and how stiff he felt if she sat there long!
+
+Old Oliver laid aside his pipe, and rested his worn face upon his hands,
+while the heavy tears came slowly and painfully to his eyes, and
+trickled down his withered cheeks. His joy had fled, and his unmingled
+gladness had faded quite away. He was a very poor, very old man; and the
+little child was very, very young. What would become of them both, alone
+in London?
+
+He did not know whether it was a voice speaking within himself in his own
+heart, or words whispered very softly into his ear; but he heard a low,
+quiet, still, small voice, which said, "Even to your old age I am he,
+and even to hoar hairs I will carry you: I have made, and I will bear;
+even I will carry, and will deliver you." And old Oliver answered, with a
+sob, "Yes, Lord, yes!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE PRINCE OF LIFE.
+
+
+In the new life which had now fairly begun for Oliver, it was partly as
+he had foreseen; he was apt to forget many things, and he had a fretting
+consciousness of this forgetfulness. When he was in the house playing
+with Dolly, or reading to her, the shop altogether slipped away from his
+memory, and he was only recalled to it by the loud knocking or shouting
+of some customer in it. On the other hand, when he was sitting behind the
+counter looking for news from India in the papers, news in which he was
+already profoundly concerned, though it was impossible that Susan could
+yet have reached it, he grew so absorbed, that he did not know how the
+time was passing by, and both he and his little grand-daughter were
+hungry before he had thought of getting ready any meal. He tried all
+kinds of devices for strengthening his failing memory; but in vain. He
+even forgot that he did forget; and when Dolly was laughing and
+frolicking about him he grew a child again, and felt himself the happiest
+man in London.
+
+The person who took upon himself the heaviest weight of anxiety and
+responsibility about Dolly was Tony, who began to make it his daily
+custom to pass by the house at the hour when old Oliver ought to be going
+for his morning papers; and if he found no symptom of life about the
+place, he did not leave off kicking and butting at the shop-door until
+the owner appeared. It was very much the same thing at night, when the
+time for shutting up came; though it generally happened now that the boy
+was paying his friends an evening visit, and was therefore at hand to put
+up the shutters for Oliver. Tony could not keep away from the place.
+Though he felt a boy's contemptuous pity for the poor old man's declining
+faculties as regarded business, he had a very high veneration for his
+learning. Nothing pleased him better than to sit upon the old box near
+the door, his elbows on his knees, and his chin upon his hands, while
+Oliver read aloud, with Dolly upon his knee, her curly hair and small
+pretty features making a strange contrast to his white head and withered,
+hollow face. Tony, who had never had anything to love except a stray cur
+or two, which he had always lost after a few days' friendship, felt as if
+he could have suffered himself to be put to death for either of these
+two; while Beppo came in for a large share of his unclaimed affections.
+The chief subject of their reading was the life of the Master, who was so
+intimately dear to the heart of old Oliver. Tony was very eager to learn
+all he could of this great friend who did so much for the old man, and
+who might perhaps be persuaded some day or other to take a little notice
+of him, if he should fail to get a crossing for himself. Oliver, in his
+long, unbroken solitude of six years, had fallen into a notion, amounting
+to a firm belief, that his Lord was not dead and far off, as most of the
+world believed, but was a very present, living friend, always ready to
+listen to the meanest of his words. He had a vague suspicion that his
+faith had got into a different course from that of most other people; and
+he bore meekly the rebukes of his sister Charlotte for the
+unwholesomeness of his visions. But none the less, when he was alone, he
+talked and prayed to, and spoke to Tony of this Master, as one who was
+always very near at hand.
+
+"I s'pose he takes a bit o' notice o' the little un," said Tony, "when he
+comes in now and then of an evening."
+
+"Ay, does he!" answered Oliver, earnestly. "My boy, he loves every child
+as if it was his very own, and it is his own in one sense. Didn't I read
+you last night how he said, 'Suffer the little children to come unto me,
+and forbid them not.' Why, he'd love all the young children in the world,
+if they weren't hindered from coming to him."
+
+"I should very much like to see him some day," pursued Tony,
+reflectively, "and the rest of them,--Peter, and John, and them. I s'pose
+they are getting pretty old by now, aren't they?"
+
+"They are dead," said Oliver.
+
+"All of 'em?" asked Tony.
+
+"All of them," he repeated.
+
+"Dear, dear!" cried Tony, his eyes glistening. "Whatever did the Master
+do when they all died? I'm very sorry for him now. He's had a many
+troubles, hasn't he?"
+
+"Yes, yes," replied old Oliver, with a faltering voice. "He was called a
+man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. Nobody ever bore so many
+troubles as him."
+
+"How long is it ago since they all died?" asked Tony.
+
+"I can't rightly say," he answered. "I heard once, but it is gone out of
+my head. I only know it was the same when I was a boy. It must have been
+a long, long time ago."
+
+"The same when you was a boy!" repeated Tony, in a tone of
+disappointment. "It must ha' been a long while ago. I thought all along
+as the Master was alive now."
+
+"So he is, so he is!" exclaimed old Oliver, eagerly. "I'll read to you
+all about it. They put him to death on the cross, and buried him in a
+rocky grave; but he is the Prince of Life, and he came to life again
+three days after, and now he can die no more. His own words to John
+were, 'I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive
+forevermore.' What else can it mean but that he is living now, and will
+never die again?"
+
+Tony made no answer. He sat with his sharp, unboyish face gazing intently
+into the fire; for by this time autumn had set in, and the old man was
+chilly of an evening. A very uncertain, dim idea was dawning upon him
+that this master and friend of old Oliver's was a being very different
+from an ordinary man, however great and rich he might be. He had grown to
+love the thought of him, and to listen attentively to the book which told
+the manner of life he led; but it was a chill to find out that he could
+not look into his face, and hear his voice, as he could Oliver's. His
+heart was heavy, and very sad.
+
+"I s'pose I can't see him, then," he murmured to himself, at last.
+
+"Not exactly like other folks," said Oliver. "I think sometimes that
+perhaps there's a little darkness of the grave where he was buried about
+him still. But he sees us, and hears us. He himself says, 'Behold, I am
+with you always.' I don't know whatever I should do, even with my little
+love here, if I wasn't sure Jesus was with me as well."
+
+"I'll tell you what I'll do," said Tony, after another pause. "I'm going
+to ask him to give me somethink, and then if he does, I shall know he
+hears me--I should very much like to have a broom and a crossing, and get
+my living a bit more easy, if you please."
+
+He had turned his face away from Oliver, and looked across into the
+darkest corner of the room, where he could see nothing but shadow. The
+old man felt puzzled, and somewhat troubled, but he only sighed softly to
+himself; and opening the Testament, he read aloud in it till he was
+calmed again, and Tony was listening in rapt attention.
+
+"My boy," he said, as the hour came for Tony to go, "where are you
+sleeping now?"
+
+"Anywhere as I can get out o' the wind," he answered. "It's cold now,
+nights--wery cold, master. But I must get along a bit farder on. Lodgings
+is wery dear."
+
+"I've been thinking," said Oliver, "that you'd find it better to have
+some sort of a shake-down under my counter. I've heard say that
+newspapers stitched together make a coverlid pretty near as warm as a
+blanket; and we could do no harm by trying them, Tony. Look here, and see
+how you'd like it."
+
+It looked very much like a long box, and was not much larger. Two or
+three beetles crawled sluggishly away as the light fell upon them, and
+dusty cobwebs festooned all the corners; but to Tony it seemed so
+magnificent an accommodation for sleeping, that he could scarcely
+believe he heard old Oliver aright. He looked up into his face with a
+sharp, incredulous gaze, ready to wink and thrust his tongue into his
+cheek, if there was the least sign of making game of him. But the old
+man was simply in earnest, and without a word Tony slipped down upon a
+heap of paper shavings strewed within, drew his ragged jacket up about
+his ears, and turned his face away, lest his tears should be seen. He
+felt, a minute or two after, that a piece of an old rug was laid over
+him, but he could say nothing; and old Oliver could not hear the sob
+which broke from his lips.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+NO PIPE FOR OLD OLIVER.
+
+
+As some weeks went by, and no crossing and broom had been given to Tony,
+he began to suspect that Oliver was imposing upon him. Now that he slept
+under the counter, he could often hear the old man talking aloud to his
+invisible Friend as he smoked his pipe; and once or twice Tony crept
+noiselessly to the door and watched him, after he had finished smoking,
+kneel down and hide his face in his hands for some minutes together. But
+the boy could see nothing, and his wish had not been granted; even
+though, as he grew more instructed, he followed Oliver's example, and,
+kneeling down behind the counter, whispered out a prayer for it. To be
+sure his life was easier, especially the nights of it; for he never now
+went hungry and starved to bed upon some cold, hard door-step. But it was
+old Oliver who did that for him, not old Oliver's Master. So far as he
+knew, the Lord Jesus had taken no notice whatever of him; and the
+feeling, at first angry, softened down into a kind of patient grief,
+which was quickly dying away into indifference.
+
+Oliver had done himself no bad turn by offering a shelter to the solitary
+lad. Tony always woke early in the morning, and if it rained he would run
+for the papers, before turning out to "find for himself" in the streets.
+He generally took care to be out of the way at meal-times; for it was as
+much as the old man could do to provide for himself and Dolly. Sometimes
+Tony saw him at the till, counting over his pence with rather a troubled
+face. Once, after receiving a silver fourpenny piece, an extraordinary
+and undreamed of event, Tony dropped it, almost with a feeling of guilt,
+through the slit in the counter which communicated with the till. But
+Oliver was so bewildered by its presence among the coppers, that he was
+compelled to confess what he had done, saying it would have cost him
+more than that for lodgings these cold nights.
+
+"No, no, Tony," said Oliver; "you're very useful, fetching my papers, and
+taking my little love out a-walking when the weather's fine. I ought to
+pay you something, instead of taking it of you."
+
+"Keep it for Dolly," said Tony, bashfully, and pushing the coin into her
+little hand.
+
+"Sank 'oo," answered Dolly, accepting it promptly; "me'll give 'oo twenty
+kisses for it."
+
+It seemed ample payment to Tony, who went down on his knees to have the
+kisses pressed upon his face, which had never felt a kiss since his
+mother died. But Oliver was not satisfied with the bargain, though he
+drew Dolly to him fondly, and left the money in her hand.
+
+"It 'ud buy you a broom, Tony," he said.
+
+"Oh, I've give up asking for a crossing," he answered, dejectedly; "for
+he never heard, or if he heard, he never cared; so it were no use going
+on teazing either him or me."
+
+"But this money 'ud buy the broom," said Oliver; "and if you looked
+about you, you'd find the crossing. You never got such a bit of money
+before, did you?"
+
+"No, never," replied Tony. "A tall, thin gentleman, with a dark face and
+very sharp eyes, gave it me for holding his horse, near Temple Bar. He
+says, 'Mind you spend that well, my lad.' I'd know him again anywhere."
+
+"You ought to have bought a broom," said Oliver, looking down at Dolly's
+tightly-closed hand.
+
+"Don't you go to take it of her," cried Tony. "Bless you! I'll get
+another some way. I never thought that were the way he'd give me a broom
+and a crossing. I thought it 'ud be sure to come direct."
+
+"Well," said Oliver, after a little pause, "I'll save the fourpence for
+you. It'll only be going without my pipe for a few nights, that's all.
+That's nothing, Tony."
+
+It did not seem much to Tony, who had no idea as yet of the pleasures of
+smoking; yet he roused up just before falling into his deep sleep at
+night to step softly to the door, and look in upon Oliver. He was sitting
+in his arm-chair, with his pipe between his lips, but there was no
+tobacco in it; and he was holding more eager converse than ever with his
+unseen companion.
+
+"Dear Lord!" he said, "I'd do ten times more than this for thee. Thou
+hast said, 'Inasmuch as ye did it to one of the least of these, ye did it
+unto me.' Tony's one of thy little ones. Dear Lord, do thee give him a
+crossing, if it be thy blessed will. Do thee now, Lord."
+
+Tony could hear no more, and he stole back to bed, his mind full of new
+and vague hopes. He dreamed of the fourpenny piece, and the gentleman who
+had given it, and of Dolly, who bought a wondrous broom with it, in his
+dream, which swept a beautiful crossing of itself. But old Oliver sat
+still a long time, talking half aloud; for his usual drowsiness did not
+come to him. It was nearly five months now since Dolly was left to him,
+and he felt his deafness and blindness growing upon him slowly. His
+infirmities were not yet so burdensome as to make him dependent upon
+others; but he felt himself gradually drawing near to such a state.
+Dolly's clothes were getting sadly in want of mending; there was scarcely
+a fastening left upon them, and neither he nor Tony could sew on a button
+or tape. It was a long time--a very long time--since his sister had been
+to see him; and, with the reluctancy of old age to any active exertion,
+he had put off from week to week the task of writing to her to tell her
+of Susan's departure, and the charge he had in his little grandchild. He
+made up his mind that he would do it tomorrow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+A NEW BROOM AND A CROSSING.
+
+
+The morning was a fine soft, sunny December day, such as comes sometimes
+after a long season of rain and fog, and Tony proposed taking Dolly out
+for a walk through the streets, to which Oliver gladly consented, as it
+would give to him exactly the undisturbed leisure he needed for writing
+his letter to Charlotte. But Dolly was not in her usual spirits; on the
+contrary, she was grave and sober, and at length Tony, thinking she was
+tired, sat down on a door-step, and took her upon his knee, to tell her
+his dream of the wonderful broom which swept beautifully all by itself.
+Dolly grew more and more pensive after hearing this, and sat silent for a
+long time, with her small head resting thoughtfully upon her hand, as she
+looked up and down the street.
+
+"Dolly 'ud like to buy a boom," she said, at last, "a great, big boom;
+and gan-pa 'ill smoke his pipe again to-night. Dolly's growing a big
+girl; and me must be a good girl till mammy comes back. Let us go and buy
+a big boom, Tony."
+
+For a few minutes Tony tried to shake her resolution, and persuade her
+to change her mind. He even tempted her with the sight of a doll in a
+shop-window; but she remained steadfast, and he was not sorry to give in
+at last. Since the idea had entered his head that the money had been
+given to him for the purpose of buying a broom, he had rather regretted
+parting with it, and he felt some anxiety lest he should not be allowed
+a second chance. Dolly's light-heartedness had returned, and she
+trotted cheerfully by his side as they walked on in search of a shop
+where they could make their purchase. It was some time before they
+found one, and they had already left behind them the busier
+thoroughfares, and had reached a knot of quieter streets where there
+were more foot-passengers, for the fine morning had tempted many people
+out for pleasure as well as business. Tony was particular in his choice
+of a broom, but once bought, he carried it over his shoulder, and went
+on his way with Dolly in triumph.
+
+They were passing along chattering busily, when Tony's eyes fell upon a
+child about as old as Dolly, standing on the kerb-stone with a lady, who
+looked anxiously across to the other side of the broad and very dirty
+road, for the day before had been rainy. They were both finely dressed,
+and the little girl had on new boots of shining leather, which it was
+evident she was very much afraid of soiling. For a minute Tony only
+looked on at their perplexity, but then he went up to them, holding Dolly
+by the hand.
+
+[Illustration: A NEW BROOM AND A CROSSING]
+
+"If you'll take care of my little girl," he said, "I'll carry your
+little girl across the road. I'm wery clean for a street-boy, all but my
+feet, 'cos I've got this little girl to take care of; and I'll do it
+wery gentle."
+
+Both the lady and the child looked very searchingly into Tony's face. It
+was pale and meagre; but there was a pleasant smile upon it, and his
+eyes shone down upon the two children with a very loving light in them.
+The lady took Dolly's hand in hers, nodding permission for him to carry
+her little child over to the other side, and she waited for him to come
+back to his own charge. Then she took out her purse, and put twopence
+into his hand.
+
+"Thank ye, my lady," said Tony; "but I didn't do it for that. I'm only
+looking out for a crossing. Me and Dolly have bought this broom, and I'm
+looking out for a place to make a good crossing in."
+
+"Why not make one here?" asked the lady.
+
+It seemed a good place to try one in; there were four roads meeting, and
+a cab-stand close by. Plenty of people were passing to and fro, and the
+middle of the road was very muddy. Tony begged a wisp of straw from a
+cabman, to make a seat for Dolly in the sunshine under a blank bit of
+wall, while he set to work with a will, feeling rather pleased than not
+that the broom would not sweep of itself. A crossing was speedily made,
+and for two or three hours Tony kept it well swept. By that time it was
+twelve o'clock, and Dolly's dinner would be ready for her before they
+could reach home, if old Oliver had not forgotten it. It seemed a great
+pity to leave his new post so early. Most passers-by, certainly, had
+appeared not to see him at all; but he had already received fivepence
+halfpenny, chiefly in halfpence, from ladies who were out for their
+morning's walk; and Dolly was enjoying herself very much in the sunshine,
+receiving all the attention which he could spare from his crossing.
+However a beginning was made. The broom and the crossing were his
+property; and Tony's heart, beat fast with pride and gladness as he
+carried the weary little Dolly all the way home again. He resolved to put
+by half of his morning's earnings towards replacing the fourpenny-piece
+she had given back to him; or perhaps he would buy her a beautiful doll,
+dressed like a real lady.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+HIGHLY RESPECTABLE.
+
+
+As old Oliver was stooping over his desk on the counter, and bringing his
+dim eyes as close as he could to the letter he was writing, his shop-door
+was darkened by the unexpected entrance of his sister Charlotte herself.
+She was dressed with her usual extreme neatness, bordering upon
+gentility, and she carried upon her arm a small fancy reticule, which
+contained some fresh eggs, and a few russet apples, brought up expressly
+from the country. Oliver welcomed her with more than ordinary pleasure,
+and led her at once into his room behind. Charlotte's quick eyes detected
+in an instant the traces of a child's dwelling there; and before Oliver
+could utter a word, she picked up a little frock, and was holding it out
+at arm's length, with an air of utter surprise and misgiving.
+
+"Brother James!" she exclaimed, and her questioning voice, with its tone
+of amazement, rang very clearly into his ears.
+
+"It's my little Dolly's," he answered, in haste; "poor Susan's little
+girl, who's gone out with her husband, young Raleigh, to India, because
+he's 'listed, and left her little girl with me, her grandfather. She came
+on the very last day you were here."
+
+"Well, to be sure!" cried his sister, sinking down on a chair, but still
+keeping the torn little frock in her hand.
+
+"I've had two letters from poor Susan," he continued, in a tremulous
+voice, "and I'll read them to you. The child's such a precious treasure
+to me, Charlotte--such a little love, a hundred times better than any
+gold; and now you're come to mend up her clothes a bit, and see what she
+wants for me, there's nothing else that I desire. I was writing about her
+to you when you came in."
+
+"I thought you'd gone and picked up a lost child out of the streets,"
+said Charlotte, with a sigh of relief.
+
+"No, no; she's my own," he answered. "You hearken while I read poor
+Susan's letters, and then you'll understand all about it. I couldn't give
+her up for a hundred gold guineas--not for a deal more than that."
+
+He knew Susan's letters off by heart, and did not need his spectacles,
+nor a good light to read them by. Charlotte listened with emphatic nods,
+and many exclamations of astonishment.
+
+"That's very pretty of Susan," she remarked, "saying as Aunt Charlotte'll
+do her sewing, and see to her manners. Ay, that I will! for who should
+know manners better than me, who used to work for the Staniers, and dine
+at the housekeeper's table, with the butler and all the head servants? to
+be sure I'll take care that she does not grow up ungenteel. Where is the
+dear child, brother James?"
+
+"She's gone out for a walk this fine morning," he answered.
+
+"Not alone?" cried Charlotte. "Who's gone out with her? A child under
+five years old could never go out all alone in London: at least I should
+think not. She might get run over and killed a score of times."
+
+"Oh! there's a person with her I've every confidence in," replied Oliver.
+
+"What sort of person; man or woman; male or female?" inquired Charlotte.
+
+"A boy," he answered, in some confusion.
+
+"A boy!" repeated his sister, as if he had said a monster. "What boy?"
+
+"His name's Tony," he replied.
+
+"But where does he come from? Is he respectable?" she pursued, fixing
+him with her glittering eyes in a manner which did not tend to restore
+his composure.
+
+"I don't know, sister," he said in a feeble tone.
+
+"Don't know, brother James!" she exclaimed. "Don't you know where
+he lives?"
+
+"He lives here," stammered old Oliver; "at least he sleeps here under the
+counter; but he finds his own food about the streets."
+
+Charlotte's consternation was past all powers of speech. Here was her
+brother, a respectable man, who had seen better days, and whose sister
+had been a dressmaker in good families, harbouring in his own house a
+common boy off the streets, who, no doubt, was a thief and pickpocket,
+with all sorts of low ways and bad language. At the same time there was
+poor Susan's little girl dwelling under the same roof; the child whose
+pretty manners she was to attend to, living in constant companionship
+with a vulgar and vicious boy! What she might have said upon recovering
+her speech, neither she nor Oliver ever knew; for at this crisis Tony
+himself appeared, carrying Dolly and his new broom in his arms, and
+looking very haggard and tattered himself, his bare feet black with mud,
+and his bare head in a hopeless condition of confusion, and tangle.
+
+"We've bought a geat big boom, gan-pa," shouted Dolly, as she came
+through the shop, and before she perceived the presence of a stranger;
+"and Tony and Dolly made a great big crossing, and dot ever so much
+money--"
+
+She was suddenly silent as soon as her eye fell upon the stranger; but
+Aunt Charlotte had heard enough. She rose with great dignity from her
+chair, and was about to address herself vehemently to Tony, when old
+Oliver interrupted her.
+
+"Charlotte," he said, "the boy's a good boy, and he's a help to me. I
+couldn't send him away. He's one of the Lord's poor little ones as are
+scattered up and down in this great city, without father or mother, and I
+must do all I can for him. It isn't much; it's only a bed under the
+counter, and a crust now and then, and he more than pays for it. You
+musn't come betwixt me and Tony."
+
+Old Oliver spoke so emphatically, that his sister was impressed and
+silenced for a minute. She took the little girl away from Tony, and
+glared at him with a sternness which made him feel very uncomfortable;
+but her eye softened a little, and her face grew less harsh.
+
+"You can't read or write?" she said, in a sharp voice.
+
+"No," he answered.
+
+"And you've not got any manners, or boots, or a cap on your head. You are
+ragged and ignorant, and not fit to live with this little girl," she
+continued, with energy. "If this little girl's mother saw her going about
+with a boy in bare feet and a bare head, it 'ud break her heart I know.
+So if you wish to stay here with my brother, Mr. Oliver, and this little
+girl, Miss Dorothy Raleigh, as I suppose her name is, you must get all
+these things. You must begin to learn to read and write, and talk
+properly. I shall come here again in a month's time--I shall come every
+month now--and if you haven't got some shoes for your feet, and a cap for
+your head, before I see you again, I shall just take the little girl away
+down into the country, where I live, and you'll never see her again. Do
+you understand?"
+
+"Yes," answered Tony, nodding his head.
+
+"Then you may take yourself away now," said the sharp old woman, "I don't
+want to be too hard upon you; but I've got this little girl to look after
+for her mother, and you must do as I say, or I shall carry her right off
+to be out of your way. Take your broom and go; and never you think of
+such a thing as taking this little girl to sweep a crossing again. I
+never heard of such a thing. There, go!"
+
+Tony slunk away sadly, with a sudden down-heartedness. He returned so
+joyous and triumphant, in spite of his weariness, that this unexpected
+and unpleasant greeting had been a very severe shock to him. With his
+broom over his shoulder, and with his listless, slouching steps, he
+sauntered slowly back to his crossing; but he had no heart for it now.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+AMONG THIEVES.
+
+
+The night fell early, for a thick fog came on in the afternoon. Tony
+cowered down upon his broom under the wall where Dolly had sat in the
+sunshine all the morning to watch him sweep his crossing. It was all over
+now. She was lost to him; for he should never dare to go back to old
+Oliver's house, and face that terrible old woman again. There was nothing
+for him but to return to his old life and his old haunts; and a chill ran
+through him, body and spirit, as he thought of it. His heap of paper
+shavings under the counter, where the biting winds could not reach him,
+came to his mind, and the tears rushed to his eyes. But to-night, at
+least, there would be no need to sleep out of doors, for he had some
+money in the safest corner of his ragged pocket, tied up in it securely
+with a bit of string. He could afford to pay for a night's lodging, and
+he knew very well where he could get one.
+
+About nine o'clock Tony turned his weary feet towards a slum he knew
+of in Westminster, where there was a cellar open to everybody who could
+pay two-pence for a night's shelter. His heart was very full and heavy
+with resentment against his enemy, and a great longing to see Dolly. He
+loitered about the door of the cellar, reluctant and almost afraid to
+venture in; for it was so long since he had been driven to any of these
+places that he felt nearly like a stranger among them. Besides, in former
+times he had been kicked, and beaten, and driven from the fire, and
+fought with by the bigger boys; and he had become unaccustomed to such
+treatment of late. How different this lodging-house was to the quiet
+peaceful home where Dolly knelt down every evening at her grandfather's
+knee, and prayed for him; for now she always put Tony's name into her
+childish prayers! He should never, never hear her again, nor see old
+Oliver seated in his arm-chair, smoking his long pipe, while he talked
+with that strange friend and master of his. Ah! he would never hear or
+know any more of that unseen Christ, who was so willing to be his master
+and friend, for the Lord Jesus Christ could never come into such a wicked
+place as this, which was the only home he had. He had given him the
+crossing and the broom, and that was the end of it. He must take care of
+himself now, and keep out of gaol if he could, and if not, why then he
+had better make a business of thieving, and become as good a pickpocket
+as "Clever Dog Tom," who had once stolen a watch from a policeman
+himself.
+
+Clever Dog Tom was the first to greet Tony when he slipped in at last,
+and he seemed inclined to make much of him; but Tony was too troubled
+for receiving any consolation from Tom's friendly advances. He crept
+away into the darkest corner, and stretched himself on the thin straw
+which covered the damp and dirty floor, but he could not fall asleep.
+There was a good deal of quarreling among the boys, and the men who
+wished to sleep swore long and loudly at them. Then there followed a
+fight, which grew so exciting at last that every person in the place,
+except Tony, gathered about the boys in a ring, encouraging and cheering
+them. It was long after midnight before silence and rest came, and then
+he fell into a broken slumber, dreaming of Dolly and old Oliver, until
+he awoke and found his face wet with tears. He got up before any of his
+bed-fellows were aroused, and made his way out into the fresh keen air
+of a December morning.
+
+Day after day went by, and night after night Tony was growing more
+indifferent again to the swearing and fighting of his old comrades. He
+began to listen with delight to the tales of Clever Dog Tom, who told him
+that hands like his would work well in his line, and his innocent-looking
+face would go a long way towards softening any judge and jury, or would
+bring him favour with the chaplain, and easy times in gaol. He kept his
+crossing still, and did tolerably well, earning enough to keep himself in
+food, and to pay for his night's shelter; but he was beginning to hanker
+after something more. If he could not be good, and be on the same side as
+old Oliver and Dolly, he thought it would be better to be altogether on
+the other side, like Tom, who dressed well, and lived well, and was
+looked up to by other boys. It was a week after he had left old Oliver's
+house, and he was about to leave his crossing for the night, when a
+gentleman stopped him suddenly, and looked keenly into his face.
+
+"Hollo, my lad!" he said, "you're the boy I gave fourpence to a week
+ago for holding my horse. I told you to lay it out well. What did you
+do with it?"
+
+"Me and Dolly bought this broom," he answered, "and I've kept this
+crossing ever since."
+
+"Well done!" said the gentleman. "And who is Dolly?"
+
+"It's a little girl as I was very fond of," replied Tony, with a deep
+sigh. It seemed so long ago that he spoke of his love for her as if it
+was a thing altogether passed away and dead, yet his heart still ached at
+the memory of it.
+
+"Well, here's another fourpenny-bit for you," said his friend, "quite a
+new one. See how bright it is; no one has ever bought anything with it
+yet. Dolly will like to see it."
+
+Tony held it in the palm of his hand long after the gentleman was out of
+sight, gazing at it in the lamplight. It was very beautiful and shining;
+and oh! how Dolly's eyes would shine and sparkle if she could only see
+it! And she ought to see it. By right it belonged to her; for had he not
+given her his first fourpenny-piece freely, and had twenty kisses for it,
+and then had she not given it him back to buy a broom with? she had never
+had a single farthing of all his earnings. How he would like to show her
+this beautiful piece of silver, and feel her soft little arms round his
+neck, when he said it was to be her very own! He felt that he dare not
+pass the night in the cellar with such a treasure about him, for Tom, who
+was so clever, would be sure to find out that his pocket was worth the
+picking, and Tony had not found that there was much honour among thieves.
+What was he to do? Where was he to go?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+TONY'S WELCOME.
+
+
+Almost without knowing where his feet were carrying him, Tony sauntered
+through the streets until he found himself at the turn into the alley
+within a few yards of Oliver's home, and his beloved Dolly. At any rate
+he could pass down it, and, if the shop-door was not shut, he would wrap
+his beautiful silver coin in a rag, and throw it into the inside; they
+would be sure to guess who had done it, and what it was for. It was dark
+down the alley, only one lamp and the greengrocer's gas lighting it up,
+and Tony stole along quietly in the shadow. It was nearly time for Dolly
+to be going to bed, he thought, and old Oliver was sure to be with her in
+the inner room; but just as he came into the revealing glare of the
+greengrocer's stall, his ears rang and his heart throbbed violently at
+the sound of a shrill little scream of gladness, and the next moment he
+felt himself caught by Dolly's arms, and dragged into the house by them.
+
+"Tony's come home, Tony's come home, gan-pa!" she shouted with all her
+might. "Dolly's found Tony at last!"
+
+Dolly's voice quivered, and broke down into quick, childish sobs, while
+she held Tony very fast, lest he should escape from her once again; and
+old Oliver came quickly from the room beyond, and laid his hand fondly
+upon the boy's shoulder.
+
+"Why have you kept away from us so long, Tony?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, master!" he cried, "I've been a wicked boy, and a miserable boy. Do
+forgive me, and I'll never do so no more. I s'pose you'll never let me
+sleep under the counter again?"
+
+"Come in, come in!" answered Oliver, pushing him gently before him into
+the house. "We've been waiting and watching for you every night, me and
+my little love. You ought not to have served us so, my lad; but we're too
+glad to be angry with you. Charlotte's sharp, and she's very much afraid
+of low ways and manners; but she isn't a hard woman, and she didn't know
+anything about you. When I told her as you'd been left no bigger than my
+little love here to take care of yourself, alone, in London,--mother
+dead, and no father,--she shed tears about you, she did. And she left you
+the biggest of her eggs to be kept for your supper, with her kind love;
+and we've put it by for you. You shall have it this very night. Dolly, my
+love, bring me the little saucepan."
+
+"I'm not so clean as I could wish," said Tony, mournfully; for he had
+neglected himself during the last week, and looked very much like what he
+had done when he had first seen old Oliver and his little grand-daughter.
+
+"Take a bowl full of water into the shop, then," answered Oliver, "and
+wash yourself, while I boil the egg. Dolly'll find you a bit of soap and
+a towel; she's learning to be grand-pa's little housekeeper, she is."
+
+When Tony returned to the kitchen he looked a different being; the gloom
+was gone as well as the grime. He felt as if he had come to himself after
+a long and very miserable dream. Here was old Oliver again, looking at
+him with a kindly light in his dim eyes, and Dolly dancing about, with
+her pretty merry little ways; and Beppo wagging his tail in joyous
+welcome, as he sniffed round and round him. Even the egg was a token of
+forgiveness and friendliness. That terrible old woman was not his enemy,
+after all. He recollected what she had said he must do, and he resolved
+to do it for Dolly's sake, and old Oliver's. He would learn to read and
+write, and he would pinch himself hard to buy some better clothing, lest
+he should continue to be a disgrace to them; shoes he must have first of
+all, as those were what the sharp but friendly old woman had particularly
+mentioned. At any rate, he could never run away again from this home,
+where he was so loved and cared for.
+
+Oliver told him how sadly Dolly had fretted after him, and watched for
+him at the door, hour after hour, to see him come home again. He said
+that in the same way, only with a far greater longing and love, his
+Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, was waiting for Tony to go to him. He
+could not half understand it, but a vague feeling of a love passing all
+understanding sank deeply into his heart. He fell asleep that night under
+the counter with the tranquil peacefulness of one who has been tossed
+about in a great storm and tempest, and has been brought safely to the
+desired haven.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+NEW BOOTS.
+
+
+It was several weeks before Tony could scrape together enough money for
+his new boots, though he pinched and starved himself with heroic courage
+and endurance. He did not mean to buy them at a shop; for he knew a place
+in Whitechapel where boots quite good enough for him were to be had for
+two or three shillings. He was neither ambitious nor fastidious; old
+boots patched up would do very well to start with, if he could only
+manage to get them before aunt Charlotte came up to town again. She had
+sent word she was coming the last Saturday in January; and early in the
+afternoon of that day, before the train could come in from Stratford,
+Tony started off to the place where he intended to make his purchase.
+
+It was a small open space in one of the streets of Whitechapel, where
+there was an area of flags, lying off the pavement. Several traders held
+possession of this square, sitting on low stools, or cross-legged on the
+ground, with their stock in trade around them. One dealer bought and sold
+all kinds of old and rusty pieces of iron; another, a woman, ill clad and
+with red eyes, displayed before her a dingy assortment of ragged clothes,
+which were cheapened by other spare and red-eyed women, who held almost
+naked children by the hand. It was cold, and a bitter, keen east wind was
+searching every corner of London streets. The salesman Tony was come to
+deal with had a tolerable selection of old boots, very few of them pairs,
+some with pretty good upper-leathers, but with no soles worth speaking
+of; and others thickly cobbled and patched, but good enough to keep the
+feet dry, without presenting a very creditable appearance. For the first
+time in his life Tony found out the perplexity of having a choice to
+make. There were none which exactly fitted him; but a good fit is a
+luxury for richer folks than Tony, and he was not troubled about it. His
+chief anxiety was to look well in the eyes of Dolly's aunt, who might
+possibly let him see her on her way back to the station, if she approved
+of him; and who would not now be obliged to carry Dolly off with her, to
+be out of the way of his naked feet.
+
+He fixed upon a pair at last, urged and coaxed to them by the dealer.
+They were a good deal too large, and his feet slipped about in them
+uncomfortably; but the man assured him that was how everybody, even
+gentlefolks, bought them, to leave room for growing. There was an
+awkward, uneven patch under one of the soles, and the other heel was worn
+down at the side; but at least they covered his feet well. He shambled
+away in them slowly and toilsomely, hardly knowing how to lift one foot
+after another, yet full of pride in his new possessions. It was a long
+way home to old Oliver's alley, between Holborn and the Strand; but he
+was in no hurry to arrive there before they had finished and cleared away
+their tea; so he travelled painfully in that direction, stopping now and
+then to regale himself at the attractive windows of tripe and cow-heel
+shops. He watched the lamplighters kindling the lamps, and the
+shopkeepers lighting up their gas; and then he heard the great solemn
+clock of St. Paul's strike six. Tea would be quite over now, and Tony
+turned down a narrow back street, which would prove a nearer way home
+than the thronged thoroughfares, and set off to run as fast as he could
+in his awkward and unaccustomed boots.
+
+It was not long before he came to a sudden and sharp fall off the
+kerb-stone, as he trod upon a bit of orange-peel, and slipped upon it. He
+felt stunned for a few seconds, and sat still rubbing his forehead. These
+back streets were very quiet, for the buildings were mostly offices and
+warehouses, and most of them were already closed for the night. He lifted
+himself up at length, and set his foot upon the flags; but a shrill cry
+of pain broke from his lips, and rang loudly through the quiet street. He
+fell back upon the pavement, quivering and trembling, with a chilly
+moisture breaking out upon his skin. What hurt had been done to him? How
+was it that he could not bear to walk? He took off his new boots, and
+tried once more, but with no better success. He could not endure the
+agony of standing or moving.
+
+Yet he must move; he must get up and walk. If he did not go home, they
+would think he had run away again, for fear of meeting Dolly's aunt. At
+that thought he set off to crawl homewards upon his hands and knees, with
+suppressed groans, as his foot trailed uselessly along the ground. Yet he
+knew he could not advance very far in this manner. What if he should have
+to lie all night upon the hard paving-stones! for he could not remember
+ever having seen a policeman in these back streets; and there did not
+seem to be anybody else likely to pass that way. It was freezing fast,
+now the sun was gone down, and his hands scraped up the frosty mud as he
+dragged himself along. If he stayed out all night, he must die of cold
+and pain before morning.
+
+But if that was true which old Oliver said so often, that the Lord Jesus
+Christ loved him, and that he was always with those whom he loved, then
+he was not alone and helpless even here, in the deserted street, with the
+ice and darkness of a winter's night about him. Oh! if he could but feel
+the hand of Christ touching him, or hear the lowest whisper of his voice,
+or catch the dimmest sight of his face! Perhaps it was he who was helping
+him to crawl towards the stir and light of a more frequented street,
+which he could see afar off, though the pain he felt made him giddy and
+sick. It became too much for him at last, however, and he drew himself
+into the shelter of a warehouse door, and crouched down in a corner,
+crying, with clasped hands, and sobbing voice, "Oh! Lord Jesus Christ!
+Lord Jesus Christ!"
+
+After uttering this cry Tony lay there for some minutes, his eyes growing
+glazed and his ears dull, when a footstep came briskly up the street, and
+some one, whom he could not now see for the strange dimness of his
+sight, stopped opposite to him, and then stooped to touch him on the arm.
+
+"Why," said a voice he seemed to know, "you're my young friend of the
+crossing,--my little fourpenny-bit, I call you. What brings you sitting
+here this cold night?"
+
+"I've fell down and hurt myself," answered Tony, faintly.
+
+"Where?" asked the stranger.
+
+"My leg," he answered.
+
+The gentleman stooped down yet lower, and passed his hand gently along
+Tony's leg till he came to the place where his touch gave him the most
+acute pain.
+
+"Broken!" he said to himself. "My boy, where's your home?"
+
+"I haven't got any right home," answered Tony, more faintly than before.
+He felt a strange numbness creeping over him, and his lips were too
+parched and his tongue too heavy for speaking. The gentleman took off his
+own great-coat and wrapped it well about him, placing him at the same
+time in a more comfortable position. Then he ran quickly to the nearest
+street, hailed the first cab, and drove back to where Tony was lying.
+
+[Illustration: TONY'S ACCIDENT.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+IN HOSPITAL.
+
+
+The pain Tony was suffering kept him partially conscious of what was
+happening to him. He knew that he was carried gently into a large hall,
+and that two or three persons came to look at him, to whom his new friend
+spoke in eager and rapid tones.
+
+"I know you do not take in accidents," he said; "but what could I do
+with the little fellow? He told me he had no home, and that was all he
+could say. You have two or three cots empty; and I'll double my
+subscription if it's necessary, rather than take him away. Come, doctor,
+you'll admit my patient?"
+
+"I don't think I could send him away, Mr. Ross," answered another hearty
+voice. "We must get him into bed as soon as possible."
+
+Tony felt himself carried up stairs into a large room, where there were a
+number of small beds, with a pale little face lying on every pillow.
+There was a vacant cot at the end, and he was laid upon it, after having
+his tattered clothes taken off him. His new boots were gone altogether,
+having been left behind on the steps of the warehouse. His hands and
+knees, bruised with crawling along the frosty stones, were gently bathed
+with a soft sponge and warm water. He was surrounded by kind faces,
+looking pitifully down upon him, and the gentleman who had brought him
+there spoke to him in a very pleasant and cheering voice.
+
+"My boy," he said, "you have broken your leg in your fall; but the doctor
+here, who is a great friend of mine, is going to mend it for you. It will
+give you a good deal of pain for a few minutes; but you'll bear it like a
+man, I know."
+
+"Yes," murmured Tony; "but will you let me go as soon as it's done?"
+
+"You could not do that," answered Mr. Ross, smiling. "It will be some
+weeks before you will be well enough to go; but you will be very happy
+here, I promise you."
+
+"Oh! but I must go!" cried Tony, starting up, but falling back again with
+a groan. "There's Dolly and Mr. Oliver,--they'll think I've run away
+again, and I were trying all I could to get back to 'em. She'll be
+watching for me, and she'll fret ever so. Oh! Dolly, Dolly!"
+
+He spoke in a tone of so much grief, that the smile quite passed away
+from the face of Mr. Ross, and he laid his hand upon his, and answered
+him very earnestly:
+
+"If you will tell me where they live," he said, "I will go at once and
+let them know all about your accident; and they shall come to see you
+to-morrow if you are well enough to see them."
+
+Tony gave him very minute and urgent directions where to find old
+Oliver's shop; and then he resigned himself, with the patience and
+fortitude of most of the little sufferers in that hospital, to the
+necessary pain he had to bear.
+
+It was Sunday afternoon when old Oliver and Dolly entered the hall of the
+Children's Hospital and inquired for Tony. There was something about the
+old man's look of age and the little child's sweet face which found them
+favour, even in a place where everybody was received with kindness. A
+nurse, who met them slowly climbing the broad staircase, turned back with
+them, taking Dolly's hand in hers, and led them up to the room where
+they would find Tony. There were many windows in it, and the sunshine,
+which never shone into their own home, was lighting it up gaily. The cots
+were all covered with white counterpanes, and most of the little
+patients, who had been asleep the night before, were now awake, and
+sitting up in bed, with little tables before them, which they could slide
+up and down as they wished along the sides of their cots. There was no
+sign of medicine, and nothing painful to see, except the wan faces of the
+children themselves. But Oliver and Dolly had no eyes but for Tony, and
+they hurried on to the corner where he was lying. His face was very
+white, and his eyelids were closed, and his lips drawn in as if he were
+still in pain. But at the very gentle and almost frightened touch of
+Dolly's fingers his eyes opened quickly, and then how his face changed!
+It looked as if all the sunshine in the room had centred upon it, and his
+voice shook with gladness.
+
+"Dolly hasn't had to fret for Tony this time," he said.
+
+"But Dolly will fret till Tony gets well again," she answered, clasping
+both her small hands round his.
+
+"No, no!" said old Oliver; "Dolly's going to be a very good girl, and
+help grand-pa to mind shop till Tony comes home again."
+
+This promise of promotion partly satisfied Dolly, and she sat still upon
+Oliver's knee beside Tony's cot, where his eyes could rest with
+contentment and pleasure upon them both, though the nurse would not let
+them talk much. When they went away she took them through the girls'
+wards in the story below; for the girls were more sumptuously lodged than
+the boys. These rooms were very lofty, with windows reaching to the
+cornice of the ceiling, and with grand marble chimney-pieces about the
+fireplaces; for in former times, the nurse told them, this had been a
+gentleman's mansion, where gay parties and assemblies had been held; but
+never had there been such a party and assembly as the one now in it.
+
+Old Oliver walked down between the rows of cots, with his little love
+clinging shyly to his hand, smiling tenderly upon each poor little face
+turned to look at them. Some of the children smiled back to him, and
+nodded cheerfully to Dolly, lifting up their dolls for her to see, and
+calling to her to listen to the pretty tunes their musical boxes were
+playing. But others lay quietly upon their pillows half asleep, with
+beautiful pictures hanging over their feeble heads,--pictures of Christ
+carrying a lamb in his arms; and again, of Christ with a little child
+upon his knee; and again, of Christ holding the hand of the young girl
+who seemed dead, but whose ear heard his voice saying "Arise!" and she
+came to life again in her father's and mother's house. The tears stood in
+old Oliver's eyes, and his white head trembled a great deal before he had
+seen all, and given one of his tender glances to each child.
+
+"I wonder whatever the Lord 'ud have said," he exclaimed, "if there'd
+been such a place as this in his days! He'd have come here very often. He
+does come, I know, and walks to and fro here of nights when the little
+ones are asleep, or may be awake through pain, and he blesses every one
+of them. Ah, bless them! Bless the little children, and the good folks
+who keep a place like this. Bless them everyone!"
+
+He felt reluctant to go away; but his time was gone, and the nurse was
+needed elsewhere. She kissed Dolly before she went, putting a biscuit in
+her hand, and told Oliver the house was open every Sunday afternoon for
+the friends of the children, if he chose to come again; and then they
+walked home with slow, short footsteps, and all the Sunday evening they
+talked together of the beautiful place they had seen, and how happy Tony
+would be in the Children's Hospital.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+TONY'S FUTURE PROSPECTS.
+
+
+Old Oliver and Dolly made several visits to Tony while he was in the
+hospital. Every Sunday afternoon they went back to it, until its great
+door, and wide staircase, and sunny ward, became almost as familiar to
+them as their own dull little house. Tony recovered quickly, yet he was
+there some weeks before the doctor pronounced him strong enough to turn
+out again to rough it in the world. As he grew better he learned a number
+of things which were making him a wiser, as well as a stronger boy,
+before the time came for him to leave.
+
+The day before he was to go out of hospital, his friend, Mr. Ross, who
+had been often to see him, called for the last time, and found him in the
+room where the little patients who were nearly well were at play
+together. Some of them were making believe to have a feast, with a small
+dinner-service of wooden plates and dishes, and a few bits of
+orange-peel, and biscuits; but Tony was sitting quietly and gravely on
+one side, looking on from a distance. He had never learned to play.
+
+"Antony," said Mr. Ross--he was the only person who ever called him
+Antony, and it seemed to make more of a man of him--"what are you
+thinking to do when you leave here to-morrow?"
+
+"I s'pose I must go back to my crossing," answered Tony, looking
+very grave.
+
+"No, I think I can do better for you than that," said his friend, "I
+have a sister living out in the country, about fifty miles from London;
+and she wants a boy to help the gardener, and run on errands for the
+house. She has promised to provide you with a home, and clothing, and to
+send you to school for two years, till you are about twelve, for we
+think you must be about ten years old now; and after that you shall have
+settled wages."
+
+Tony listened with a quick throbbing of his heart and a contraction in
+his throat, which hindered him from speaking all at once when Mr. Ross
+had finished. What a grand thing it would be for himself! But then there
+were old Oliver and Dolly to be remembered.
+
+"It 'ud do first-rate for me," he said at last, "and I'd try my best to
+help in the garden; but I couldn't never leave Mr. Oliver and the little
+girl. She'd fret ever so; and he's gone so forgetful he'd lose his own
+head, if he could anyhow. Why! of a morning they sell him any papers as
+they've too many of. Sometimes it's all the 'Star,' and sometimes it's
+all the 'Standard;' and them as buys one won't have the other. I don't
+know why, I'm sure. But you see when I go for 'em I say twenty-five this,
+and thirteen that, and I count 'em over pretty sharp, I can tell you;
+though I couldn't read at all afore I came here, but I could tell which
+was which easy enough. Then he'd never think to open his shop some
+mornings; and other mornings he'd open at four or five o'clock, just when
+he woke of hisself. No. I must stay and take care of 'em a bit; but thank
+you, sir, all the same."
+
+He had spoken so gravely and thoughtfully that his reasons went directly
+to the heart of Mr. Ross; but he asked him one more question, before he
+could let his good plan for the boy drop.
+
+"What has he done for you, Antony? Is he any relation of yours?"
+
+"No, no!" cried Tony, his eyes growing bright, "I haven't got any
+relation in all the world; but he took me in out of love, and let me
+sleep comfortable under the counter, instead of in the streets. I love
+him, and Dolly, I do. I'll stay by 'em as long as ever I live, if I have
+to sweep a crossing till I'm an old man like him. Besides, I hear him
+speak a good word for me often and often to his Master; and I s'pose
+nobody else 'ud do that."
+
+"What master?" inquired Mr. Ross.
+
+"Him," answered Tony, pointing to a picture of the Saviour blessing young
+children, "he's always talking to him as if he could see him, and he
+tells him everythink. No, it 'ud be better for me to stay with him and
+Dolly, and keep hard by my crossing, than go away from 'em, and have
+clothes, and lodging, and schooling for nothink."
+
+"I think it would," said Mr. Ross, "so you must go on as you are, Antony,
+till I can find you something better than a crossing. You are looking
+very well, my boy; that's a nice, warm suit of clothes you have on,
+better than the rags you came in by a long way."
+
+It was a sailor's suit, sent to the hospital by some mother, whose boy
+had perhaps outgrown it; or, it may be, whose boy had been taken away
+from all her tender care for him. It was of good, rough, thick blue
+cloth, and fitted Tony well. He had grown a good deal during his
+illness, and his face had become whiter and more refined; his hair, too,
+was cut to a proper length, and parted down the side, no longer lying
+about his head in a tangled mass. He coloured up with pleasure as Mr.
+Ross looked approvingly at him.
+
+"They've lent it me till I go out," he said, with a tone slightly
+regretful in his voice, "I only wish Dolly could have seen me in it, and
+her aunt Charlotte. My own things were too ragged for me to wear 'em in a
+place like this."
+
+"They've given it to you, Antony," replied Mr. Ross, "those are the
+clothes you will go home in to-morrow."
+
+It seemed too much for Tony to believe, though a nurse who was sitting by
+and sewing away busily, told him it was quite true. He was intensely
+happy all the rest of the day, often standing up, and almost straining
+his neck to get a satisfactory view of his own back, and stroking the nap
+of his blue trousers with a fondling touch. They would all see him in it;
+old Oliver, Dolly, and aunt Charlotte. There would be no question now as
+to his fitness for taking Dolly out for a walk; he would be dressed well
+enough to attend upon a princess. This made famous amends for the pair
+of old boots he had lost the night he broke his leg; a loss he had often
+silently lamented over in his own mind. The nurse told him she was
+patching up his old clothes, and making him a cap, to wear when he was at
+work on his crossing, for the new ones were much too good for that; and
+Tony felt as rich as if a large fortune had been left to him.
+
+It was a very joyful thing to go home again. Dolly was a little shy at
+first of this new Tony, so different from the poor, ragged, wild-looking
+old Tony; but a very short time was enough to make her familiar with his
+nice blue suit, and the anchor-buttons upon it. He found his place under
+the counter all nicely papered to keep the draughts out; and a little
+chaff mattress, made by aunt Charlotte, laid down instead of the shavings
+upon the floor. It was even pleasanter to be here than in the hospital.
+
+But Tony found it hard work to go back to his crossing in the morning;
+and he could not make out what was the matter with himself, he felt so
+cross and idle. His old clothes seemed really such horrid rags that he
+could scarcely bear to feel them about him; and if any passer-by looked
+closely at him, he went red and hot all over. He was not so successful
+as he thought he had been before his accident, or as he thought he ought
+to be; for the roads were getting cleaner with the drier weather, and few
+persons considered it necessary to give him a copper for his almost
+needless labour. Worst of all,--Clever Dog Tom found him out, and would
+come often to see him; sometimes jeering him for his poor spirit in being
+content with such low work, and sometimes boasting of the fine things he
+could do, and displaying the fine clothes he could wear. It was truly
+very hard work for Tony, after his long holiday at the hospital, where he
+had had as much luxury and attention as a rich man's son.
+
+But at home in the evening Tony felt all right again. Old Oliver set him
+to learn to read and write, and he was making rapid progress, more rapid
+than Dolly, who began at the same time, but who was apt to look upon it
+all as only another kind of game, of which she grew more quickly tired
+than of hide-and-seek. There was no one to check her, or to make her
+understand it was real, serious work: neither old Oliver nor Tony could
+find any fault with their darling. Now and then there came letters from
+her mother, full of anxious questions about her, and loving messages to
+her, telling her to be a good girl till she came back, but never saying
+a word as to when there was any chance of her returning to England. In
+one of these letters she sent word that a little sister was come for her
+out in India, who was just like what Dolly herself had been when she was
+a baby; but neither Oliver nor Tony could quite believe that. There never
+had been such a child as Dolly; there never would be again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A BUD FADING.
+
+
+A second summer went by with its long, hot days, when the sun seemed to
+stand still in the sky, and to dart down its most sultry beams into the
+dustiest and closest streets. Out in the parks, and in the broad
+thoroughfares where the fresh breeze could sweep along early in the
+morning, and in the evening as soon as the air grew cooler, it was very
+pleasant weather; and the people who could put on light summer dresses
+enjoyed it very much. But away among the thickly-built and crowded
+houses, where there were thousands of persons breathing over and over
+again the same hot and stagnant atmosphere, it seemed as if the most
+delicate and weakly among them must be suffocated by the breathless heat.
+Old Oliver suffered very greatly, but he said nothing about it; indeed he
+generally forgot the cause of his languor and feebleness. He never knew
+now the day of the week, nor the month of the year. If any one had told
+him in the dog-days of July that it was still April, he would only have
+answered gently that it was bright, warm weather for the time of year.
+
+But about old times his memory was good enough; he could tell long
+stories of his boyhood, and describe the hills of his native place in
+such a manner as to set Tony full of longings after the country, with its
+cornfields, and meadows, and hedge-rows, which he had never seen. He
+remembered his Bible, too, and could repeat chapter after chapter
+describing his Master's life, as they sat together in the perpetual
+twilight of their room; for now that it was summer-time it did not seem
+right to keep the gas burning.
+
+Tony's crossing had failed him altogether, for in dry weather nobody
+wanted it; but in this extremity Mr. Ross came to his aid, and procured
+him a place as errand-boy, where he was wanted from eight o'clock in the
+morning till seven at night; so that he could still open old Oliver's
+shop, and fetch him his right papers before he went out, and put the
+shutters up when he came back. To become an errand-boy was a good step
+forwards, and Tony was more than content. He never ran about bare-headed
+and barefooted now as he had done twelve months before; and he had made
+such good progress in reading and writing that he could already make out
+the directions upon the parcels he had to deliver, after they had been
+once read over to him. He did not object to the dry weather and clean
+streets as he had done when his living depended upon his crossing; on the
+contrary, he enjoyed the sunshine, and the crowds of gaily-dressed
+people, for he could hold up his head amongst them, and no longer went
+prowling about in the gutters searching after bits of orange-peel. He
+kicked them into the gutters instead, mindful of that accident which had
+befallen him, but which turned out so full of good for him.
+
+[Illustration: DOLLY'S MONTHLY REGISTER.]
+
+But, if there had been any eye to see it, a very slow, and very sad
+change was creeping over Dolly; so slowly indeed, that perhaps none but
+her mother's eye could have seen it at first. On the first of every
+month, which old Oliver knew by the magazines coming in, he marked how
+much his little love had grown by placing her against the side-post of
+the door, and making a thick pencil line where her curly head reached to.
+He looked at this record often, smiling at the rate his little woman was
+growing taller; but it was really no wonder that his dim eyes, loving as
+they were, never saw how the rosy colour was dying away out of her
+cheeks, as gradually as the red glow fades away in the west after the sun
+has set, nor how the light grew fainter and fainter in her blue eyes,
+until they looked at him very heavily from under her drooping eyelids.
+The house was too dark for any sight to see very clearly; the full,
+strong, healthy light of the sun, could not find its way into it, and day
+after day Dolly became more like one of those plants growing in shady
+places, which live and shoot up, but only put out pale and sickly leaves,
+and feeble buds. One by one, and by little and little, with degrees as
+small as her own tiny footsteps, she lost all her merry ways, dropping
+them, here one and there another, upon the path she was silently
+treading; as little children let fall the flowers they have gathered in
+the meadows, along their road homewards. Yet all the time old Oliver was
+loving and cherishing her as the dearest of all treasures, second only to
+the Master whom he loved so fully; but he never discovered that there
+was any change in her. Dolly fell into very quiet ways, and would sit
+still for hours together, her arm around Beppo, and her sweet, patient
+little face, which was growing thin and hollow, turned towards the
+flickering light of the fire, while Oliver pottered toilsomely about his
+house, forgetting many things, but always ready with a smile and a fond
+word for his grand-daughter.
+
+Just as Oliver was too old to feel any anxiety about Dolly, so Tony was
+too young, and knew too little of sickness and death. Moreover, when he
+came home in the evening, full of the business of the day, with a number
+of stories to tell of what had happened to him, and what he had seen,
+Dolly was always more lively, and had a feverish colour on her face, and
+a brilliant light in her eyes. He seemed to bring life and strength with
+him, and she liked him to nurse her on his knee, which did not grow tired
+and stiff like her grandfather's. How should Tony detect anything amiss
+with her? She never complained of feeling any pain, and he was glad for
+her to be very quiet and still while he was busy with his lessons.
+
+But when the summer was ended, and after the damp warm fogs of November
+were over, and a keen, black frost set in sharply before Christmas--a
+frost which had none of the beauty of white lime and clear blue skies,
+but which hung over the city like a pall, and penetrated to every
+fireside with an icy breath; when only the strong and the healthy, who
+were well clothed and well fed, could meet it bravely, while the
+delicate, and sickly, and poverty-stricken, shrank before it, and were
+chilled through and through, then Dolly drooped and failed altogether.
+Even old Oliver's dull ears began to hear a little cough, which seemed to
+echo from some grave not very far away; and when he drew his little love
+between his knees, and put on his spectacles to gaze into her face, the
+dearest face in all the world to him, even his eyes saw something of its
+wanness, and the hollow lines which had come upon it since the summer had
+passed away. The old man felt troubled about her, yet he scarcely knew
+what to do. He bought sweetmeats to soothe her cough, and thought
+sometimes that he must ask somebody or other about a doctor for her; but
+his treacherous memory always let the thought slip out of his mind. He
+intended to take counsel with his sister when she came to see him; but
+aunt Charlotte was herself very ill with an attack of rheumatism, and
+could not get up to old Oliver's house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A VERY DARK SHADOW.
+
+
+The Christmas week passed by, and the new year came in, cold and bleak,
+but Tony was well secured against the weather, and liked the frosty air,
+which made it pleasant to run as fast as he could from place to place as
+he delivered his parcels. When boxing day came, which was half-holiday
+for him, he returned to the house at mid-day, carrying with him three
+mince-pies, which he had felt himself rich enough to buy in honour of the
+holiday. He had for a long time been reckoning upon shutting up shop for
+the whole afternoon, and upon going out for a long stroll through the
+streets with old Oliver and Dolly; and now that the hour was positively
+come he felt very light-hearted and full of spirits, defying the wind
+which wrestled with him at every turn. Dolly must be wrapped up well, he
+said to himself, and old Oliver must put on his drab great coat, with
+mother o' pearl buttons, which he had brought up from the country forty
+years ago, and which was still good for keeping out the cold. He ran
+down the alley, and passed through the shop whistling cheerily, and
+disdaining to lift the flap of the counter, he took a running vault over
+it, and landed at once inside the open kitchen-door.
+
+But there was old Oliver sitting close to the fire, with Dolly on his
+knee, and her little head lying upon his breast, while the tears trickled
+slowly down his furrowed cheeks on to her pretty curls. Beppo was
+standing between his legs, licking Dolly's small hand, which hung
+languidly by her side. Her eyelids were closed, and her face was deadly
+white; but when Tony uttered a great cry of trouble, and fell on his
+knees before her, she opened her heavy eyes, and stretched out her cold
+thin hand to stroke his cheeks. "Dolly's so very ill, Tony," she
+murmured, "poor Dolly's very ill indeed."
+
+"I don't know whatever is the matter with my little love," said the old
+man, in a low and trembling voice; "she fell down all of a sudden, and I
+thought she was dead, Tony; but she's coming round again now. Isn't my
+little love better now?"
+
+"Yes, gan-pa, yes; Dolly's better," she answered faintly.
+
+"Let me hold her, master," said Tony, his heart beating fast; "I can
+hold her stronger and more comfortable, maybe, than you. You're tired
+ever so, and you'd better get yourself a bit of dinner. Shall Tony nurse
+you now, Dolly?"
+
+The little girl raised her arms to him, and Tony took her gently into his
+own, sitting down upon the old box in the chimney-corner, and putting her
+to nestle comfortably against him. Dolly closed her eyes again, and
+by-and-bye he knew that she had fallen into a light sleep, while old
+Oliver moved noiselessly to and fro, only now and then saying half aloud,
+in a tone of strange earnestness and entreaty, "Lord! dear Lord!"
+
+After awhile the old man came and bent over them both, taking Dolly's arm
+softly between his withered fingers, and looking down at it with a
+shaking head.
+
+"She's very thin, Tony; look at this little arm," he said, "wasting away!
+wasting away! I've watched all my little ones waste away except my poor
+Susan. Couldn't there anything be done to save her?"
+
+"Ay!" answered Tony, in an energetic whisper, while he clasped Dolly a
+little tighter in his arms; "ay! they could cure her easily at the
+hospital. Bless yer! there were little 'uns ten times worse than her as
+they sent home cured. Let us take her there as soon as ever she wakes
+up, and she'll be quite well directly, I promise you. The doctor knows
+me, and I'll speak to Mr. Ross for her. Do you get a bit of dinner, and
+hearten yourself up for it; and we'll set off as soon as she's awake."
+
+Old Oliver turned away comforted, and prepared his own and Tony's dinner,
+and put a mince-pie into the oven to be ready to tempt Dolly's appetite
+when she awoke. But she slept heavily all the afternoon till it was
+almost dark outside, and the lamps were being lit, when she awoke,
+restless and feverish.
+
+"Would Dolly like to go to that nice place, where the little girls had
+the dolls and the music?" asked Tony, in a quavering voice which he could
+scarcely keep from sobs; "the good place where Tony got well again, and
+they gave him his new clothes? Everybody 'ud be so wery kind to poor
+little Dolly, and she'd come home again, quite cured and strong, like
+Tony was."
+
+"Yes, yes!" cried Dolly, eagerly, raising herself up in his arms; "it's a
+nice place, and the sun shines, and Dolly 'ud like to go. Only she'll be
+sure to come back to gan-pa."
+
+It was some time yet before they were quite ready to start, though Dolly
+could not be coaxed to eat the hot mince-pie, or anything else. Old
+Oliver had to get himself into his drab overcoat, and the ailing child
+had to be protected in the best way they could against the searching
+wind. After they had put on all her own warmest clothing, Tony wrapped
+his own thick blue jacket about her, and lifting her very tenderly in his
+arms, they turned out into the streets, closely followed by Beppo.
+
+It was now quite night, but the streets were well lighted from the shop
+windows, and throngs of people were hurrying hither and thither; for it
+was boxing-night, and all the lower classes of the inhabitants were
+taking holiday. But old Oliver saw and heard nothing of the crowd. He
+walked on by Tony's side; with feeble and tottering steps, deaf and
+blind, but whispering all the while, with trembling lips, to One whom no
+one else could see or hear. Once or twice Tony saw a solemn smile flit
+across his face, and he nodded his head and raised his hand, as one who
+gives his assent to what is said to him. So they passed on through the
+noisy streets till they reached quieter ones, were there were neither
+shops nor many passers-by, and there they found the home where they were
+going to leave their treasure for a time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+NO ROOM FOR DOLLY.
+
+
+Old Oliver rang the house-bell very quietly, for Dolly seemed to be
+asleep again, and lay quite still in Tony's arms, which were growing
+stiff, and benumbed by the cold. The door was opened by a porter, whose
+face was strange to them both, for he had only come in for the day while
+the usual one took holiday. Old Oliver presented himself in front, and
+pointed at his little grandchild as Tony held her in his arms while he
+spoke to the porter in a voice which trembled greatly.
+
+"We've brought you our little girl, who is very ill," he said, "but
+she'll soon get well in here, I know. I'd like to see the doctor, and
+tell him all about her."
+
+"We're quite full," answered the porter, filling up the doorway.
+
+"Full?" repeated old Oliver, in a tone of questioning.
+
+"Ay! all our cots are full," he replied, "chockfull. There ain't no more
+room. We've turned two or three away this morning, when they came at the
+right time. This isn't the right time to bring any child here."
+
+"But my little love is very ill," continued old Oliver; "this is the
+right place, isn't it? The place where they nurse little children
+who are ill?"
+
+"It's all right," said the porter, "it's the right place enough, only
+it's brimful, and running over, as you may say. We couldn't take in one
+more, if it was ever so. But you may come in and sit down in the hall for
+a minute or two, while I fetch one of the ladies."
+
+Old Oliver and Tony entered, and sat down upon a bench inside. There was
+the broad staircase, with its shallow steps, which Dolly's tiny feet had
+climbed so easily, and it led up to the warm, pleasant nurseries, where
+little children were already falling asleep, almost painlessly, in their
+cosy cots. Tony could not believe that there was not room for their
+darling, who had been so willing to come to the place she knew so well,
+yet a sob broke from his lips, which disturbed Dolly in her sleep, for
+she moaned once or twice, and stirred uneasily in his arms. The old man
+leaned his hands upon the top of his stick, and rested his white head
+upon them, until they heard light footsteps, and the rustling of a
+dress, and they saw a lady coming down stairs to them.
+
+"I think there's some mistake here, ma'am," said Oliver, his eye
+wandering absently about the large entrance-hall; "this is the Hospital
+for Sick Children, I think, and I've brought my little grandchild here,
+who is very ill indeed, yet the man at the door says there's no room for
+her. I think it must be a mistake."
+
+"No," said the lady; "I am sorry to say it is no mistake. We are quite
+full; there is not room for even one more. Indeed, we have been obliged
+to send cases away before to-day. Who is your recommendation from?"
+
+"I didn't know you'd want any recommendation," answered old Oliver, very
+mournfully; "she's very ill, and you could cure her here, and take
+better care of her than Tony and me, and I thought that was enough. I
+never thought of getting any recommendation, and I don't know where I
+could get one."
+
+"Mr. Ross 'ud give us one," said Tony, eagerly.
+
+"Yet even then," answered the lady, "we could not take her in until some
+of the cots are empty."
+
+"You don't know me," interrupted Tony, eagerly; "but Mr. Ross brought
+me here, a year ago now, and they cured me, and set me up stronger
+than ever. They was so wery kind to me, that I couldn't think of
+anythink else save bringing our little girl to 'em. I'm sure they'd
+take her in, if they only knew it was her. You jest say as it's Tony
+and Dolly, as everybody took such notice of, and they'll never turn her
+away, I'm sure."
+
+"I wish we could take her," said the lady, with tears in her eyes; "but
+it is impossible. We should be obliged to turn some other child out, and
+that could not be done to-night. You had better bring her again in the
+morning, and we'll see if there is any one well enough to make room for
+her. Let me look at the poor child for a minute."
+
+She lifted up the collar of Tony's blue jacket, which covered Dolly's
+face, and looked down at it pitifully. It was quite white now, and was
+pinched and hollow, with large blue eyes shining too brightly. She
+stretched out her arms to the lady, and made a great effort to smile.
+
+"Put Dolly into a pretty bed," she murmured, "where the sun shines, and
+she'll soon get well and go home again to gan-pa."
+
+"What can I do?" cried the lady, the tears now running down her face.
+"The place is quite full; we cannot take in one more, not one. Bring her
+here again in the morning, and we will see what can be done."
+
+"How many children have you got here?" asked old Oliver.
+
+"We have only seventy-five cots," she answered, sobbing; "and in a winter
+like this they're always full."
+
+"Only seventy-five!" repeated the old man, very sorrowfully. "Only
+seventy-five, and there are hundreds and hundreds of little children ill
+in London! They are ill in houses like mine, where the sun never shines.
+Is there no other place like this we could take our little love to?"
+
+"There are two or three other Hospitals," she answered, "but they are a
+long way off, and none of them as large as ours. They are sure to be full
+just now. I think there are not more than a hundred and fifty cots in all
+London for sick children."
+
+"Then there's no room for my Dolly?" he said.
+
+The lady shook her head without speaking, for she had her handkerchief up
+to her face.
+
+"Eh!" cried old Oliver in a wailing voice, "I don't know whatever the
+dear Lord 'ill say to that."
+
+He made a sign to Tony that they must be going home again; and the boy
+raised himself up with a strange weight and burden upon his heart. Old
+Oliver put his stick down, and took Dolly into his own arms, and laid her
+head down on his breast.
+
+"Let me carry her a little way, Tony," he said. "She's as light as a
+feather, even to poor old grandpa. I'd like to carry my little love a bit
+of the way home."
+
+"I'll tell you what I can do," said the lady, wrapping Dolly up and
+kissing her before she covered her pale face, "if you will tell me where
+you live I will speak to the doctor as soon as he comes in--for he is out
+just now--and perhaps he will come to see her. He knows a great deal
+about children, and is fond of them."
+
+"Thank you, thank you kindly, ma'am," answered old Oliver, feeling a
+little comforted. But when they stood outside, and the bleak wind blew
+about them, and he could see the soft glimmer of the light in the
+windows, within which other children were safely sheltered and
+carefully tended, his spirit sank again. He tottered now and then under
+his light burden; but he could not be persuaded to give up his little
+child to Tony again. These streets were quiet, with handsome houses on
+each side, and from one and another there came bursts of music and
+laughter as they passed by; yet Tony could catch most of the words
+which the old man was speaking.
+
+[Illustration: NO ROOM FOR DOLLY]
+
+"Dear Lord," he said, "there's only room for seventy-five of thy little
+lambs that are pining and wasting away in every dark street and alley
+like mine. Whatever can thy people be thinking about? They've got their
+own dear little children, who are ill sometimes, spite of all their
+care; and they can send for the doctor, and do all that's possible,
+never looking at the money it costs; but when they are well again they
+never think of the poor little ones who are sick and dying, with nobody
+to help them or care for them as I care for this little one. Oh, Lord,
+Lord! let my little love live! Yet thou knows what is best, and thou'lt
+do what is best. Thou loves her more than I do; and see, Lord, she is
+very ill indeed."
+
+They reached home at last, after a weary and heartbroken journey, and
+carried Dolly in and laid her upon old Oliver's bed. She was wide awake
+now, and looked very peaceful, smiling quietly into both their faces as
+they bent over her. Tony gazed deep down into her eyes, and met a glance
+from them which sent a strange tremor through him. He crept silently
+away, and stole into his dark bed under the counter, where he stretched
+himself upon his face, and buried his mouth in the chaff pillow to choke
+his sobs. What was going to happen to Dolly? What could it be that made
+him afraid of looking again into her patient and tranquil little face?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE GOLDEN CITY.
+
+
+Tony lay there in the dark, overwhelmed by his unusual terror and sorrow,
+until he heard the voice of old Oliver calling his name feebly. He
+hurried to him, and found him still beside the bed where Dolly was lying.
+He had taken off most of her clothes, and put her white nightgown over
+the rest, that she might sleep warmly in them all the night, for her
+little hands and feet felt very chilly to his touch. The fire had gone
+out while they were away, and the grate looked very black and cheerless.
+The room was in great disorder, just as they had left it, and the gas,
+which was burning high, cast a cruel glare upon it all. But Tony saw
+nothing except the dear face of Dolly, resting on one check upon the
+pillow, with her curly hair tossed about it in confusion, and her open
+eyes gathering a strange film. Beppo had made his way to her side, and
+pushed his head under her lifeless little hand, which tried to pat it now
+and then. Old Oliver was sitting on the bedstead, his eyes fastened upon
+her, and his whole body trembled violently. Tony sank down upon his
+knees, and flung his arm over Dolly, as if to save her from the unseen
+power which threatened to take her away from them.
+
+"Don't ky, gan-pa," she said, softly; "don't ky more than a minute. Nor
+Tony. Are I going to die, gan-pa?"
+
+"Yes, my little love," cried old Oliver, moaning as he said it.
+
+"Where are I going to?" asked Dolly, very faintly.
+
+"You're going to see my Lord and Master," he said; "him as loves little
+children so, and carries them in his arms, and never lets them be
+sorrowful or ill or die again."
+
+"Does he live in a bootiful place?" she asked, again.
+
+"It's a more beautiful place than I can tell," answered old Oliver. "The
+Lord Jesus gives them light brighter than the sun; and the streets are
+all of gold, and there are many little children there, who always see the
+face of their Father."
+
+"Dolly's going rere," said the little child, solemnly.
+
+She smiled for a minute or two, holding Beppo's ear between her failing
+fingers, and playing with it. Tony's eyes were dim with tears, yet he
+could see her clear face clearly through them. What could he do? Was
+there no one to help?
+
+"Master, master!" he cried. "If the Lord Jesus is here he can save her.
+Ask him, master."
+
+But old Oliver paid no heed to him. For the child who was passing away
+from him he was all eye and ear, watching and listening as keenly as in
+his best and strongest days; but he was blind and deaf to everything else
+around him. Tony's voice could not reach his brain.
+
+"Will gan-pa come rere?" whispered the failing and faltering voice of
+Dolly.
+
+"Very soon," he answered; a radiant smile coming to his face, which made
+her smile as her eyes caught the glory of it. "Very, very soon, my little
+love. You'll be there to meet me when I come."
+
+"Dolly'll watch for gan-pa," she murmured, with long pauses between the
+words, which seemed to drop one by one upon Tony's ear; "and Dolly'll
+watch at the door for Tony to come home; and she'll fret ever so if he
+never comes."
+
+Tony felt her stir restlessly under his arm, and stretch her tiny limbs
+upon the bed as if she were very tired, and the languid eyelids drooped
+slowly till they quite hid her blue eyes, and she sighed softly as
+children sigh when they fall asleep, weary of their play. Old Oliver laid
+his shaking hand tenderly upon her head.
+
+"Dear Lord!" he said, "take my little love to thyself. I give her
+up to thee."
+
+It seemed to Tony as if a thick mist of darkness fell all about him, and
+as if he were sinking down, down, very low into some horrible pit where
+he would never see the light of day again. But by-and-bye he came to
+himself, and found old Oliver sobbing in short, heavy sobs, and swaying
+himself to and fro, while Beppo was licking Dolly's hand, and barking
+with a sharp, quiet bark, as he had been wont to do when he wanted her to
+play with him. The child's small features were quite still, but there was
+an awful smile upon them such as there had never been before, and Tony
+could not bear to look upon it. He crossed her tiny hands lightly over
+one another upon her breast, and then he lifted Beppo away gently, and
+drew the bed-clothes about her, so as to hide her smiling face.
+
+"Master," he cried, "master, is she gone?"
+
+Old Oliver only answered by a deep moan; and Tony put his arm about him,
+and raised him up.
+
+"Come to your own chair, master," he said.
+
+He yielded to Tony like a child, and seated himself in the chair, where
+he had so often sat and watched Dolly while he smoked his pipe. The boy
+put his pipe between his fingers; but he only let it fall to the ground,
+where it broke into many pieces. Tony did not know what to do, nor where
+to go for any help.
+
+"Lord," he said, "if you really love the old master, do something for
+him; for I don't know whatever to do, now little Dolly's gone."
+
+He sat down on his old box, staring at Oliver and the motionless form on
+the bed, with a feeling of despair tugging at his heart. He could
+scarcely believe it was all true; for it was not very long since--only it
+seemed like long years--since he had leaped over the counter in his
+light-heartedness. But he had not sat there many minutes before he heard
+a distinct, rather loud knock at the shop-door, and he ran hastily to ask
+who was there.
+
+"Antony," said a voice he knew very well, "I have come with the doctor,
+to see what we can do for your little girl."
+
+In an instant Tony opened the door, and as Mr. Ross entered the boy flung
+his arms round him, and hid his face against him, sobbing bitterly.
+
+"Oh! you've come too late," he cried, "you've come too late! Dolly's
+dead, and I'm afraid the master's going away from me as well. They
+couldn't take her in, and she died after we had brought her home."
+
+The doctor and Mr. Ross went on into the inner room, and Tony pointed
+silently to the bed where Dolly lay. Old Oliver roused himself at the
+sound of strange voices, and, leaning upon Tony's shoulder, he staggered
+to the bedside, and drew the clothes away from her dear, smiling face.
+
+"I don't murmur," he said. "My dear Lord can't do anything unkind. He'll
+come and speak to me presently, and comfort me; but just now I'm deaf and
+blind, even to him. I've not forgot him, and he hasn't forgot me; but
+there's a many things ought to be done, and I cannot think what."
+
+"Leave it all to us," said Mr. Ross, leading him back to his chair. "But
+have you no neighbour you can go and stay with for to-night? You are an
+old man, and you must not lose your night's sleep."
+
+"No," he answered, shaking his head; "I'd rather stay here in my own
+place, if I'd a hundred other places to go to. I'm not afraid of my
+little love,--no, no! When everything is done as ought to be done,
+I'll lie in my own bed and watch her. It won't be lonesome, as long as
+she's here."
+
+In an hour's time all was settled for that night. A little resting-place
+had been made for the dead child in a corner of the room, where she lay
+covered with a coarse white sheet, which was the last one left of those
+which old Oliver's wife had spun in her girlhood. The old man had given
+his promise to go to bed when Mr. Ross and the doctor were gone; and he
+slept lightly, his face turned towards the place where his little love
+was sleeping. A faint light burnt all night in the room, and Tony, who
+could not fall asleep, sat in the chimney-corner, with Beppo upon his
+knees. There was an unutterable, quiet sorrow within him, mingled with a
+strange awe. That little child, who had played with him, and kissed him
+only a day since, was already gone into the unseen world, which was so
+very near to him now, though it had seemed so very far away and so empty
+before. It must be very near, since she had gone to it so quickly; and
+it was no longer empty, for Dolly was there; and she had said she would
+watch at the door till he came home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+A FRESH DAY DAWNS.
+
+
+Old Oliver and Tony saw their darling buried in a little grave in a
+cemetery miles away from their own home, and then they returned, desolate
+and bereaved, to the deserted city, which seemed empty indeed to them.
+The house had never looked so very dark and dreary before. Yet from time
+to time old Oliver forgot that Dolly was gone altogether, and could never
+come back; for he would call her in his eager, quavering tones, or search
+for her in some of the hiding-places, where she had often played at
+hide-and-seek with him. When mealtimes came round he would put out
+Dolly's plate and cup, which had been bought on purpose for her, with gay
+flowers painted upon them; and in the evening, over his pipe, when he had
+been used to talk to his Lord, he now very often said nothing but repeat
+again and again Dolly's little prayer, which he had himself taught her,
+"Gentle Jesus, meek and mild." It was quite plain to Tony that it would
+never do to leave him alone in his house and shop.
+
+"I've give up my place as errand-boy," he said to Mr. Ross, "'cause the
+old master grows worse and worse for forgetting, and I must mind shop for
+him now as well as I can. He's not off his head, as you may say; he's
+sharp enough sometimes; but there's no trusting to him being sharp
+always. He talks to Dolly as if she was here, and could hear him, till I
+can't hardly bear it. But I'm very fond of him,--fonder of him than
+anythink else, 'cept my little Dolly; and I've made up my mind as his
+Master shall be my master, and he's always ready to tell me all he knows
+about him. I'm no ways afeared of not getting along."
+
+Tony found that they got along very well. Mr. Ross made a point of going
+in to visit them every week, and of seeing how the business prospered in
+the boy's hands; and he put as much as he could in his way. Sad and
+sorrowful as the days were, they passed over, one after another, bringing
+with them at least the habit of living without Dolly. Every Sunday
+afternoon, however, old Oliver and Tony walked slowly through the
+streets, for the old man could only creep along with Tony's help, till
+they reached the Children's Hospital; but they never passed the door, nor
+entered in through it. Old Oliver would stand for a few minutes leaning
+heavily on Tony's shoulder, and trembling from head to foot, as his eyes
+wandered over all the front of the building; and then a low, wailing cry
+would break from his lips, "Dear Lord! there was no room for my little
+love, but thou hast found room for her!"
+
+It was a reopening of Tony's sorrow when Aunt Charlotte came up from the
+country to find that the little child had gone away altogether, leaving
+only her tiny frocks and clothes, which were neatly folded up in a
+drawer, where old Oliver treasured up a keepsake or two of his wife's.
+She discovered, too, that old Oliver had forgotten to write to
+Susan,--indeed, his hand had become too trembling to hold a pen,--and she
+wrote herself; but her letter did not reach Calcutta before Susan and her
+husband had left it, being homeward bound.
+
+It was as nearly two years as it could well be since the summer evening
+when Susan Raleigh had sent her little girl into old Oliver's shop,
+bidding her be a good girl till she came home, and thinking it would be
+only three days before she saw her again. It was nearly two years, and an
+evening something like it, when the door was darkened by the entrance of
+a tall, fine-looking man, dressed as a soldier, but with one empty sleeve
+looped up across his chest. Tony was busy behind the counter wrapping up
+magazines, which he was going to take out the next morning, and the
+soldier looked very inquisitively at him.
+
+"Hallo! my lad, who are you?" he asked, in a tone of surprise.
+
+"I'm Antony Oliver," he said; for of late he had taken to call himself by
+his old master's name.
+
+"Antony Oliver!" repeated the stranger; "I never heard of you before."
+
+"Well, I'm only Tony," he answered; "but I live with old Mr. Oliver now,
+and call him grandfather. He likes it, and it does me good. It's like
+somebody belonging to me."
+
+"Why! how long have you called him grandfather?" asked the soldier again.
+
+"Ever since our little Dolly died," said Tony, in a faltering voice.
+
+"Dolly dead!" exclaimed the man, looking ready to fall down; for his
+face went very white, and he leaned upon the counter with his one hand.
+"Oh! my poor Susan!--my poor, dear girl!--however can I tell her this
+bad news?"
+
+"Who are you?" cried Tony. "Are you Dolly's father? Oh, she's dead!
+She died last January, and we are more lonesome without her than you
+can think."
+
+"Let me see poor Susan's father," he said, after a minute or two, and
+with a very troubled face.
+
+"Ay, come in," said Tony, lifting up the flap of the counter, under which
+Dolly had so often played at hide-and-seek. "He's more hisself again; but
+his memory's bad yet. I know everythink about her, though; because she
+was so fond of me, and me of her. Come in."
+
+Raleigh entered the room, and saw old Oliver sitting in his arm-chair,
+with a pipe in his hand, and a very tranquil look upon his wrinkled face.
+The gas-light shone upon the glittering epaulettes and white sash of the
+soldier, and the old man fastened upon him a very keen, yet doubtful gaze
+of inquiry.
+
+"Don't you know me, father?" cried Raleigh, almost unable to utter a
+word. "It's your poor Susan's husband, and Dolly's father."
+
+"Dolly's father!" repeated old Oliver, rising from his chair, and
+resting his hand upon Raleigh's shoulder. "Do you know that the dear Lord
+has taken her to be where he is in glory?"
+
+"Yes, I know it," he said, with a sob.
+
+He put the old man back in his seat, and drew a chair close up to him.
+They sat thus together in sorrowful silence for some minutes, until old
+Oliver laid his hand upon the empty sleeve on Raleigh's breast.
+
+"You've lost your arm," he said, pityingly.
+
+"Ay!" answered Raleigh; "our colonel was set upon by a tiger in the
+jungle, and I saved him; but the brute tore my arm, and craunched
+the bone between his teeth till it had to come off. It's spoiled me
+for a soldier."
+
+"Yes, yes, poor fellow," answered old Oliver, "but the Lord knew all
+about it."
+
+"That he did," answered Raleigh; "and he's taught me a bit more about
+himself than I used to know. I'm not spoiled to be His soldier. But I
+don't know much about the service yet, and I shall want you to teach me,
+father. You'll let me call you father, for poor Susan's sake, won't you?"
+
+"To be sure--to be sure," said old Oliver, keeping his hand still upon
+the empty sleeve on Raleigh's breast.
+
+"Well, father," he continued, "as I am not fit for a soldier, and as the
+colonel was hurt too, we're all come home together. Only Susan's gone
+straight on with her lady and our little girl, and sent me through London
+to see after you and Dolly."
+
+"Your little girl?" said Oliver questioningly.
+
+"Yes, the one born in India. Her name's Mary, but we call her Polly.
+Susan said it made her think of our little Dolly at home. Dear! dear! I
+don't know however I shall let her know."
+
+Another fit of silence fell upon them, and Tony left them together, for
+it was time to put up the shop shutters. It seemed just like the night
+when he had followed Susan and the little girl, and loitered outside in
+the doorway opposite, to see what would happen after she had left her in
+the shop. He fancied he was a ragged, shoeless boy again, nobody loving
+him, or caring for him, and that he saw old Oliver and Dolly standing on
+the step, looking out for the mother, who had gone away, never, never to
+see her darling again. Tony's heart was very full; and when he tried to
+whistle, he was obliged to give it up, lest he should break out into sobs
+and crying. When he went back into the house Raleigh was talking again.
+
+"So Susan and me are to have one of the lodges of the colonel's park,"
+he said, "and I'm to be a sort of bailiff to look after the other outdoor
+servants about the garden and premises. It's a house with three bedrooms,
+and a very pleasant sort of little parlour, as well as a kitchen and
+scullery place downstairs. You can see the Wrekin from the parlour
+window, and the moon over it; and it's not so far away but what we could
+get a spring-cart sometimes, and drive over to your old home under the
+Wrekin. As soon as ever the colonel's lady told Susan where it was, she
+cried out, 'That's the very place for father!' You'd like to come and
+live with your own Susan again, in your own country; wouldn't you now?"
+
+"Yes, yes; for a little while," answered old Oliver, with a smile
+upon his face.
+
+Tony felt a strange and very painful shrinking at his heart. If the old
+man went away to live with his daughter in the country, his home would be
+lost to him, and he would have to go out into the great city again alone,
+with nobody to love. He could get his living now in a respectable manner,
+and there was no fear of his being driven to sleep in Covent Garden, or
+under the bridges. But he would be alone, and all the links which bound
+him to Dolly and old Oliver would be snapped asunder. He wondered if the
+Lord Jesus would let such a thing be.
+
+"But I couldn't leave Tony," cried old Oliver, suddenly; and putting on
+his spectacles to look for him.
+
+"Come here, Tony. He's like my own son to me, bless him! He calls me
+grandfather, and kept my heart up when I should have sunk very low
+without him. My Master gave him to me the very same night he gave me my
+little love. No, no; Dolly loved Tony, and Susan must come here to see
+me, but I could never leave my boy."
+
+Old Oliver had put his arm round Tony, drawing him closer and closer to
+him as he spoke, until his withered cheek pressed fondly against his
+face. Since Dolly died neither of them had felt such a thrill of
+happiness as now.
+
+"The colonel and his lady must be told about this," said Raleigh, after
+he had heard all that Tony had been and done for old Oliver; and when he
+was obliged to go away for the night, the soldier gave him such a cordial
+grasp of the hand, as set all his fingers tingling, and his heart
+throbbing with exultation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+POLLY.
+
+
+The lodge stood in a very lovely place, upon a slope of ground, which
+rose still higher to where the colonel's grand house was situated. There
+was a porch before the door, built of rough logs of pines, covered with
+ivy and honeysuckle, and with seats in it, where you could sit and look
+out over a wide, rich plain, with little hills and dales in it,
+stretching far away towards the sky-line, where some distant mountains
+lay, so like to clouds, that you could scarcely tell which were soft and
+misty vapours, and which were solid and everlasting hills. The Severn ran
+through the beautiful plain with so many windings, sometimes lying in
+shadow under deep banks, and sometimes glistening and sparkling in the
+sunlight, that it looked more like many little pools scattered about the
+meadows than one long, continuous river. Not very far away, as Raleigh
+had said, stood the Wrekin, purple in the evening haze, but by day so
+plain, that one could see the great rock on its summit, which in olden
+times served as an altar to the god of fire.
+
+Susan was very busy, and had been very busy all day over two
+things--preparing the house for the reception of her father, whom she had
+not seen for so many years, and in teaching her little girl, who was now
+eighteen months old, to say grand-pa. The one work was quite finished;
+everything was ready for old Oliver, and now she was waiting and watching
+to see the colonel's spring cart arrive from the station with her
+husband, who was gone to meet old Oliver and Tony. For Tony was not on
+any account to be parted from the old man--so said the colonel and his
+lady--but was to be employed about the garden, and as general errand boy
+for the house, and to live at the lodge with old Oliver. Susan's eyes
+were red, for as she had been busy about her work, she had several times
+cried bitterly over her lost little girl; but she had resolved within
+herself not to shed a single tear after her father was come, lest she
+should spoil the gladness of his coming home to her. At last the cart
+came in sight, and stopped, and Raleigh and Tony sprang out to help
+Oliver to get down, while Susan put down Polly in the porch, and ran to
+throw her arms round her dear old father's neck.
+
+He was very quiet, poor old Oliver. He had not spoken a word since he
+left the station, but had gazed about him as they drove along the
+pleasant lane with almost a troubled look upon his tranquil face. When
+his dim eyes caught the first glimpse of the Wrekin he lifted his hat
+from his white and trembling head, as if to greet it like some great and
+dear friend, after so many years of absence. Now he stood still at the
+wicket, leaning upon Susan's arm, and looking round him again with a
+gentle yet sad smile. The air was so fresh, after the close streets of
+London, that to him it seemed even full of scents of numberless flowers;
+and the sun was shining everywhere, upon the blossoms in the garden, and
+the fine old elm-trees in the park, and the far-off hills. He grasped
+Tony's hand in his, and bade him look well about him.
+
+"If only my little love had had a bit of sunshine!" he said, with a
+mournful and tender patience in his feeble voice.
+
+But just then--scarcely had he finished speaking--there came a shrill,
+merry little scream behind them, so like Dolly's, that both old Oliver
+and Tony turned round quickly. It could not be the same, for this little
+child was even smaller than Dolly; but as she came pattering and
+tottering down the garden-walk towards them, they saw that she had the
+same fair curly hair, and blue eyes, and rosy cheeks that Dolly had had
+two years before. She ran and hid her face in her mother's gown; but
+Susan lifted her into her arms, and held her towards old Oliver.
+
+"Say grand-pa, and kiss him, Polly," she said, coaxingly.
+
+The little child held back shyly for a minute, for old Oliver's head was
+shaking much more than usual now; but at length she put her two soft
+little hands to his face, and held it between them, while she kissed him.
+
+"Gan-pa!" she cried, crowing and chuckling with delight.
+
+They went indoors to the pleasant parlour, where old Oliver's arm-chair
+was set ready for him by the side of the fire, for Susan had kindled a
+fire, saying that he would feel the fresh air blowing from the Wrekin;
+and Polly sat first on his knee, and then upon Tony's, who could not keep
+his eyes from following all her movements. But still it was not their own
+Dolly who had made the old house in the close alley in London so happy
+and so merry for them. She was gone home to the Father's house, and was
+watching for them there. Tony might be a long time before he joined her,
+but for old Oliver the parting would be but short. As he sat in the
+evening dusk, very peacefully and contentedly, while Susan sang Polly to
+sleep in the kitchen, Tony heard him say half aloud, as his custom was,
+"Yet a little, and I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that
+where I am ye may be also. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!"
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Alone In London, by Hesba Stretton
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12172 ***
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #12172 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12172)
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Alone In London, by Hesba Stretton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Alone In London
+
+Author: Hesba Stretton
+
+Release Date: April 27, 2004 [EBook #12172]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALONE IN LONDON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Joel Erickson, Tom Harris, Dave Morgan, Mary Meehan and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+                             Alone in London
+
+                            By Hesba Stretton
+
+      Author of "Jessica's First Prayer," "Little Meg's Children," etc.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+CHAPTER
+
+      I. NOT ALONE
+
+     II. WAIFS AND STRAYS
+
+    III. A LITTLE PEACEMAKER
+
+     IV. OLD OLIVER'S MASTER
+
+      V. FORSAKEN AGAIN
+
+     VI. THE GRASSHOPPER A BURDEN
+
+    VII. THE PRINCE OF LIFE
+
+   VIII. NO PIPE FOR OLD OLIVER
+
+     IX. A NEW BROOM AND A CROSSING
+
+      X. HIGHLY RESPECTABLE
+
+     XI. AMONG THIEVES
+
+    XII. TONY'S WELCOME
+
+   XIII. NEW BOOTS
+
+    XIV. IN HOSPITAL
+
+     XV. TONY'S FUTURE PROSPECTS
+
+    XVI. A BUD FADING
+
+   XVII. A VERY DARK SHADOW
+
+  XVIII. NO ROOM FOR DOLLY
+
+    XIX. THE GOLDEN CITY
+
+     XX. A FRESH DAY DAWNS
+
+    XXI. POLLY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+NOT ALONE.
+
+
+It had been a close and sultry day--one of the hottest of the
+dog-days--even out in the open country, where the dusky green leaves had
+never stirred upon their stems since the sunrise, and where the birds had
+found themselves too languid for any songs beyond a faint chirp now and
+then. All day long the sun had shone down steadily upon the streets of
+London, with a fierce glare and glowing heat, until the barefooted
+children had felt the dusty pavement burn under their tread almost as
+painfully as the icy pavement had frozen their naked feet in the winter.
+In the parks, and in every open space, especially about the cool splash
+of the fountains at Charing Cross, the people, who had escaped from the
+crowded and unventilated back streets, basked in the sunshine, or sought
+every corner where a shadow could be found. But in the alleys and slums
+the air was heavy with heat and dust, and thick vapours floated up and
+down, charged with sickening smells from the refuse of fish and
+vegetables decaying in the gutters. Overhead the small, straight strip of
+sky was almost white, and the light, as it fell, seemed to quiver with
+the burden of its own burning heat.
+
+Out of one of the smaller thoroughfares lying between Holborn and the
+Strand, there opens a narrow alley, not more than six or seven feet
+across, with high buildings on each side. In the most part the ground
+floors consist of small shops; for the alley is not a blind one, but
+leads from the thoroughfare to another street, and forms, indeed, a short
+cut to it, pretty often used. These shops are not of any size or
+importance--a greengrocer's, with a somewhat scanty choice of vegetables
+and fruit, a broker's, displaying queer odds and ends of household goods,
+two or three others, and at the end farthest from the chief thoroughfare,
+but nearest to the quiet and respectable street beyond, a very
+modest-looking little shop-window, containing a few newspapers, some
+rather yellow packets of stationery, and two or three books of ballads.
+Above the door was painted, in very small, dingy letters, the words,
+"James Oliver, News Agent."
+
+The shop was even smaller, in proportion, than its window. After two
+customers had entered--if such an event could ever come to pass--it would
+have been almost impossible to find room for a third. Along the end ran a
+little counter, with a falling flap by which admission could be gained to
+the living-room lying behind the shop. This evening the flap was down--a
+certain sign that James Oliver, the news agent, had some guest within,
+for otherwise there would have been no occasion to lessen the scanty size
+of the counter. The room beyond was dark, very dark indeed, for the time
+of day; for, though the evening was coming on, and the sun was hastening
+to go down at last, it had not yet ceased to shine brilliantly upon the
+great city. But inside James Oliver's house the gas was already lighted
+in a little steady flame, which never flickered in the still, hot air,
+though both door and window were wide open. For there was a window,
+though it was easy to overlook it, opening into a passage four feet wide,
+which led darkly up into a still closer and hotter court, lying in the
+very core of the maze of streets. As the houses were four stories high,
+it is easy to understand that very little sunlight could penetrate to
+Oliver's room behind his shop, and that even at noonday it was twilight
+there. This room was of a better size altogether than a stranger might
+have supposed, having two or three queer little nooks and recesses
+borrowed from the space belonging to the adjoining house; for the
+buildings were old, and had probably been one large dwelling in former
+times. It was plainly the only apartment the owner had; and all its
+arrangements were those of a man living alone, for there was something
+almost desolate about the look of the scanty furniture, though it was
+clean and whole. There had been a fire, but it had died out, and the
+coals were black in the grate, while the kettle still sat upon the top
+bar with a melancholy expression of neglect about it.
+
+James Oliver himself had placed his chair near to the open door, where he
+could keep his eye upon the shop--a needless precaution, as at this hour
+no customers ever turned into it. He was an old man, and seemed very old
+and infirm by the dim light. He was thin and spare, with that peculiar
+spareness which results from the habit of always eating less than one
+can. His teeth, which had never had too much to do, had gone some years
+ago, and his cheeks fell in rather deeply. A fine network of wrinkles
+puckered about the corners of his eyes and mouth. He stooped a good deal,
+and moved about with the slowness and deliberation of age. Yet his face
+was very pleasant--a cheery, gentle, placid face, lighted up with a smile
+now and then, but with sufficient rareness to make it the more welcome
+and the more noticed when it came.
+
+Old Oliver had a visitor this hot evening, a neat, small, dapper woman,
+with a little likeness to himself, who had been putting his room to
+rights, and looking to the repairs needed by his linen. She was just
+replacing her needle, cotton, and buttons in an old-fashioned housewife,
+which she always carried in her pocket, and was then going to put on her
+black silk bonnet and coloured shawl, before bidding him goodbye.
+
+"Eh, Charlotte," said Oliver, after drawing a long and toilsome breath,
+"what would I give to be a-top of the Wrekin, seeing the sun set this
+evening! Many and many's the summer afternoon we've spent there when we
+were young, and all of us alive. Dost remember how many a mile of country
+we could see all round us, and how fresh the air blew across the
+thousands of green fields? Why, I saw Snowdon once, more than sixty miles
+off, when my eyes were young and it was a clear sunset. I always think of
+the top of the Wrekin when I read of Moses going up Mount Pisgah and
+seeing all the land about him, north and south, east and west. Eh, lass!
+there's a change in us all now!"
+
+"Ah! it's like another world!" said the old woman, shaking her head
+slowly. "All the folks I used to sew for at Aston, and Uppington, and
+Overlehill, they'd mostly be gone or dead by now. It wouldn't seem like
+the same place at all. And now there's none but you and me left, brother
+James. Well, well! its lonesome, growing old."
+
+"Yes, lonesome, yet not exactly lonesome," replied old Oliver, in a
+dreamy voice. "I'm growing dark a little, and just a trifle deaf, and I
+don't feel quite myself like I used to do; but I've got something I
+didn't use to have. Sometimes of an evening, before I've lit the gas,
+I've a sort of a feeling as if I could almost see the Lord Jesus, and
+hear him talking to me. He looks to me something like our eldest brother,
+him that died when we were little. Charlotte, thee remembers him? A
+white, quiet, patient face, with a smile like the sun shining behind
+clouds. Well, whether it's only a dream or no I cannot tell, but there's
+a face looks at me, or seems to look at me out of the dusk; and I think
+to myself, maybe the Lord Jesus says, 'Old Oliver's lonesome down there
+in the dark, and his eyes growing dim. I'll make myself half-plain to
+him.' Then he comes and sits here with me for a little while."
+
+"Oh, that's all fancy as comes with you living quite alone," said
+Charlotte, sharply.
+
+"Perhaps so! perhaps so!" answered the old man, with a meek sigh; "but I
+should be very lonesome without that."
+
+They did not speak again until Charlotte had given a final shake to the
+bed in the corner, upon which her bonnet and shawl had been lying. She
+put them on neatly and primly; and when she was ready to go she spoke
+again in a constrained and mysterious manner.
+
+"Heard nothing of Susan, I suppose?" she said.
+
+"Not a word," answered old Oliver, sadly. "It's the only trouble I've
+got. That were the last passion I ever went into, and I was hot and
+hasty, I know."
+
+"So you always used to be at times," said his sister.
+
+"Ah! but that passion was the worst of all," he went on, speaking
+slowly. "I told her if she married young Raleigh, she should never darken
+my doors again--never again. And she took me at my word though she might
+have known it was nothing but father's hot temper. Darken my doors! Why,
+the brightest sunshine I could have 'ud be to see her come smiling into
+my shop, like she used to do at home."
+
+"Well, I think Susan ought to have humbled herself," said Charlotte.
+"It's going on for six years now, and she's had time enough to see her
+folly. Do you know where she is?"
+
+"I know nothing about her," he answered, shaking his head sorrowfully.
+"Young Raleigh was wild, very wild, and that was my objection to him;
+but I didn't mean Susan to take me at my word. I shouldn't speak so
+hasty and hot now."
+
+"And to think. I'd helped to bring her up so genteel, and with such
+pretty manners!" cried the old woman, indignantly. "She might have done
+so much better with her cleverness too. Such a milliner as she might have
+turned out! Well good-bye, brother James, and don't go having any more of
+those visions; they're not wholesome for you."
+
+"I should be very lonesome without them," answered Oliver. "Good-bye,
+Charlotte, good-bye, and God bless you. Come again as soon as you can."
+
+He went with her to the door, and stayed to watch her along the quiet
+alley, till she turned into the street. Then, with a last nod to the back
+of her bonnet, as she passed out of his sight, he returned slowly into
+his dark shop, put up the flap of the counter, and retreated to the
+darker room within. Hot as it was, he fancied it was growing a little
+chilly with the coming of the night, and he drew on his old coat, and
+threw a handkerchief over his white head, and then sat down in the dusk,
+looking out into his shop and the alley beyond it. He must have fallen
+into a doze after a while, being overcome with the heat, and lulled by
+the constant hum of the streets, which reached his dull ear in a softened
+murmur; for at length he started up almost in a fright, and found that
+complete darkness had fallen upon him suddenly, as it seemed to him. A
+church clock was striking nine, and his shop was not closed yet. He went
+out hurriedly to put the shutters up.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+WAIFS AND STRAYS.
+
+
+In the shop it was not yet so dark but that old Oliver could see his way
+out with the shutters, which during the day occupied a place behind the
+door. He lifted the flap of the counter, and was about to go on with his
+usual business, when a small voice, trembling a little, and speaking from
+the floor at his very feet, caused him to pause suddenly.
+
+"Please, rere's a little girl here," said the voice.
+
+Oliver stooped down to bring his eyes nearer to the ground, until he
+could make out the indistinct outline of the figure of a child, seated on
+his shop floor, and closely hugging a dog in her arms. Her face looked
+small to him; it was pale, as if she had been crying quietly, and though
+he could not see them, a large tear stood on each of her cheeks.
+
+"What little girl are you?" he asked, almost timidly.
+
+"Rey called me Dolly," answered the child.
+
+"Haven't you any other name?" inquired old Oliver
+
+"Nosing else but Poppet," she said; "rey call me Dolly sometimes, and
+Poppet sometimes. Ris is my little dog, Beppo."
+
+She introduced the dog by pushing its nose into his hand, and Beppo
+complacently wagged his tail and licked the old man's withered fingers.
+
+"What brings you here in my shop, my little woman?" asked Oliver.
+
+"Mammy brought me," she said, with a stifled sob; "she told me run in
+rere, Dolly, and stay till mammy comes back, and be a good girl always.
+Am I a good girl?"
+
+"Yes, yes," he answered, soothingly; "you're a very good little girl, I'm
+sure; and mother 'ill come back soon, very soon. Let us go to the door,
+and look for her."
+
+He took her little hand in his own; such a little hand it felt, that he
+could not help tightening his fingers fondly over it; and then they stood
+for a few minutes on the door-sill, while old Oliver looked anxiously up
+and down the alley. At the greengrocer's next door there flared a bright
+jet of gas, and the light shone well into the deepening darkness. But
+there was no woman in sight, and the only person about was a ragged boy,
+barefoot and bareheaded with no clothing but a torn pair of trousers,
+very jagged about the ankles, and a jacket through which his thin
+shoulders displayed themselves. He was lolling in the lowest window-sill
+of the house opposite, and watched Oliver and the little girl looking
+about them with sundry signs of interest and amusement.
+
+"She ain't nowhere in sight," he called across to them after a while,
+"nor won't be, neither, I'll bet you. You're looking out for the little
+un's mother, ain't you, old master?"
+
+"Yes," answered Oliver; "do you know anything about her, my boy?"
+
+"Nothink," he said, with a laugh; "only she looked as if she were up to
+some move, and as I'd nothink particular on hand, I just followed her.
+She was somethink like my mother, as is dead, not fat or rosy, you know,
+with a bit of a bruise about her eye, as if somebody had been fighting
+with her. I thought there'd be a lark when she left the little 'un in
+your shop, so I just stopped to see. She bolted as if the bobbies were
+after her."
+
+"How long ago?" asked Oliver, anxiously.
+
+"The clocks had just gone eight," he answered; "I've been watching for
+you ever since."
+
+"Why! that's a full hour ago," said the old man, looking wistfully down
+the alley; "it's time she was come back again for her little girl."
+
+[Illustration: THE LITTLE STRANGER.]
+
+But there was no symptom of anybody coming to claim the little girl, who
+stood very quietly at his side, one hand holding the dog fast by his ear,
+and the other still lying in Oliver's grasp. The boy hopped on one foot
+across the narrow alley, and looked up with bright, eager eyes into the
+old man's face.
+
+"I say," he said, earnestly, "don't you go to give her up to the p'lice.
+They'd take her to the house, and that's worse than the jail. Bless yer!
+they'd never take up a little thing like that to jail for a wagrant. You
+just give her to me, and I'll take care of her. It 'ud be easy enough to
+find victuals for such a pretty little thing as her. You give her up to
+me, I say."
+
+"What's your name?" asked Oliver, clasping the little hand tighter, "and
+where do you come from?"
+
+"From nowhere particular," answered the boy; "and my name's Antony; Tony,
+for short. I used to have another name; mother told it me afore she died,
+but it's gone clean out o' my head. Tony I am, anyhow, and you can call
+me by it, if you choose."
+
+"How old are you, Tony?" inquired Oliver, still lingering on the
+threshold, and looking up and down with his dim eyes.
+
+"Bless yer! I don't know," replied Tony; "I weren't much bigger nor
+her when mother died, and I've found myself ever since. I never had
+any father."
+
+"Found yourself!" repeated the old man, absently.
+
+"Ah, it's not bad in the summer," said Tony, more earnestly than before:
+"and I could find for the little 'un easy enough. I sleep anywhere, in
+Covent Garden sometimes, and the parks--anywhere as the p'lice 'ill let
+me alone. You won't go to give her up to them p'lice, will you now, and
+she so pretty?"
+
+He spoke in a beseeching tone, and old Oliver looked down upon him
+through his spectacles, with a closer survey than he had given to him
+before. The boy's face was pale and meagre, with an unboyish sharpness
+about it, though he did not seem more than nine or ten years old. His
+glittering eyes were filled with tears, and his colourless lips quivered.
+He wiped away the tears roughly upon the ragged sleeve of his jacket.
+
+"I never were such a baby before," said Tony, "only she is such a nice
+little thing, and such a tiny little 'un. You'll keep her, master, won't
+you? or give her up to me?"
+
+"Ay, ay! I'll take care of her," answered Oliver, "till her mother comes
+back for her. She'll come pretty soon, I know. But she wants her supper
+now, doesn't she?"
+
+He stooped down to bring his face nearer to the child's, and she raised
+her hand to it, and stroked his cheek with her warm, soft fingers.
+
+"Beppo wants his supper, too," she said, in a clear, shrill, little
+voice, which penetrated easily through old Oliver's deafened hearing.
+
+"And Beppo shall have some supper as well as the little woman," he
+answered. "I'll put the shutters up now, and leave the door ajar, and the
+gas lit for mother to see when she comes back; and if mother shouldn't
+come back to night, the little woman will sleep in my bed, won't she?"
+
+"Dolly's to be a good girl till mammy comes back," said the child,
+plaintively, and holding harder by Beppo's ear.
+
+"Let me put the shutters up, master," cried Tony, eagerly; "I won't
+charge you nothink, and I'll just look round in the morning to see how
+you're getting along. She is such a very little thing."
+
+The shutters were put up briskly, and then Tony took a long, farewell
+gaze of the old man and the little child, but he could not offer to touch
+either of them. He glanced at his hands, and Oliver did the same; but
+they both shook their heads.
+
+"I'll have a wash in the morning afore I come," he said, nodding
+resolutely; "good-bye, guv'ner; goodbye, little 'un."
+
+Old Oliver went in, leaving his door ajar, and his gas lit, as he had
+said. He fed the hungry child with bread and butter, and used up his
+half-pennyworth of milk, which he bought for himself every evening. Then
+he lifted her on to his knee, with Beppo in her arms, and sat for a long
+while waiting. The little head nodded, and Dolly sat up, unsteadily
+striving hard to keep awake; but at last she let Beppo drop to the floor,
+while she herself fell upon the old man's breast, and lay there without
+moving. It chimed eleven o'clock at last, and Oliver knew it was of no
+use to watch any longer.
+
+He managed to undress his little charge with gentle, though trembling
+hands, and then he laid her down on his bed, putting his only pillow
+against the wall to make a soft nest for the tender and sleepy child. She
+roused herself for a minute, and stared about her, gazing steadily, with
+large, tearful eyes, into his face. Then as he sat down on the bedstead
+beside her, to comfort her as well as he could, she lifted herself up,
+and knelt down, with her folded hands laid against his shoulder.
+
+"Dolly vewy seepy," she lisped, "but must say her prayers always."
+
+"What are your prayers, my dear?" he asked.
+
+"On'y God bless gan-pa, and father, and mammy, and poor Beppo, and make
+me a good girl," murmured the drowsy voice, as Dolly closed her eyes
+again, and fell off into a deep sleep the next moment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+A LITTLE PEACEMAKER.
+
+
+It was a very strange event which had befallen old Oliver. He went back
+to his own chair, where he smoked his Broseley pipe every night, and sank
+down in it, rubbing his legs softly; for it was a long time since he had
+nursed any child, and even Dolly's small weight was a burden to him. Her
+tiny clothes were scattered up and down, and there was no one beside
+himself to gather them together, and fold them straight. In shaking out
+her frock a letter fell from it, and Oliver picked it up wondering
+whoever it could be for. It was directed to himself, "Mr. James Oliver,
+News-agent," and he broke the seal with eager expectation. The contents
+were these, written in a handwriting which he knew at first sight to be
+his daughter's:--
+
+"DEAR FATHER,
+
+"I am very very sorry I ever did anything to make you angry with me. This
+is your poor Susan's little girl, as is come to be a little peacemaker
+betwixt you and me. I'm certain sure you'll never turn her away from your
+door. I'm going down to Portsmouth for three days, because he listed five
+months ago, and his regiment's ordered out to India, and he sails on
+Friday. So I thought I wouldn't take my little girl to be in the way, and
+I said I'll leave her with father till I come back, and her pretty little
+ways will soften him towards me, and we'll live all together in peace and
+plenty till his regiment comes home again, poor fellow. For he's very
+good to me when he's not in liquor, which is seldom for a man. Please do
+forgive me for pity's sake, and for Christ's sake, if I'm worthy to use
+his name, and do take care of my little girl till I come home to you both
+on Friday, From your now dutiful daughter,
+
+"POOR SUSAN."
+
+The tears rolled fast down old Oliver's cheeks as he read this letter
+through twice, speaking the words half aloud to himself. Why! this was
+his own little grandchild, then--his very own! And no doubt Susan had
+christened her Dorothy, after her own mother, his dear wife, who had died
+so many years ago. Dolly was the short for Dorothy, and in early times he
+had often called his wife by that name. He had turned his gas off and
+lighted a candle, and now he took it up and went to the bedside to look
+at his new treasure. The tiny face lying upon his pillow was rosy with
+sleep, and the fair curly hair was tossed about in pretty disorder. His
+spectacles grew very dim indeed, and he was obliged to polish them
+carefully on his cotton handkerchief before he could see his
+grand-daughter plainly enough. Then he touched her dimpled cheek
+tremblingly with the end of his finger, and sobbed out, "Bless her! bless
+her!" He returned to his chair, his head shaking a good deal before he
+could regain his composure; and it was not until he had kindled his pipe,
+and was smoking it, with his face turned towards the sleeping child, that
+he felt at all like himself again.
+
+"Dear Lord!" he said, half aloud, between the whiffs of his pipe, "dear
+Lord! how very good thou art to me! Didst thee not say, 'I'll not leave
+thee comfortless, I'll come to thee?' I know what that means, bless thy
+name; and the good Spirit has many a time brought me comfort, and cheered
+my heart. I know thou didst not leave me alone before. No, no! that was
+far from thee, Lord. Alone!--why, thou'rt always here; and now there's
+the little lass as well. Lonesome!--they don't know thee, Lord, and they
+don't know me. Thou'rt here, with the little lass and me. Yes,
+yes,--yes."
+
+He murmured the word "yes" in a tone of contentment over and over again,
+until, the pipe being finished, he prepared for sleep also. But no sleep
+came to the old man. He was too full of thought, and too fearful of the
+child waking in the night and wanting something. The air was close and
+hot, and now and then a peal of thunder broke overhead; but a profound
+peace and tranquillity, slightly troubled by his new joy, held possession
+of him. His grandchild was there, and his daughter was coming back to him
+in three days.
+
+Oh, how he would welcome her! He would not let her speak one word of her
+wilfulness and disobedience, and the long, cruel neglect which had left
+him in ignorance of where she lived, and what had become of her. It was
+partly his fault, for having been too hard upon her, and too hasty and
+hot-tempered. He had learnt better since then.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+OLD OLIVER'S MASTER.
+
+
+Very early in the morning, before the tardy daylight could creep into the
+darkened room, old Oliver was up and busy. He had been in the habit of
+doing for himself, as he called it, ever since his daughter had forsaken
+him, and he was by nature fastidiously clean and neat. But now there
+would be additional duties for him during the next three days; for there
+would be Dolly to wash, and dress, and provide breakfast for. Every few
+minutes he stole a look at her lying still asleep; and as soon as he
+discovered symptoms of awaking, he hastily lifted Beppo on to the bed,
+that her opening eyes should be greeted by some familiar sight. She
+stretched out her wonderful little hands, and caught hold of the dog's
+rough head before venturing to lift her eyelids, while Oliver looked on
+in speechless delight. At length she ventured to peep slyly at him, and
+then addressed herself to Beppo.
+
+"What am I to call ris funny old man, Beppo?" she asked.
+
+"I am your grandpa, my darling," said Oliver, in his softest voice.
+
+"Are you God-bless-gan-pa?" inquired Dolly, sitting up on her pillow, and
+staring very hard with her blue eyes into his wrinkled face.
+
+"Yes, I am," he answered, looking at her anxiously.
+
+"Dolly knows," she said, counting upon her little fingers; "rere's
+father, and mammy, and Beppo; and now rere's gan-pa. Dolly'll get up
+now."
+
+She flung her arms suddenly about his neck and kissed him, while old
+Oliver trembled with intense joy. It was quite a marvel to him how she
+helped him to dress her, laughing merrily at the strange mistakes he made
+in putting on her clothes the wrong side before; and when he assured her
+that her mother would come back very soon, she seemed satisfied to put up
+with any passing inconvenience. The shop, with its duties, and the
+necessity of getting in his daily stock of newspapers, entirely slipped
+his memory; and he was only recalled to it by a very loud rapping at the
+door as he was pouring out Dolly's breakfast. To his great surprise he
+discovered that he had forgotten to take down his shutters, though it was
+past the hour when his best customers passed by.
+
+The person knocking proved to be none other than Tony, who greeted the
+old man's appearance with a prolonged whistle, and a grave and
+reproachful stare.
+
+"Come," he said, in a tone of remonstrance, "this'll never do, you know.
+Business is business, and must be minded. You pretty nearly frightened
+me into fits; anybody could have knocked me down with a straw when I see
+the shutters up. How is she?"
+
+"She's very well, thank you, my boy," answered Oliver, meekly.
+
+"Mother not turned up, I guess?" said Tony.
+
+"No; she comes on Friday," he replied.
+
+Tony winked, and put his tongue into his cheek; but he gave utterance to
+no remark until after the shutters were in their place. Then he surveyed
+himself as well as he could, with an air of satisfaction. His face and
+hands were clean, and his skin looked very white through the holes in his
+tattered clothes; even his feet, except for an unavoidable under surface
+of dust, were unsoiled. His jacket and trousers appeared somewhat more
+torn than the evening before; but they bore every mark of having been
+washed also.
+
+"Washed myself early in the morning, afore the bobbies were much about,"
+remarked Tony, "in the fountains at Charing Cross; but I hadn't time to
+get my rags done, so I did 'em down under the bridge, when the tide were
+going down; but I could only give 'em a bit of a swill and a ring out.
+Anyhow, I'm a bit cleaner this morning than last night, master."
+
+"To be sure, to be sure," answered Oliver. "Come in, my boy, and I'll
+give you a bit of breakfast with her and me."
+
+"You haven't got sich a thing as a daily paper, have you?" asked Tony, in
+a patronizing tone.
+
+"Not to-day's paper, I'm afraid," he said.
+
+"I'm afraid not," continued Tony; "overslept yourself, eh? Not as I can
+read myself; but there are folks going by as can, and might p'raps buy
+one here as well as anywhere else. Shall I run and get 'em for you, now
+I'm on my legs?"
+
+Oliver looked questioningly at the boy, who returned a frank, honest
+gaze, and said, "Honour bright!" as he held out his hand for the money.
+There was some doubt in the old man's mind after Tony had disappeared as
+to whether he had not done a very foolish thing; but he soon forgot it
+when he returned to the breakfast-table; and long before he himself could
+have reached the place and returned, Tony was back again with his right
+number of papers.
+
+Before many minutes Tony was sitting upon an old box at a little distance
+from the table, where Oliver sat with his grandchild. A basin of coffee
+and a large hunch of bread rested upon his knees, and Beppo was sniffing
+round him with a doubtful air. Dolly was shy in this strange company,
+and ate her breakfast with a sedate gravity which filled both her
+companions with astonishment and admiration. When the meal was finished,
+old Oliver took his daughter's letter from his waistcoat pocket and read
+it aloud to Tony, who listened with undivided interest.
+
+"Then she's your own little 'un," he said, with a sigh of disappointment.
+"You'll never give her up to me, if you get tired of her,--nor to the
+p'lice neither," he added, with a brightening face.
+
+"No, no, no!" answered Oliver, emphatically. "Besides, her mother's
+coming on Friday. I wouldn't give her up for all the world, bless her!"
+
+"And he's 'listed!" said Tony, in a tone of envy. "They wouldn't take me
+yet a while, if I offered to go. But who's that she speaks of?--'for
+Christ's sake, if I am worthy to use his name.' Who is he?"
+
+"Don't you know?" asked Oliver.
+
+"No, never heard tell of him before," he answered. "Is he any friend o'
+yours?" [A]
+
+[Footnote A: It may be necessary to assure some readers that this
+ignorance is not exaggerated. The City Mission Reports, and similar
+records, show that such cases are too frequent.]
+
+"Ay!" said Oliver; "he's my only friend, my best friend. And he's my
+master, besides."
+
+"And she thinks he'd be angry if you turned the little girl away?"
+pursued Tony.
+
+"Yes, yes; he'd be very angry," said old Oliver, thoughtfully; "it 'ud
+grieve him to his heart. Why, he's always loved little children, and
+never had them turned away from himself, whatever he was doing. If she
+hadn't been my own little girl, I daren't have turned her out of my
+doors. No, no, dear Lord, thee knows as I'd have taken care of her, for
+thy sake."
+
+He spoke absently, in a low voice, as though talking to some person
+whom Tony could not see, and the boy was silent a minute or two,
+thinking busily.
+
+"How long have you worked for that master o' yours?" he asked, at last.
+
+"Not very long," replied Oliver, regretfully. "I used to fancy I was
+working for him years and years ago; but, dear me! it was poor sort
+o'work; and now I can't do very much. Only he knows how old I am, and he
+doesn't care so that I love him, which I do, Tony."
+
+"I should think so!" said the boy, falling again into busy thought, from
+which he aroused himself by getting up from his box, and rubbing his
+fingers through his wet and tangled hair.
+
+"He takes to children and little 'uns?" he said, in a questioning tone.
+
+"Ay, dearly!" answered old Oliver.
+
+"I reckon he'd scarcely take me for a man yet," said Tony, at the same
+time drawing himself up to his full height; "though I don't know as I
+should care to work for him. I'd rather have a crossing, and be my own
+master. But if I get hard up, do you think he'd take to me, if you spoke
+a word for me?"
+
+"Are you sure you don't know anything about him?" asked Oliver.
+
+"Not I; how should I?" answered Tony. "Why, you don't s'pose as I know
+all the great folks in London, though I've seen sights and sights of 'em
+riding about in their carriages. I told you I weren't much bigger nor her
+there when mother died, and I've picked up my living up and down the
+streets anyhow, and other lads have helped me on, till I can help 'em on
+now. It don't cost much to keep a boy on the streets. There's nothink to
+pay for coals, or rent, or beds, or furniture, or anythink; only your
+victuals, and a rag now and then. All I want's a broom and a crossing,
+and then shouldn't I get along just? But I don't know how to get 'em."
+
+"Perhaps the Lord Jesus would give them to you, if you'd ask him," said
+Oliver, earnestly.
+
+"Who's he?" inquired Tony, with an eager face.
+
+"Him--Christ. It's his other name," answered the old man.
+
+"Ah! I see," he said, nodding. "Well, if I can't get 'em myself,
+I'll think about it. He'll want me to work for him, you know. Where
+does he live?"
+
+"I'll tell you all about him, if you'll come to see me," replied Oliver.
+
+"Well," said the boy, "I'll just look in after Friday, and see if the
+little 'un's mother's come back. Goodbye,--good-bye, little miss."
+
+He could take Dolly's hand into his own this morning, and he looked down
+curiously at it,--a small, rosy, dimpled hand, such as he had never seen
+before so closely. A lump rose in his throat, and his eyelids smarted
+with tears again. It was such a little thing, such a pretty little thing,
+he said to himself, covering it fondly with his other hand. There was no
+fear that Tony would forget to come back to old Oliver's house.
+
+"Thank you for my breakfast," he said, with a choking voice; "only if
+I do come to see you, it'll be to see her again--not for anythink as
+I can get."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+FORSAKEN AGAIN.
+
+
+The next three days were a season of unmixed happiness to old Oliver. The
+little child was so merry, yet withal so gentle and sweet-tempered, that
+she kept him in a state of unwearied delight, without any alloy of
+anxiety or trouble. She trotted at his side with short, running
+footsteps, when he went out early in the morning to fetch his daily stock
+of newspapers. She watched him set his room tidy, and made believe to
+help him by dusting the legs and seats of his two chairs. She stood with
+folded hands and serious face, looking on as he was busy with his
+cooking. When she was not thus engaged she played contentedly with Beppo,
+prattling to him in such a manner, that Oliver often forgot what he was
+about while listening to her. She played with him, too, frolicsome little
+games of hide-and-seek, in which he grew as eager as herself; and
+sometimes she stole his spectacles, or handkerchief, or anything she
+could lay her mischievous fingers upon to hide away in some unthought-of
+spot; while her shrewd, cunning little face put on an expression of
+profound gravity as old Oliver sought everywhere for them.
+
+As Friday evening drew near, the old man's gladness took a shade of
+anxiety. His daughter was coming home to him, and his heart was full of
+unutterable joy and gratitude; but he did not know exactly how they
+should go on in the future. He was averse to change; yet this little
+house, with its single room, to which he had moved when she forsook him,
+was too scanty in its accommodation. He had made up a rude sort of bed
+for himself under the counter in the shop, and was quite ready to give up
+his own to Susan and his little love, as he called Dolly; but would Susan
+let him have his own way in this, and many other things? He provided a
+sumptuous tea, and added a fresh salad to it from the greengrocer's next
+door; but though he and Dolly waited and watched till long after the
+child's bed-time, taking occasional snatches of bread and butter, still
+Susan did not arrive. At length a postman entered the little shop with a
+noise which made Oliver's heart beat violently, and tossed a letter down
+upon the counter. He carried it to the door, where there was still light
+enough to read it, and saw that it was in Susan's handwriting.
+
+"MY DEAR AND DEAREST FATHER,
+
+"My heart is almost broke, betwixt one thing and another. His regiment
+is to set sail immediate, and the colonel's lady has offered me very
+handsome wages to go out with her as lady's maid, her own having
+disappointed her at the last moment; which I could do very well, knowing
+the dressmaking. He said, 'Do come, Susan, and I'll never get drunk
+again, so help me God; and if you don't, I shall go to the bad
+altogether; for I do love you, Susan.' I said, 'Oh my child!' And the
+colonel's lady said, 'She's safe with her grandfather; and if he's a
+good man, as you say he is, he'll take the best of care of her. I'll
+give you three pounds to send him from here, and we'll send more from
+Calcutta.' So they overpersuaded me, and there isn't even time to come
+back to London, for we are going in a few hours. You'll take care of my
+little dear, I know, you and aunt Charlotte. I've sent a little box of
+clothes for her by the railway, and what more she wants aunt Charlotte
+will see to, I'm sure, and do her mending, and see to her manners till I
+come home. Oh! if I could only hear you say 'Susan, my dear, I forgive
+you, and love you almost as much as ever,' I'd go with a lighter heart,
+and be almost glad to leave Dolly to be a comfort to you. She will be a
+comfort to you, though she is so little, I'm sure. Tell her mammy says
+she must be a good girl always till mammy comes back. A hundred thousand
+kisses for my dear father and my little girl. We shall come home as soon
+as ever we can; but I don't rightly know where India is. I think it's my
+bounden duty to go with him, as things have turned out. Pray God take
+care of us all.
+
+"Your loving, sorrowful daughter,
+
+"SUSAN RALEIGH."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE GRASSHOPPER A BURDEN.
+
+
+It was some time before the full meaning of Susan's letter penetrated
+to her father's brain; but when it did, he was not at first altogether
+pained by it. True, it was both a grief and disappointment to think
+that his daughter, instead of returning to him, was already on her way
+across the sea to a very distant land. But as this came slowly to his
+mind, there came also the thought that there would now be no one to
+divide with him the treasure committed to his charge. The little child
+would belong to him alone. They might go on still, living as they had
+done these last three days, and being all in all to one another. If he
+could have chosen, his will would certainly have been for Susan to
+return to them; but, since he could not have his choice, he felt that
+there were some things which would be all the happier for him because
+of her absence.
+
+He put Dolly to bed, and then went out to shut up the shop for the night.
+As he carried in his feeble arms a single shutter at a time, he heard
+himself hailed by a boy's voice, which was lowered to a low and
+mysterious whisper, and which belonged to Tony, who took the shutter out
+of his hands.
+
+"S'pose the mother turned up all right?" he said, pointing with his thumb
+through the half open door.
+
+"No," answered Oliver. "I've had another letter from her, and she's
+gone out to India with her husband, and left the little love to live
+alone with me."
+
+"But whatever'll the Master say to that?" inquired Tony.
+
+"What master?" asked old Oliver.
+
+"Him--Lord Jesus Christ. What'll he say to her leaving you and the
+little 'un again?" said Tony, with an eager face.
+
+"Oh! he says a woman ought to leave her father, and keep to her husband,"
+he answered, somewhat sadly. "It's all right, that is."
+
+"I s'pose he'll help you to take care of the little girl," said Tony.
+
+"Ay will he; him and me," replied old Oliver; "there's no fear of that.
+You never read the Testament, of course, my boy?"
+
+"Can't read, I told you," he answered. "But what's that?"
+
+"A book all about him, the Lord Jesus," said Oliver, "what he's done, and
+what he's willing to do for people. If you'll come of an evening, I'll
+read it aloud to you and my little love. She'll listen as quiet and good
+as any angel."
+
+"I'll come to-morrow," answered Tony, readily; and he lingered about the
+doorway until he heard the old man inside fasten the bolts and locks, and
+saw the light go out in the pane of glass over the door. Then he
+scampered noiselessly with his naked feet along the alley in the
+direction of Covent Garden, where he purposed to spend the night, if left
+undisturbed.
+
+Old Oliver went back into his room, where the tea-table was still set
+out for his Susan's welcome; but he had no heart to clear the things
+away. A chill came over his spirit as his eye fell upon the preparations
+he had made to give her such a cordial greeting, that she would know at
+once he had forgiven her fully. He lit his pipe, and sat pondering
+sorrowfully over all the changes that had happened to him since those
+old, far-away days when he was a boy, in the pleasant, fresh, healthy
+homestead at the foot of the Wrekin. He felt all of a sudden how very old
+he was; a poor, infirm, hoary old man. His sight was growing dim even,
+and his hearing duller every day; he was sure of it. His limbs ached
+oftener, and he was earlier wearied in the evening; yet he could not
+sleep soundly at nights, as he had been used to do. But, worst of all,
+his memory was not half as good as it had been. Sometimes, of late, he
+had caught himself reading a newspaper quite a fortnight old, and he had
+not found it out till he happened to see the date at the top. He could
+not recollect the names of people as he did once; for many of his
+customers to whom he supplied the monthly magazines were obliged to tell
+him their names and the book they wanted every time, before he could
+remember them. And now there was this young child cast upon him to be
+thought of, and cared and worked for. It was very thoughtless and
+reckless of Susan! Suppose he should forget or neglect any of her tender
+wants! Suppose his dull ear should grow too deaf to catch the pretty
+words she said when she asked for something! Suppose he should not see
+when the tears were rolling down her cheeks, and nobody would comfort
+her! It might very easily be so. He was not the hale man he was when
+Susan was just such another little darling, and he could toss her up to
+the ceiling in his strong hands. It was as much as he could do to lift
+Dolly on to his feeble knee, and nurse her quietly, not even giving her a
+ride to market upon it; and how stiff he felt if she sat there long!
+
+Old Oliver laid aside his pipe, and rested his worn face upon his hands,
+while the heavy tears came slowly and painfully to his eyes, and
+trickled down his withered cheeks. His joy had fled, and his unmingled
+gladness had faded quite away. He was a very poor, very old man; and the
+little child was very, very young. What would become of them both, alone
+in London?
+
+He did not know whether it was a voice speaking within himself in his own
+heart, or words whispered very softly into his ear; but he heard a low,
+quiet, still, small voice, which said, "Even to your old age I am he,
+and even to hoar hairs I will carry you: I have made, and I will bear;
+even I will carry, and will deliver you." And old Oliver answered, with a
+sob, "Yes, Lord, yes!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE PRINCE OF LIFE.
+
+
+In the new life which had now fairly begun for Oliver, it was partly as
+he had foreseen; he was apt to forget many things, and he had a fretting
+consciousness of this forgetfulness. When he was in the house playing
+with Dolly, or reading to her, the shop altogether slipped away from his
+memory, and he was only recalled to it by the loud knocking or shouting
+of some customer in it. On the other hand, when he was sitting behind the
+counter looking for news from India in the papers, news in which he was
+already profoundly concerned, though it was impossible that Susan could
+yet have reached it, he grew so absorbed, that he did not know how the
+time was passing by, and both he and his little grand-daughter were
+hungry before he had thought of getting ready any meal. He tried all
+kinds of devices for strengthening his failing memory; but in vain. He
+even forgot that he did forget; and when Dolly was laughing and
+frolicking about him he grew a child again, and felt himself the happiest
+man in London.
+
+The person who took upon himself the heaviest weight of anxiety and
+responsibility about Dolly was Tony, who began to make it his daily
+custom to pass by the house at the hour when old Oliver ought to be going
+for his morning papers; and if he found no symptom of life about the
+place, he did not leave off kicking and butting at the shop-door until
+the owner appeared. It was very much the same thing at night, when the
+time for shutting up came; though it generally happened now that the boy
+was paying his friends an evening visit, and was therefore at hand to put
+up the shutters for Oliver. Tony could not keep away from the place.
+Though he felt a boy's contemptuous pity for the poor old man's declining
+faculties as regarded business, he had a very high veneration for his
+learning. Nothing pleased him better than to sit upon the old box near
+the door, his elbows on his knees, and his chin upon his hands, while
+Oliver read aloud, with Dolly upon his knee, her curly hair and small
+pretty features making a strange contrast to his white head and withered,
+hollow face. Tony, who had never had anything to love except a stray cur
+or two, which he had always lost after a few days' friendship, felt as if
+he could have suffered himself to be put to death for either of these
+two; while Beppo came in for a large share of his unclaimed affections.
+The chief subject of their reading was the life of the Master, who was so
+intimately dear to the heart of old Oliver. Tony was very eager to learn
+all he could of this great friend who did so much for the old man, and
+who might perhaps be persuaded some day or other to take a little notice
+of him, if he should fail to get a crossing for himself. Oliver, in his
+long, unbroken solitude of six years, had fallen into a notion, amounting
+to a firm belief, that his Lord was not dead and far off, as most of the
+world believed, but was a very present, living friend, always ready to
+listen to the meanest of his words. He had a vague suspicion that his
+faith had got into a different course from that of most other people; and
+he bore meekly the rebukes of his sister Charlotte for the
+unwholesomeness of his visions. But none the less, when he was alone, he
+talked and prayed to, and spoke to Tony of this Master, as one who was
+always very near at hand.
+
+"I s'pose he takes a bit o' notice o' the little un," said Tony, "when he
+comes in now and then of an evening."
+
+"Ay, does he!" answered Oliver, earnestly. "My boy, he loves every child
+as if it was his very own, and it is his own in one sense. Didn't I read
+you last night how he said, 'Suffer the little children to come unto me,
+and forbid them not.' Why, he'd love all the young children in the world,
+if they weren't hindered from coming to him."
+
+"I should very much like to see him some day," pursued Tony,
+reflectively, "and the rest of them,--Peter, and John, and them. I s'pose
+they are getting pretty old by now, aren't they?"
+
+"They are dead," said Oliver.
+
+"All of 'em?" asked Tony.
+
+"All of them," he repeated.
+
+"Dear, dear!" cried Tony, his eyes glistening. "Whatever did the Master
+do when they all died? I'm very sorry for him now. He's had a many
+troubles, hasn't he?"
+
+"Yes, yes," replied old Oliver, with a faltering voice. "He was called a
+man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. Nobody ever bore so many
+troubles as him."
+
+"How long is it ago since they all died?" asked Tony.
+
+"I can't rightly say," he answered. "I heard once, but it is gone out of
+my head. I only know it was the same when I was a boy. It must have been
+a long, long time ago."
+
+"The same when you was a boy!" repeated Tony, in a tone of
+disappointment. "It must ha' been a long while ago. I thought all along
+as the Master was alive now."
+
+"So he is, so he is!" exclaimed old Oliver, eagerly. "I'll read to you
+all about it. They put him to death on the cross, and buried him in a
+rocky grave; but he is the Prince of Life, and he came to life again
+three days after, and now he can die no more. His own words to John
+were, 'I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive
+forevermore.' What else can it mean but that he is living now, and will
+never die again?"
+
+Tony made no answer. He sat with his sharp, unboyish face gazing intently
+into the fire; for by this time autumn had set in, and the old man was
+chilly of an evening. A very uncertain, dim idea was dawning upon him
+that this master and friend of old Oliver's was a being very different
+from an ordinary man, however great and rich he might be. He had grown to
+love the thought of him, and to listen attentively to the book which told
+the manner of life he led; but it was a chill to find out that he could
+not look into his face, and hear his voice, as he could Oliver's. His
+heart was heavy, and very sad.
+
+"I s'pose I can't see him, then," he murmured to himself, at last.
+
+"Not exactly like other folks," said Oliver. "I think sometimes that
+perhaps there's a little darkness of the grave where he was buried about
+him still. But he sees us, and hears us. He himself says, 'Behold, I am
+with you always.' I don't know whatever I should do, even with my little
+love here, if I wasn't sure Jesus was with me as well."
+
+"I'll tell you what I'll do," said Tony, after another pause. "I'm going
+to ask him to give me somethink, and then if he does, I shall know he
+hears me--I should very much like to have a broom and a crossing, and get
+my living a bit more easy, if you please."
+
+He had turned his face away from Oliver, and looked across into the
+darkest corner of the room, where he could see nothing but shadow. The
+old man felt puzzled, and somewhat troubled, but he only sighed softly to
+himself; and opening the Testament, he read aloud in it till he was
+calmed again, and Tony was listening in rapt attention.
+
+"My boy," he said, as the hour came for Tony to go, "where are you
+sleeping now?"
+
+"Anywhere as I can get out o' the wind," he answered. "It's cold now,
+nights--wery cold, master. But I must get along a bit farder on. Lodgings
+is wery dear."
+
+"I've been thinking," said Oliver, "that you'd find it better to have
+some sort of a shake-down under my counter. I've heard say that
+newspapers stitched together make a coverlid pretty near as warm as a
+blanket; and we could do no harm by trying them, Tony. Look here, and see
+how you'd like it."
+
+It looked very much like a long box, and was not much larger. Two or
+three beetles crawled sluggishly away as the light fell upon them, and
+dusty cobwebs festooned all the corners; but to Tony it seemed so
+magnificent an accommodation for sleeping, that he could scarcely
+believe he heard old Oliver aright. He looked up into his face with a
+sharp, incredulous gaze, ready to wink and thrust his tongue into his
+cheek, if there was the least sign of making game of him. But the old
+man was simply in earnest, and without a word Tony slipped down upon a
+heap of paper shavings strewed within, drew his ragged jacket up about
+his ears, and turned his face away, lest his tears should be seen. He
+felt, a minute or two after, that a piece of an old rug was laid over
+him, but he could say nothing; and old Oliver could not hear the sob
+which broke from his lips.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+NO PIPE FOR OLD OLIVER.
+
+
+As some weeks went by, and no crossing and broom had been given to Tony,
+he began to suspect that Oliver was imposing upon him. Now that he slept
+under the counter, he could often hear the old man talking aloud to his
+invisible Friend as he smoked his pipe; and once or twice Tony crept
+noiselessly to the door and watched him, after he had finished smoking,
+kneel down and hide his face in his hands for some minutes together. But
+the boy could see nothing, and his wish had not been granted; even
+though, as he grew more instructed, he followed Oliver's example, and,
+kneeling down behind the counter, whispered out a prayer for it. To be
+sure his life was easier, especially the nights of it; for he never now
+went hungry and starved to bed upon some cold, hard door-step. But it was
+old Oliver who did that for him, not old Oliver's Master. So far as he
+knew, the Lord Jesus had taken no notice whatever of him; and the
+feeling, at first angry, softened down into a kind of patient grief,
+which was quickly dying away into indifference.
+
+Oliver had done himself no bad turn by offering a shelter to the solitary
+lad. Tony always woke early in the morning, and if it rained he would run
+for the papers, before turning out to "find for himself" in the streets.
+He generally took care to be out of the way at meal-times; for it was as
+much as the old man could do to provide for himself and Dolly. Sometimes
+Tony saw him at the till, counting over his pence with rather a troubled
+face. Once, after receiving a silver fourpenny piece, an extraordinary
+and undreamed of event, Tony dropped it, almost with a feeling of guilt,
+through the slit in the counter which communicated with the till. But
+Oliver was so bewildered by its presence among the coppers, that he was
+compelled to confess what he had done, saying it would have cost him
+more than that for lodgings these cold nights.
+
+"No, no, Tony," said Oliver; "you're very useful, fetching my papers, and
+taking my little love out a-walking when the weather's fine. I ought to
+pay you something, instead of taking it of you."
+
+"Keep it for Dolly," said Tony, bashfully, and pushing the coin into her
+little hand.
+
+"Sank 'oo," answered Dolly, accepting it promptly; "me'll give 'oo twenty
+kisses for it."
+
+It seemed ample payment to Tony, who went down on his knees to have the
+kisses pressed upon his face, which had never felt a kiss since his
+mother died. But Oliver was not satisfied with the bargain, though he
+drew Dolly to him fondly, and left the money in her hand.
+
+"It 'ud buy you a broom, Tony," he said.
+
+"Oh, I've give up asking for a crossing," he answered, dejectedly; "for
+he never heard, or if he heard, he never cared; so it were no use going
+on teazing either him or me."
+
+"But this money 'ud buy the broom," said Oliver; "and if you looked
+about you, you'd find the crossing. You never got such a bit of money
+before, did you?"
+
+"No, never," replied Tony. "A tall, thin gentleman, with a dark face and
+very sharp eyes, gave it me for holding his horse, near Temple Bar. He
+says, 'Mind you spend that well, my lad.' I'd know him again anywhere."
+
+"You ought to have bought a broom," said Oliver, looking down at Dolly's
+tightly-closed hand.
+
+"Don't you go to take it of her," cried Tony. "Bless you! I'll get
+another some way. I never thought that were the way he'd give me a broom
+and a crossing. I thought it 'ud be sure to come direct."
+
+"Well," said Oliver, after a little pause, "I'll save the fourpence for
+you. It'll only be going without my pipe for a few nights, that's all.
+That's nothing, Tony."
+
+It did not seem much to Tony, who had no idea as yet of the pleasures of
+smoking; yet he roused up just before falling into his deep sleep at
+night to step softly to the door, and look in upon Oliver. He was sitting
+in his arm-chair, with his pipe between his lips, but there was no
+tobacco in it; and he was holding more eager converse than ever with his
+unseen companion.
+
+"Dear Lord!" he said, "I'd do ten times more than this for thee. Thou
+hast said, 'Inasmuch as ye did it to one of the least of these, ye did it
+unto me.' Tony's one of thy little ones. Dear Lord, do thee give him a
+crossing, if it be thy blessed will. Do thee now, Lord."
+
+Tony could hear no more, and he stole back to bed, his mind full of new
+and vague hopes. He dreamed of the fourpenny piece, and the gentleman who
+had given it, and of Dolly, who bought a wondrous broom with it, in his
+dream, which swept a beautiful crossing of itself. But old Oliver sat
+still a long time, talking half aloud; for his usual drowsiness did not
+come to him. It was nearly five months now since Dolly was left to him,
+and he felt his deafness and blindness growing upon him slowly. His
+infirmities were not yet so burdensome as to make him dependent upon
+others; but he felt himself gradually drawing near to such a state.
+Dolly's clothes were getting sadly in want of mending; there was scarcely
+a fastening left upon them, and neither he nor Tony could sew on a button
+or tape. It was a long time--a very long time--since his sister had been
+to see him; and, with the reluctancy of old age to any active exertion,
+he had put off from week to week the task of writing to her to tell her
+of Susan's departure, and the charge he had in his little grandchild. He
+made up his mind that he would do it tomorrow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+A NEW BROOM AND A CROSSING.
+
+
+The morning was a fine soft, sunny December day, such as comes sometimes
+after a long season of rain and fog, and Tony proposed taking Dolly out
+for a walk through the streets, to which Oliver gladly consented, as it
+would give to him exactly the undisturbed leisure he needed for writing
+his letter to Charlotte. But Dolly was not in her usual spirits; on the
+contrary, she was grave and sober, and at length Tony, thinking she was
+tired, sat down on a door-step, and took her upon his knee, to tell her
+his dream of the wonderful broom which swept beautifully all by itself.
+Dolly grew more and more pensive after hearing this, and sat silent for a
+long time, with her small head resting thoughtfully upon her hand, as she
+looked up and down the street.
+
+"Dolly 'ud like to buy a boom," she said, at last, "a great, big boom;
+and gan-pa 'ill smoke his pipe again to-night. Dolly's growing a big
+girl; and me must be a good girl till mammy comes back. Let us go and buy
+a big boom, Tony."
+
+For a few minutes Tony tried to shake her resolution, and persuade her
+to change her mind. He even tempted her with the sight of a doll in a
+shop-window; but she remained steadfast, and he was not sorry to give in
+at last. Since the idea had entered his head that the money had been
+given to him for the purpose of buying a broom, he had rather regretted
+parting with it, and he felt some anxiety lest he should not be allowed
+a second chance. Dolly's light-heartedness had returned, and she
+trotted cheerfully by his side as they walked on in search of a shop
+where they could make their purchase. It was some time before they
+found one, and they had already left behind them the busier
+thoroughfares, and had reached a knot of quieter streets where there
+were more foot-passengers, for the fine morning had tempted many people
+out for pleasure as well as business. Tony was particular in his choice
+of a broom, but once bought, he carried it over his shoulder, and went
+on his way with Dolly in triumph.
+
+They were passing along chattering busily, when Tony's eyes fell upon a
+child about as old as Dolly, standing on the kerb-stone with a lady, who
+looked anxiously across to the other side of the broad and very dirty
+road, for the day before had been rainy. They were both finely dressed,
+and the little girl had on new boots of shining leather, which it was
+evident she was very much afraid of soiling. For a minute Tony only
+looked on at their perplexity, but then he went up to them, holding Dolly
+by the hand.
+
+[Illustration: A NEW BROOM AND A CROSSING]
+
+"If you'll take care of my little girl," he said, "I'll carry your
+little girl across the road. I'm wery clean for a street-boy, all but my
+feet, 'cos I've got this little girl to take care of; and I'll do it
+wery gentle."
+
+Both the lady and the child looked very searchingly into Tony's face. It
+was pale and meagre; but there was a pleasant smile upon it, and his
+eyes shone down upon the two children with a very loving light in them.
+The lady took Dolly's hand in hers, nodding permission for him to carry
+her little child over to the other side, and she waited for him to come
+back to his own charge. Then she took out her purse, and put twopence
+into his hand.
+
+"Thank ye, my lady," said Tony; "but I didn't do it for that. I'm only
+looking out for a crossing. Me and Dolly have bought this broom, and I'm
+looking out for a place to make a good crossing in."
+
+"Why not make one here?" asked the lady.
+
+It seemed a good place to try one in; there were four roads meeting, and
+a cab-stand close by. Plenty of people were passing to and fro, and the
+middle of the road was very muddy. Tony begged a wisp of straw from a
+cabman, to make a seat for Dolly in the sunshine under a blank bit of
+wall, while he set to work with a will, feeling rather pleased than not
+that the broom would not sweep of itself. A crossing was speedily made,
+and for two or three hours Tony kept it well swept. By that time it was
+twelve o'clock, and Dolly's dinner would be ready for her before they
+could reach home, if old Oliver had not forgotten it. It seemed a great
+pity to leave his new post so early. Most passers-by, certainly, had
+appeared not to see him at all; but he had already received fivepence
+halfpenny, chiefly in halfpence, from ladies who were out for their
+morning's walk; and Dolly was enjoying herself very much in the sunshine,
+receiving all the attention which he could spare from his crossing.
+However a beginning was made. The broom and the crossing were his
+property; and Tony's heart, beat fast with pride and gladness as he
+carried the weary little Dolly all the way home again. He resolved to put
+by half of his morning's earnings towards replacing the fourpenny-piece
+she had given back to him; or perhaps he would buy her a beautiful doll,
+dressed like a real lady.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+HIGHLY RESPECTABLE.
+
+
+As old Oliver was stooping over his desk on the counter, and bringing his
+dim eyes as close as he could to the letter he was writing, his shop-door
+was darkened by the unexpected entrance of his sister Charlotte herself.
+She was dressed with her usual extreme neatness, bordering upon
+gentility, and she carried upon her arm a small fancy reticule, which
+contained some fresh eggs, and a few russet apples, brought up expressly
+from the country. Oliver welcomed her with more than ordinary pleasure,
+and led her at once into his room behind. Charlotte's quick eyes detected
+in an instant the traces of a child's dwelling there; and before Oliver
+could utter a word, she picked up a little frock, and was holding it out
+at arm's length, with an air of utter surprise and misgiving.
+
+"Brother James!" she exclaimed, and her questioning voice, with its tone
+of amazement, rang very clearly into his ears.
+
+"It's my little Dolly's," he answered, in haste; "poor Susan's little
+girl, who's gone out with her husband, young Raleigh, to India, because
+he's 'listed, and left her little girl with me, her grandfather. She came
+on the very last day you were here."
+
+"Well, to be sure!" cried his sister, sinking down on a chair, but still
+keeping the torn little frock in her hand.
+
+"I've had two letters from poor Susan," he continued, in a tremulous
+voice, "and I'll read them to you. The child's such a precious treasure
+to me, Charlotte--such a little love, a hundred times better than any
+gold; and now you're come to mend up her clothes a bit, and see what she
+wants for me, there's nothing else that I desire. I was writing about her
+to you when you came in."
+
+"I thought you'd gone and picked up a lost child out of the streets,"
+said Charlotte, with a sigh of relief.
+
+"No, no; she's my own," he answered. "You hearken while I read poor
+Susan's letters, and then you'll understand all about it. I couldn't give
+her up for a hundred gold guineas--not for a deal more than that."
+
+He knew Susan's letters off by heart, and did not need his spectacles,
+nor a good light to read them by. Charlotte listened with emphatic nods,
+and many exclamations of astonishment.
+
+"That's very pretty of Susan," she remarked, "saying as Aunt Charlotte'll
+do her sewing, and see to her manners. Ay, that I will! for who should
+know manners better than me, who used to work for the Staniers, and dine
+at the housekeeper's table, with the butler and all the head servants? to
+be sure I'll take care that she does not grow up ungenteel. Where is the
+dear child, brother James?"
+
+"She's gone out for a walk this fine morning," he answered.
+
+"Not alone?" cried Charlotte. "Who's gone out with her? A child under
+five years old could never go out all alone in London: at least I should
+think not. She might get run over and killed a score of times."
+
+"Oh! there's a person with her I've every confidence in," replied Oliver.
+
+"What sort of person; man or woman; male or female?" inquired Charlotte.
+
+"A boy," he answered, in some confusion.
+
+"A boy!" repeated his sister, as if he had said a monster. "What boy?"
+
+"His name's Tony," he replied.
+
+"But where does he come from? Is he respectable?" she pursued, fixing
+him with her glittering eyes in a manner which did not tend to restore
+his composure.
+
+"I don't know, sister," he said in a feeble tone.
+
+"Don't know, brother James!" she exclaimed. "Don't you know where
+he lives?"
+
+"He lives here," stammered old Oliver; "at least he sleeps here under the
+counter; but he finds his own food about the streets."
+
+Charlotte's consternation was past all powers of speech. Here was her
+brother, a respectable man, who had seen better days, and whose sister
+had been a dressmaker in good families, harbouring in his own house a
+common boy off the streets, who, no doubt, was a thief and pickpocket,
+with all sorts of low ways and bad language. At the same time there was
+poor Susan's little girl dwelling under the same roof; the child whose
+pretty manners she was to attend to, living in constant companionship
+with a vulgar and vicious boy! What she might have said upon recovering
+her speech, neither she nor Oliver ever knew; for at this crisis Tony
+himself appeared, carrying Dolly and his new broom in his arms, and
+looking very haggard and tattered himself, his bare feet black with mud,
+and his bare head in a hopeless condition of confusion, and tangle.
+
+"We've bought a geat big boom, gan-pa," shouted Dolly, as she came
+through the shop, and before she perceived the presence of a stranger;
+"and Tony and Dolly made a great big crossing, and dot ever so much
+money--"
+
+She was suddenly silent as soon as her eye fell upon the stranger; but
+Aunt Charlotte had heard enough. She rose with great dignity from her
+chair, and was about to address herself vehemently to Tony, when old
+Oliver interrupted her.
+
+"Charlotte," he said, "the boy's a good boy, and he's a help to me. I
+couldn't send him away. He's one of the Lord's poor little ones as are
+scattered up and down in this great city, without father or mother, and I
+must do all I can for him. It isn't much; it's only a bed under the
+counter, and a crust now and then, and he more than pays for it. You
+musn't come betwixt me and Tony."
+
+Old Oliver spoke so emphatically, that his sister was impressed and
+silenced for a minute. She took the little girl away from Tony, and
+glared at him with a sternness which made him feel very uncomfortable;
+but her eye softened a little, and her face grew less harsh.
+
+"You can't read or write?" she said, in a sharp voice.
+
+"No," he answered.
+
+"And you've not got any manners, or boots, or a cap on your head. You are
+ragged and ignorant, and not fit to live with this little girl," she
+continued, with energy. "If this little girl's mother saw her going about
+with a boy in bare feet and a bare head, it 'ud break her heart I know.
+So if you wish to stay here with my brother, Mr. Oliver, and this little
+girl, Miss Dorothy Raleigh, as I suppose her name is, you must get all
+these things. You must begin to learn to read and write, and talk
+properly. I shall come here again in a month's time--I shall come every
+month now--and if you haven't got some shoes for your feet, and a cap for
+your head, before I see you again, I shall just take the little girl away
+down into the country, where I live, and you'll never see her again. Do
+you understand?"
+
+"Yes," answered Tony, nodding his head.
+
+"Then you may take yourself away now," said the sharp old woman, "I don't
+want to be too hard upon you; but I've got this little girl to look after
+for her mother, and you must do as I say, or I shall carry her right off
+to be out of your way. Take your broom and go; and never you think of
+such a thing as taking this little girl to sweep a crossing again. I
+never heard of such a thing. There, go!"
+
+Tony slunk away sadly, with a sudden down-heartedness. He returned so
+joyous and triumphant, in spite of his weariness, that this unexpected
+and unpleasant greeting had been a very severe shock to him. With his
+broom over his shoulder, and with his listless, slouching steps, he
+sauntered slowly back to his crossing; but he had no heart for it now.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+AMONG THIEVES.
+
+
+The night fell early, for a thick fog came on in the afternoon. Tony
+cowered down upon his broom under the wall where Dolly had sat in the
+sunshine all the morning to watch him sweep his crossing. It was all over
+now. She was lost to him; for he should never dare to go back to old
+Oliver's house, and face that terrible old woman again. There was nothing
+for him but to return to his old life and his old haunts; and a chill ran
+through him, body and spirit, as he thought of it. His heap of paper
+shavings under the counter, where the biting winds could not reach him,
+came to his mind, and the tears rushed to his eyes. But to-night, at
+least, there would be no need to sleep out of doors, for he had some
+money in the safest corner of his ragged pocket, tied up in it securely
+with a bit of string. He could afford to pay for a night's lodging, and
+he knew very well where he could get one.
+
+About nine o'clock Tony turned his weary feet towards a slum he knew
+of in Westminster, where there was a cellar open to everybody who could
+pay two-pence for a night's shelter. His heart was very full and heavy
+with resentment against his enemy, and a great longing to see Dolly. He
+loitered about the door of the cellar, reluctant and almost afraid to
+venture in; for it was so long since he had been driven to any of these
+places that he felt nearly like a stranger among them. Besides, in former
+times he had been kicked, and beaten, and driven from the fire, and
+fought with by the bigger boys; and he had become unaccustomed to such
+treatment of late. How different this lodging-house was to the quiet
+peaceful home where Dolly knelt down every evening at her grandfather's
+knee, and prayed for him; for now she always put Tony's name into her
+childish prayers! He should never, never hear her again, nor see old
+Oliver seated in his arm-chair, smoking his long pipe, while he talked
+with that strange friend and master of his. Ah! he would never hear or
+know any more of that unseen Christ, who was so willing to be his master
+and friend, for the Lord Jesus Christ could never come into such a wicked
+place as this, which was the only home he had. He had given him the
+crossing and the broom, and that was the end of it. He must take care of
+himself now, and keep out of gaol if he could, and if not, why then he
+had better make a business of thieving, and become as good a pickpocket
+as "Clever Dog Tom," who had once stolen a watch from a policeman
+himself.
+
+Clever Dog Tom was the first to greet Tony when he slipped in at last,
+and he seemed inclined to make much of him; but Tony was too troubled
+for receiving any consolation from Tom's friendly advances. He crept
+away into the darkest corner, and stretched himself on the thin straw
+which covered the damp and dirty floor, but he could not fall asleep.
+There was a good deal of quarreling among the boys, and the men who
+wished to sleep swore long and loudly at them. Then there followed a
+fight, which grew so exciting at last that every person in the place,
+except Tony, gathered about the boys in a ring, encouraging and cheering
+them. It was long after midnight before silence and rest came, and then
+he fell into a broken slumber, dreaming of Dolly and old Oliver, until
+he awoke and found his face wet with tears. He got up before any of his
+bed-fellows were aroused, and made his way out into the fresh keen air
+of a December morning.
+
+Day after day went by, and night after night Tony was growing more
+indifferent again to the swearing and fighting of his old comrades. He
+began to listen with delight to the tales of Clever Dog Tom, who told him
+that hands like his would work well in his line, and his innocent-looking
+face would go a long way towards softening any judge and jury, or would
+bring him favour with the chaplain, and easy times in gaol. He kept his
+crossing still, and did tolerably well, earning enough to keep himself in
+food, and to pay for his night's shelter; but he was beginning to hanker
+after something more. If he could not be good, and be on the same side as
+old Oliver and Dolly, he thought it would be better to be altogether on
+the other side, like Tom, who dressed well, and lived well, and was
+looked up to by other boys. It was a week after he had left old Oliver's
+house, and he was about to leave his crossing for the night, when a
+gentleman stopped him suddenly, and looked keenly into his face.
+
+"Hollo, my lad!" he said, "you're the boy I gave fourpence to a week
+ago for holding my horse. I told you to lay it out well. What did you
+do with it?"
+
+"Me and Dolly bought this broom," he answered, "and I've kept this
+crossing ever since."
+
+"Well done!" said the gentleman. "And who is Dolly?"
+
+"It's a little girl as I was very fond of," replied Tony, with a deep
+sigh. It seemed so long ago that he spoke of his love for her as if it
+was a thing altogether passed away and dead, yet his heart still ached at
+the memory of it.
+
+"Well, here's another fourpenny-bit for you," said his friend, "quite a
+new one. See how bright it is; no one has ever bought anything with it
+yet. Dolly will like to see it."
+
+Tony held it in the palm of his hand long after the gentleman was out of
+sight, gazing at it in the lamplight. It was very beautiful and shining;
+and oh! how Dolly's eyes would shine and sparkle if she could only see
+it! And she ought to see it. By right it belonged to her; for had he not
+given her his first fourpenny-piece freely, and had twenty kisses for it,
+and then had she not given it him back to buy a broom with? she had never
+had a single farthing of all his earnings. How he would like to show her
+this beautiful piece of silver, and feel her soft little arms round his
+neck, when he said it was to be her very own! He felt that he dare not
+pass the night in the cellar with such a treasure about him, for Tom, who
+was so clever, would be sure to find out that his pocket was worth the
+picking, and Tony had not found that there was much honour among thieves.
+What was he to do? Where was he to go?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+TONY'S WELCOME.
+
+
+Almost without knowing where his feet were carrying him, Tony sauntered
+through the streets until he found himself at the turn into the alley
+within a few yards of Oliver's home, and his beloved Dolly. At any rate
+he could pass down it, and, if the shop-door was not shut, he would wrap
+his beautiful silver coin in a rag, and throw it into the inside; they
+would be sure to guess who had done it, and what it was for. It was dark
+down the alley, only one lamp and the greengrocer's gas lighting it up,
+and Tony stole along quietly in the shadow. It was nearly time for Dolly
+to be going to bed, he thought, and old Oliver was sure to be with her in
+the inner room; but just as he came into the revealing glare of the
+greengrocer's stall, his ears rang and his heart throbbed violently at
+the sound of a shrill little scream of gladness, and the next moment he
+felt himself caught by Dolly's arms, and dragged into the house by them.
+
+"Tony's come home, Tony's come home, gan-pa!" she shouted with all her
+might. "Dolly's found Tony at last!"
+
+Dolly's voice quivered, and broke down into quick, childish sobs, while
+she held Tony very fast, lest he should escape from her once again; and
+old Oliver came quickly from the room beyond, and laid his hand fondly
+upon the boy's shoulder.
+
+"Why have you kept away from us so long, Tony?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, master!" he cried, "I've been a wicked boy, and a miserable boy. Do
+forgive me, and I'll never do so no more. I s'pose you'll never let me
+sleep under the counter again?"
+
+"Come in, come in!" answered Oliver, pushing him gently before him into
+the house. "We've been waiting and watching for you every night, me and
+my little love. You ought not to have served us so, my lad; but we're too
+glad to be angry with you. Charlotte's sharp, and she's very much afraid
+of low ways and manners; but she isn't a hard woman, and she didn't know
+anything about you. When I told her as you'd been left no bigger than my
+little love here to take care of yourself, alone, in London,--mother
+dead, and no father,--she shed tears about you, she did. And she left you
+the biggest of her eggs to be kept for your supper, with her kind love;
+and we've put it by for you. You shall have it this very night. Dolly, my
+love, bring me the little saucepan."
+
+"I'm not so clean as I could wish," said Tony, mournfully; for he had
+neglected himself during the last week, and looked very much like what he
+had done when he had first seen old Oliver and his little grand-daughter.
+
+"Take a bowl full of water into the shop, then," answered Oliver, "and
+wash yourself, while I boil the egg. Dolly'll find you a bit of soap and
+a towel; she's learning to be grand-pa's little housekeeper, she is."
+
+When Tony returned to the kitchen he looked a different being; the gloom
+was gone as well as the grime. He felt as if he had come to himself after
+a long and very miserable dream. Here was old Oliver again, looking at
+him with a kindly light in his dim eyes, and Dolly dancing about, with
+her pretty merry little ways; and Beppo wagging his tail in joyous
+welcome, as he sniffed round and round him. Even the egg was a token of
+forgiveness and friendliness. That terrible old woman was not his enemy,
+after all. He recollected what she had said he must do, and he resolved
+to do it for Dolly's sake, and old Oliver's. He would learn to read and
+write, and he would pinch himself hard to buy some better clothing, lest
+he should continue to be a disgrace to them; shoes he must have first of
+all, as those were what the sharp but friendly old woman had particularly
+mentioned. At any rate, he could never run away again from this home,
+where he was so loved and cared for.
+
+Oliver told him how sadly Dolly had fretted after him, and watched for
+him at the door, hour after hour, to see him come home again. He said
+that in the same way, only with a far greater longing and love, his
+Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, was waiting for Tony to go to him. He
+could not half understand it, but a vague feeling of a love passing all
+understanding sank deeply into his heart. He fell asleep that night under
+the counter with the tranquil peacefulness of one who has been tossed
+about in a great storm and tempest, and has been brought safely to the
+desired haven.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+NEW BOOTS.
+
+
+It was several weeks before Tony could scrape together enough money for
+his new boots, though he pinched and starved himself with heroic courage
+and endurance. He did not mean to buy them at a shop; for he knew a place
+in Whitechapel where boots quite good enough for him were to be had for
+two or three shillings. He was neither ambitious nor fastidious; old
+boots patched up would do very well to start with, if he could only
+manage to get them before aunt Charlotte came up to town again. She had
+sent word she was coming the last Saturday in January; and early in the
+afternoon of that day, before the train could come in from Stratford,
+Tony started off to the place where he intended to make his purchase.
+
+It was a small open space in one of the streets of Whitechapel, where
+there was an area of flags, lying off the pavement. Several traders held
+possession of this square, sitting on low stools, or cross-legged on the
+ground, with their stock in trade around them. One dealer bought and sold
+all kinds of old and rusty pieces of iron; another, a woman, ill clad and
+with red eyes, displayed before her a dingy assortment of ragged clothes,
+which were cheapened by other spare and red-eyed women, who held almost
+naked children by the hand. It was cold, and a bitter, keen east wind was
+searching every corner of London streets. The salesman Tony was come to
+deal with had a tolerable selection of old boots, very few of them pairs,
+some with pretty good upper-leathers, but with no soles worth speaking
+of; and others thickly cobbled and patched, but good enough to keep the
+feet dry, without presenting a very creditable appearance. For the first
+time in his life Tony found out the perplexity of having a choice to
+make. There were none which exactly fitted him; but a good fit is a
+luxury for richer folks than Tony, and he was not troubled about it. His
+chief anxiety was to look well in the eyes of Dolly's aunt, who might
+possibly let him see her on her way back to the station, if she approved
+of him; and who would not now be obliged to carry Dolly off with her, to
+be out of the way of his naked feet.
+
+He fixed upon a pair at last, urged and coaxed to them by the dealer.
+They were a good deal too large, and his feet slipped about in them
+uncomfortably; but the man assured him that was how everybody, even
+gentlefolks, bought them, to leave room for growing. There was an
+awkward, uneven patch under one of the soles, and the other heel was worn
+down at the side; but at least they covered his feet well. He shambled
+away in them slowly and toilsomely, hardly knowing how to lift one foot
+after another, yet full of pride in his new possessions. It was a long
+way home to old Oliver's alley, between Holborn and the Strand; but he
+was in no hurry to arrive there before they had finished and cleared away
+their tea; so he travelled painfully in that direction, stopping now and
+then to regale himself at the attractive windows of tripe and cow-heel
+shops. He watched the lamplighters kindling the lamps, and the
+shopkeepers lighting up their gas; and then he heard the great solemn
+clock of St. Paul's strike six. Tea would be quite over now, and Tony
+turned down a narrow back street, which would prove a nearer way home
+than the thronged thoroughfares, and set off to run as fast as he could
+in his awkward and unaccustomed boots.
+
+It was not long before he came to a sudden and sharp fall off the
+kerb-stone, as he trod upon a bit of orange-peel, and slipped upon it. He
+felt stunned for a few seconds, and sat still rubbing his forehead. These
+back streets were very quiet, for the buildings were mostly offices and
+warehouses, and most of them were already closed for the night. He lifted
+himself up at length, and set his foot upon the flags; but a shrill cry
+of pain broke from his lips, and rang loudly through the quiet street. He
+fell back upon the pavement, quivering and trembling, with a chilly
+moisture breaking out upon his skin. What hurt had been done to him? How
+was it that he could not bear to walk? He took off his new boots, and
+tried once more, but with no better success. He could not endure the
+agony of standing or moving.
+
+Yet he must move; he must get up and walk. If he did not go home, they
+would think he had run away again, for fear of meeting Dolly's aunt. At
+that thought he set off to crawl homewards upon his hands and knees, with
+suppressed groans, as his foot trailed uselessly along the ground. Yet he
+knew he could not advance very far in this manner. What if he should have
+to lie all night upon the hard paving-stones! for he could not remember
+ever having seen a policeman in these back streets; and there did not
+seem to be anybody else likely to pass that way. It was freezing fast,
+now the sun was gone down, and his hands scraped up the frosty mud as he
+dragged himself along. If he stayed out all night, he must die of cold
+and pain before morning.
+
+But if that was true which old Oliver said so often, that the Lord Jesus
+Christ loved him, and that he was always with those whom he loved, then
+he was not alone and helpless even here, in the deserted street, with the
+ice and darkness of a winter's night about him. Oh! if he could but feel
+the hand of Christ touching him, or hear the lowest whisper of his voice,
+or catch the dimmest sight of his face! Perhaps it was he who was helping
+him to crawl towards the stir and light of a more frequented street,
+which he could see afar off, though the pain he felt made him giddy and
+sick. It became too much for him at last, however, and he drew himself
+into the shelter of a warehouse door, and crouched down in a corner,
+crying, with clasped hands, and sobbing voice, "Oh! Lord Jesus Christ!
+Lord Jesus Christ!"
+
+After uttering this cry Tony lay there for some minutes, his eyes growing
+glazed and his ears dull, when a footstep came briskly up the street, and
+some one, whom he could not now see for the strange dimness of his
+sight, stopped opposite to him, and then stooped to touch him on the arm.
+
+"Why," said a voice he seemed to know, "you're my young friend of the
+crossing,--my little fourpenny-bit, I call you. What brings you sitting
+here this cold night?"
+
+"I've fell down and hurt myself," answered Tony, faintly.
+
+"Where?" asked the stranger.
+
+"My leg," he answered.
+
+The gentleman stooped down yet lower, and passed his hand gently along
+Tony's leg till he came to the place where his touch gave him the most
+acute pain.
+
+"Broken!" he said to himself. "My boy, where's your home?"
+
+"I haven't got any right home," answered Tony, more faintly than before.
+He felt a strange numbness creeping over him, and his lips were too
+parched and his tongue too heavy for speaking. The gentleman took off his
+own great-coat and wrapped it well about him, placing him at the same
+time in a more comfortable position. Then he ran quickly to the nearest
+street, hailed the first cab, and drove back to where Tony was lying.
+
+[Illustration: TONY'S ACCIDENT.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+IN HOSPITAL.
+
+
+The pain Tony was suffering kept him partially conscious of what was
+happening to him. He knew that he was carried gently into a large hall,
+and that two or three persons came to look at him, to whom his new friend
+spoke in eager and rapid tones.
+
+"I know you do not take in accidents," he said; "but what could I do
+with the little fellow? He told me he had no home, and that was all he
+could say. You have two or three cots empty; and I'll double my
+subscription if it's necessary, rather than take him away. Come, doctor,
+you'll admit my patient?"
+
+"I don't think I could send him away, Mr. Ross," answered another hearty
+voice. "We must get him into bed as soon as possible."
+
+Tony felt himself carried up stairs into a large room, where there were a
+number of small beds, with a pale little face lying on every pillow.
+There was a vacant cot at the end, and he was laid upon it, after having
+his tattered clothes taken off him. His new boots were gone altogether,
+having been left behind on the steps of the warehouse. His hands and
+knees, bruised with crawling along the frosty stones, were gently bathed
+with a soft sponge and warm water. He was surrounded by kind faces,
+looking pitifully down upon him, and the gentleman who had brought him
+there spoke to him in a very pleasant and cheering voice.
+
+"My boy," he said, "you have broken your leg in your fall; but the doctor
+here, who is a great friend of mine, is going to mend it for you. It will
+give you a good deal of pain for a few minutes; but you'll bear it like a
+man, I know."
+
+"Yes," murmured Tony; "but will you let me go as soon as it's done?"
+
+"You could not do that," answered Mr. Ross, smiling. "It will be some
+weeks before you will be well enough to go; but you will be very happy
+here, I promise you."
+
+"Oh! but I must go!" cried Tony, starting up, but falling back again with
+a groan. "There's Dolly and Mr. Oliver,--they'll think I've run away
+again, and I were trying all I could to get back to 'em. She'll be
+watching for me, and she'll fret ever so. Oh! Dolly, Dolly!"
+
+He spoke in a tone of so much grief, that the smile quite passed away
+from the face of Mr. Ross, and he laid his hand upon his, and answered
+him very earnestly:
+
+"If you will tell me where they live," he said, "I will go at once and
+let them know all about your accident; and they shall come to see you
+to-morrow if you are well enough to see them."
+
+Tony gave him very minute and urgent directions where to find old
+Oliver's shop; and then he resigned himself, with the patience and
+fortitude of most of the little sufferers in that hospital, to the
+necessary pain he had to bear.
+
+It was Sunday afternoon when old Oliver and Dolly entered the hall of the
+Children's Hospital and inquired for Tony. There was something about the
+old man's look of age and the little child's sweet face which found them
+favour, even in a place where everybody was received with kindness. A
+nurse, who met them slowly climbing the broad staircase, turned back with
+them, taking Dolly's hand in hers, and led them up to the room where
+they would find Tony. There were many windows in it, and the sunshine,
+which never shone into their own home, was lighting it up gaily. The cots
+were all covered with white counterpanes, and most of the little
+patients, who had been asleep the night before, were now awake, and
+sitting up in bed, with little tables before them, which they could slide
+up and down as they wished along the sides of their cots. There was no
+sign of medicine, and nothing painful to see, except the wan faces of the
+children themselves. But Oliver and Dolly had no eyes but for Tony, and
+they hurried on to the corner where he was lying. His face was very
+white, and his eyelids were closed, and his lips drawn in as if he were
+still in pain. But at the very gentle and almost frightened touch of
+Dolly's fingers his eyes opened quickly, and then how his face changed!
+It looked as if all the sunshine in the room had centred upon it, and his
+voice shook with gladness.
+
+"Dolly hasn't had to fret for Tony this time," he said.
+
+"But Dolly will fret till Tony gets well again," she answered, clasping
+both her small hands round his.
+
+"No, no!" said old Oliver; "Dolly's going to be a very good girl, and
+help grand-pa to mind shop till Tony comes home again."
+
+This promise of promotion partly satisfied Dolly, and she sat still upon
+Oliver's knee beside Tony's cot, where his eyes could rest with
+contentment and pleasure upon them both, though the nurse would not let
+them talk much. When they went away she took them through the girls'
+wards in the story below; for the girls were more sumptuously lodged than
+the boys. These rooms were very lofty, with windows reaching to the
+cornice of the ceiling, and with grand marble chimney-pieces about the
+fireplaces; for in former times, the nurse told them, this had been a
+gentleman's mansion, where gay parties and assemblies had been held; but
+never had there been such a party and assembly as the one now in it.
+
+Old Oliver walked down between the rows of cots, with his little love
+clinging shyly to his hand, smiling tenderly upon each poor little face
+turned to look at them. Some of the children smiled back to him, and
+nodded cheerfully to Dolly, lifting up their dolls for her to see, and
+calling to her to listen to the pretty tunes their musical boxes were
+playing. But others lay quietly upon their pillows half asleep, with
+beautiful pictures hanging over their feeble heads,--pictures of Christ
+carrying a lamb in his arms; and again, of Christ with a little child
+upon his knee; and again, of Christ holding the hand of the young girl
+who seemed dead, but whose ear heard his voice saying "Arise!" and she
+came to life again in her father's and mother's house. The tears stood in
+old Oliver's eyes, and his white head trembled a great deal before he had
+seen all, and given one of his tender glances to each child.
+
+"I wonder whatever the Lord 'ud have said," he exclaimed, "if there'd
+been such a place as this in his days! He'd have come here very often. He
+does come, I know, and walks to and fro here of nights when the little
+ones are asleep, or may be awake through pain, and he blesses every one
+of them. Ah, bless them! Bless the little children, and the good folks
+who keep a place like this. Bless them everyone!"
+
+He felt reluctant to go away; but his time was gone, and the nurse was
+needed elsewhere. She kissed Dolly before she went, putting a biscuit in
+her hand, and told Oliver the house was open every Sunday afternoon for
+the friends of the children, if he chose to come again; and then they
+walked home with slow, short footsteps, and all the Sunday evening they
+talked together of the beautiful place they had seen, and how happy Tony
+would be in the Children's Hospital.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+TONY'S FUTURE PROSPECTS.
+
+
+Old Oliver and Dolly made several visits to Tony while he was in the
+hospital. Every Sunday afternoon they went back to it, until its great
+door, and wide staircase, and sunny ward, became almost as familiar to
+them as their own dull little house. Tony recovered quickly, yet he was
+there some weeks before the doctor pronounced him strong enough to turn
+out again to rough it in the world. As he grew better he learned a number
+of things which were making him a wiser, as well as a stronger boy,
+before the time came for him to leave.
+
+The day before he was to go out of hospital, his friend, Mr. Ross, who
+had been often to see him, called for the last time, and found him in the
+room where the little patients who were nearly well were at play
+together. Some of them were making believe to have a feast, with a small
+dinner-service of wooden plates and dishes, and a few bits of
+orange-peel, and biscuits; but Tony was sitting quietly and gravely on
+one side, looking on from a distance. He had never learned to play.
+
+"Antony," said Mr. Ross--he was the only person who ever called him
+Antony, and it seemed to make more of a man of him--"what are you
+thinking to do when you leave here to-morrow?"
+
+"I s'pose I must go back to my crossing," answered Tony, looking
+very grave.
+
+"No, I think I can do better for you than that," said his friend, "I
+have a sister living out in the country, about fifty miles from London;
+and she wants a boy to help the gardener, and run on errands for the
+house. She has promised to provide you with a home, and clothing, and to
+send you to school for two years, till you are about twelve, for we
+think you must be about ten years old now; and after that you shall have
+settled wages."
+
+Tony listened with a quick throbbing of his heart and a contraction in
+his throat, which hindered him from speaking all at once when Mr. Ross
+had finished. What a grand thing it would be for himself! But then there
+were old Oliver and Dolly to be remembered.
+
+"It 'ud do first-rate for me," he said at last, "and I'd try my best to
+help in the garden; but I couldn't never leave Mr. Oliver and the little
+girl. She'd fret ever so; and he's gone so forgetful he'd lose his own
+head, if he could anyhow. Why! of a morning they sell him any papers as
+they've too many of. Sometimes it's all the 'Star,' and sometimes it's
+all the 'Standard;' and them as buys one won't have the other. I don't
+know why, I'm sure. But you see when I go for 'em I say twenty-five this,
+and thirteen that, and I count 'em over pretty sharp, I can tell you;
+though I couldn't read at all afore I came here, but I could tell which
+was which easy enough. Then he'd never think to open his shop some
+mornings; and other mornings he'd open at four or five o'clock, just when
+he woke of hisself. No. I must stay and take care of 'em a bit; but thank
+you, sir, all the same."
+
+He had spoken so gravely and thoughtfully that his reasons went directly
+to the heart of Mr. Ross; but he asked him one more question, before he
+could let his good plan for the boy drop.
+
+"What has he done for you, Antony? Is he any relation of yours?"
+
+"No, no!" cried Tony, his eyes growing bright, "I haven't got any
+relation in all the world; but he took me in out of love, and let me
+sleep comfortable under the counter, instead of in the streets. I love
+him, and Dolly, I do. I'll stay by 'em as long as ever I live, if I have
+to sweep a crossing till I'm an old man like him. Besides, I hear him
+speak a good word for me often and often to his Master; and I s'pose
+nobody else 'ud do that."
+
+"What master?" inquired Mr. Ross.
+
+"Him," answered Tony, pointing to a picture of the Saviour blessing young
+children, "he's always talking to him as if he could see him, and he
+tells him everythink. No, it 'ud be better for me to stay with him and
+Dolly, and keep hard by my crossing, than go away from 'em, and have
+clothes, and lodging, and schooling for nothink."
+
+"I think it would," said Mr. Ross, "so you must go on as you are, Antony,
+till I can find you something better than a crossing. You are looking
+very well, my boy; that's a nice, warm suit of clothes you have on,
+better than the rags you came in by a long way."
+
+It was a sailor's suit, sent to the hospital by some mother, whose boy
+had perhaps outgrown it; or, it may be, whose boy had been taken away
+from all her tender care for him. It was of good, rough, thick blue
+cloth, and fitted Tony well. He had grown a good deal during his
+illness, and his face had become whiter and more refined; his hair, too,
+was cut to a proper length, and parted down the side, no longer lying
+about his head in a tangled mass. He coloured up with pleasure as Mr.
+Ross looked approvingly at him.
+
+"They've lent it me till I go out," he said, with a tone slightly
+regretful in his voice, "I only wish Dolly could have seen me in it, and
+her aunt Charlotte. My own things were too ragged for me to wear 'em in a
+place like this."
+
+"They've given it to you, Antony," replied Mr. Ross, "those are the
+clothes you will go home in to-morrow."
+
+It seemed too much for Tony to believe, though a nurse who was sitting by
+and sewing away busily, told him it was quite true. He was intensely
+happy all the rest of the day, often standing up, and almost straining
+his neck to get a satisfactory view of his own back, and stroking the nap
+of his blue trousers with a fondling touch. They would all see him in it;
+old Oliver, Dolly, and aunt Charlotte. There would be no question now as
+to his fitness for taking Dolly out for a walk; he would be dressed well
+enough to attend upon a princess. This made famous amends for the pair
+of old boots he had lost the night he broke his leg; a loss he had often
+silently lamented over in his own mind. The nurse told him she was
+patching up his old clothes, and making him a cap, to wear when he was at
+work on his crossing, for the new ones were much too good for that; and
+Tony felt as rich as if a large fortune had been left to him.
+
+It was a very joyful thing to go home again. Dolly was a little shy at
+first of this new Tony, so different from the poor, ragged, wild-looking
+old Tony; but a very short time was enough to make her familiar with his
+nice blue suit, and the anchor-buttons upon it. He found his place under
+the counter all nicely papered to keep the draughts out; and a little
+chaff mattress, made by aunt Charlotte, laid down instead of the shavings
+upon the floor. It was even pleasanter to be here than in the hospital.
+
+But Tony found it hard work to go back to his crossing in the morning;
+and he could not make out what was the matter with himself, he felt so
+cross and idle. His old clothes seemed really such horrid rags that he
+could scarcely bear to feel them about him; and if any passer-by looked
+closely at him, he went red and hot all over. He was not so successful
+as he thought he had been before his accident, or as he thought he ought
+to be; for the roads were getting cleaner with the drier weather, and few
+persons considered it necessary to give him a copper for his almost
+needless labour. Worst of all,--Clever Dog Tom found him out, and would
+come often to see him; sometimes jeering him for his poor spirit in being
+content with such low work, and sometimes boasting of the fine things he
+could do, and displaying the fine clothes he could wear. It was truly
+very hard work for Tony, after his long holiday at the hospital, where he
+had had as much luxury and attention as a rich man's son.
+
+But at home in the evening Tony felt all right again. Old Oliver set him
+to learn to read and write, and he was making rapid progress, more rapid
+than Dolly, who began at the same time, but who was apt to look upon it
+all as only another kind of game, of which she grew more quickly tired
+than of hide-and-seek. There was no one to check her, or to make her
+understand it was real, serious work: neither old Oliver nor Tony could
+find any fault with their darling. Now and then there came letters from
+her mother, full of anxious questions about her, and loving messages to
+her, telling her to be a good girl till she came back, but never saying
+a word as to when there was any chance of her returning to England. In
+one of these letters she sent word that a little sister was come for her
+out in India, who was just like what Dolly herself had been when she was
+a baby; but neither Oliver nor Tony could quite believe that. There never
+had been such a child as Dolly; there never would be again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A BUD FADING.
+
+
+A second summer went by with its long, hot days, when the sun seemed to
+stand still in the sky, and to dart down its most sultry beams into the
+dustiest and closest streets. Out in the parks, and in the broad
+thoroughfares where the fresh breeze could sweep along early in the
+morning, and in the evening as soon as the air grew cooler, it was very
+pleasant weather; and the people who could put on light summer dresses
+enjoyed it very much. But away among the thickly-built and crowded
+houses, where there were thousands of persons breathing over and over
+again the same hot and stagnant atmosphere, it seemed as if the most
+delicate and weakly among them must be suffocated by the breathless heat.
+Old Oliver suffered very greatly, but he said nothing about it; indeed he
+generally forgot the cause of his languor and feebleness. He never knew
+now the day of the week, nor the month of the year. If any one had told
+him in the dog-days of July that it was still April, he would only have
+answered gently that it was bright, warm weather for the time of year.
+
+But about old times his memory was good enough; he could tell long
+stories of his boyhood, and describe the hills of his native place in
+such a manner as to set Tony full of longings after the country, with its
+cornfields, and meadows, and hedge-rows, which he had never seen. He
+remembered his Bible, too, and could repeat chapter after chapter
+describing his Master's life, as they sat together in the perpetual
+twilight of their room; for now that it was summer-time it did not seem
+right to keep the gas burning.
+
+Tony's crossing had failed him altogether, for in dry weather nobody
+wanted it; but in this extremity Mr. Ross came to his aid, and procured
+him a place as errand-boy, where he was wanted from eight o'clock in the
+morning till seven at night; so that he could still open old Oliver's
+shop, and fetch him his right papers before he went out, and put the
+shutters up when he came back. To become an errand-boy was a good step
+forwards, and Tony was more than content. He never ran about bare-headed
+and barefooted now as he had done twelve months before; and he had made
+such good progress in reading and writing that he could already make out
+the directions upon the parcels he had to deliver, after they had been
+once read over to him. He did not object to the dry weather and clean
+streets as he had done when his living depended upon his crossing; on the
+contrary, he enjoyed the sunshine, and the crowds of gaily-dressed
+people, for he could hold up his head amongst them, and no longer went
+prowling about in the gutters searching after bits of orange-peel. He
+kicked them into the gutters instead, mindful of that accident which had
+befallen him, but which turned out so full of good for him.
+
+[Illustration: DOLLY'S MONTHLY REGISTER.]
+
+But, if there had been any eye to see it, a very slow, and very sad
+change was creeping over Dolly; so slowly indeed, that perhaps none but
+her mother's eye could have seen it at first. On the first of every
+month, which old Oliver knew by the magazines coming in, he marked how
+much his little love had grown by placing her against the side-post of
+the door, and making a thick pencil line where her curly head reached to.
+He looked at this record often, smiling at the rate his little woman was
+growing taller; but it was really no wonder that his dim eyes, loving as
+they were, never saw how the rosy colour was dying away out of her
+cheeks, as gradually as the red glow fades away in the west after the sun
+has set, nor how the light grew fainter and fainter in her blue eyes,
+until they looked at him very heavily from under her drooping eyelids.
+The house was too dark for any sight to see very clearly; the full,
+strong, healthy light of the sun, could not find its way into it, and day
+after day Dolly became more like one of those plants growing in shady
+places, which live and shoot up, but only put out pale and sickly leaves,
+and feeble buds. One by one, and by little and little, with degrees as
+small as her own tiny footsteps, she lost all her merry ways, dropping
+them, here one and there another, upon the path she was silently
+treading; as little children let fall the flowers they have gathered in
+the meadows, along their road homewards. Yet all the time old Oliver was
+loving and cherishing her as the dearest of all treasures, second only to
+the Master whom he loved so fully; but he never discovered that there
+was any change in her. Dolly fell into very quiet ways, and would sit
+still for hours together, her arm around Beppo, and her sweet, patient
+little face, which was growing thin and hollow, turned towards the
+flickering light of the fire, while Oliver pottered toilsomely about his
+house, forgetting many things, but always ready with a smile and a fond
+word for his grand-daughter.
+
+Just as Oliver was too old to feel any anxiety about Dolly, so Tony was
+too young, and knew too little of sickness and death. Moreover, when he
+came home in the evening, full of the business of the day, with a number
+of stories to tell of what had happened to him, and what he had seen,
+Dolly was always more lively, and had a feverish colour on her face, and
+a brilliant light in her eyes. He seemed to bring life and strength with
+him, and she liked him to nurse her on his knee, which did not grow tired
+and stiff like her grandfather's. How should Tony detect anything amiss
+with her? She never complained of feeling any pain, and he was glad for
+her to be very quiet and still while he was busy with his lessons.
+
+But when the summer was ended, and after the damp warm fogs of November
+were over, and a keen, black frost set in sharply before Christmas--a
+frost which had none of the beauty of white lime and clear blue skies,
+but which hung over the city like a pall, and penetrated to every
+fireside with an icy breath; when only the strong and the healthy, who
+were well clothed and well fed, could meet it bravely, while the
+delicate, and sickly, and poverty-stricken, shrank before it, and were
+chilled through and through, then Dolly drooped and failed altogether.
+Even old Oliver's dull ears began to hear a little cough, which seemed to
+echo from some grave not very far away; and when he drew his little love
+between his knees, and put on his spectacles to gaze into her face, the
+dearest face in all the world to him, even his eyes saw something of its
+wanness, and the hollow lines which had come upon it since the summer had
+passed away. The old man felt troubled about her, yet he scarcely knew
+what to do. He bought sweetmeats to soothe her cough, and thought
+sometimes that he must ask somebody or other about a doctor for her; but
+his treacherous memory always let the thought slip out of his mind. He
+intended to take counsel with his sister when she came to see him; but
+aunt Charlotte was herself very ill with an attack of rheumatism, and
+could not get up to old Oliver's house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A VERY DARK SHADOW.
+
+
+The Christmas week passed by, and the new year came in, cold and bleak,
+but Tony was well secured against the weather, and liked the frosty air,
+which made it pleasant to run as fast as he could from place to place as
+he delivered his parcels. When boxing day came, which was half-holiday
+for him, he returned to the house at mid-day, carrying with him three
+mince-pies, which he had felt himself rich enough to buy in honour of the
+holiday. He had for a long time been reckoning upon shutting up shop for
+the whole afternoon, and upon going out for a long stroll through the
+streets with old Oliver and Dolly; and now that the hour was positively
+come he felt very light-hearted and full of spirits, defying the wind
+which wrestled with him at every turn. Dolly must be wrapped up well, he
+said to himself, and old Oliver must put on his drab great coat, with
+mother o' pearl buttons, which he had brought up from the country forty
+years ago, and which was still good for keeping out the cold. He ran
+down the alley, and passed through the shop whistling cheerily, and
+disdaining to lift the flap of the counter, he took a running vault over
+it, and landed at once inside the open kitchen-door.
+
+But there was old Oliver sitting close to the fire, with Dolly on his
+knee, and her little head lying upon his breast, while the tears trickled
+slowly down his furrowed cheeks on to her pretty curls. Beppo was
+standing between his legs, licking Dolly's small hand, which hung
+languidly by her side. Her eyelids were closed, and her face was deadly
+white; but when Tony uttered a great cry of trouble, and fell on his
+knees before her, she opened her heavy eyes, and stretched out her cold
+thin hand to stroke his cheeks. "Dolly's so very ill, Tony," she
+murmured, "poor Dolly's very ill indeed."
+
+"I don't know whatever is the matter with my little love," said the old
+man, in a low and trembling voice; "she fell down all of a sudden, and I
+thought she was dead, Tony; but she's coming round again now. Isn't my
+little love better now?"
+
+"Yes, gan-pa, yes; Dolly's better," she answered faintly.
+
+"Let me hold her, master," said Tony, his heart beating fast; "I can
+hold her stronger and more comfortable, maybe, than you. You're tired
+ever so, and you'd better get yourself a bit of dinner. Shall Tony nurse
+you now, Dolly?"
+
+The little girl raised her arms to him, and Tony took her gently into his
+own, sitting down upon the old box in the chimney-corner, and putting her
+to nestle comfortably against him. Dolly closed her eyes again, and
+by-and-bye he knew that she had fallen into a light sleep, while old
+Oliver moved noiselessly to and fro, only now and then saying half aloud,
+in a tone of strange earnestness and entreaty, "Lord! dear Lord!"
+
+After awhile the old man came and bent over them both, taking Dolly's arm
+softly between his withered fingers, and looking down at it with a
+shaking head.
+
+"She's very thin, Tony; look at this little arm," he said, "wasting away!
+wasting away! I've watched all my little ones waste away except my poor
+Susan. Couldn't there anything be done to save her?"
+
+"Ay!" answered Tony, in an energetic whisper, while he clasped Dolly a
+little tighter in his arms; "ay! they could cure her easily at the
+hospital. Bless yer! there were little 'uns ten times worse than her as
+they sent home cured. Let us take her there as soon as ever she wakes
+up, and she'll be quite well directly, I promise you. The doctor knows
+me, and I'll speak to Mr. Ross for her. Do you get a bit of dinner, and
+hearten yourself up for it; and we'll set off as soon as she's awake."
+
+Old Oliver turned away comforted, and prepared his own and Tony's dinner,
+and put a mince-pie into the oven to be ready to tempt Dolly's appetite
+when she awoke. But she slept heavily all the afternoon till it was
+almost dark outside, and the lamps were being lit, when she awoke,
+restless and feverish.
+
+"Would Dolly like to go to that nice place, where the little girls had
+the dolls and the music?" asked Tony, in a quavering voice which he could
+scarcely keep from sobs; "the good place where Tony got well again, and
+they gave him his new clothes? Everybody 'ud be so wery kind to poor
+little Dolly, and she'd come home again, quite cured and strong, like
+Tony was."
+
+"Yes, yes!" cried Dolly, eagerly, raising herself up in his arms; "it's a
+nice place, and the sun shines, and Dolly 'ud like to go. Only she'll be
+sure to come back to gan-pa."
+
+It was some time yet before they were quite ready to start, though Dolly
+could not be coaxed to eat the hot mince-pie, or anything else. Old
+Oliver had to get himself into his drab overcoat, and the ailing child
+had to be protected in the best way they could against the searching
+wind. After they had put on all her own warmest clothing, Tony wrapped
+his own thick blue jacket about her, and lifting her very tenderly in his
+arms, they turned out into the streets, closely followed by Beppo.
+
+It was now quite night, but the streets were well lighted from the shop
+windows, and throngs of people were hurrying hither and thither; for it
+was boxing-night, and all the lower classes of the inhabitants were
+taking holiday. But old Oliver saw and heard nothing of the crowd. He
+walked on by Tony's side; with feeble and tottering steps, deaf and
+blind, but whispering all the while, with trembling lips, to One whom no
+one else could see or hear. Once or twice Tony saw a solemn smile flit
+across his face, and he nodded his head and raised his hand, as one who
+gives his assent to what is said to him. So they passed on through the
+noisy streets till they reached quieter ones, were there were neither
+shops nor many passers-by, and there they found the home where they were
+going to leave their treasure for a time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+NO ROOM FOR DOLLY.
+
+
+Old Oliver rang the house-bell very quietly, for Dolly seemed to be
+asleep again, and lay quite still in Tony's arms, which were growing
+stiff, and benumbed by the cold. The door was opened by a porter, whose
+face was strange to them both, for he had only come in for the day while
+the usual one took holiday. Old Oliver presented himself in front, and
+pointed at his little grandchild as Tony held her in his arms while he
+spoke to the porter in a voice which trembled greatly.
+
+"We've brought you our little girl, who is very ill," he said, "but
+she'll soon get well in here, I know. I'd like to see the doctor, and
+tell him all about her."
+
+"We're quite full," answered the porter, filling up the doorway.
+
+"Full?" repeated old Oliver, in a tone of questioning.
+
+"Ay! all our cots are full," he replied, "chockfull. There ain't no more
+room. We've turned two or three away this morning, when they came at the
+right time. This isn't the right time to bring any child here."
+
+"But my little love is very ill," continued old Oliver; "this is the
+right place, isn't it? The place where they nurse little children
+who are ill?"
+
+"It's all right," said the porter, "it's the right place enough, only
+it's brimful, and running over, as you may say. We couldn't take in one
+more, if it was ever so. But you may come in and sit down in the hall for
+a minute or two, while I fetch one of the ladies."
+
+Old Oliver and Tony entered, and sat down upon a bench inside. There was
+the broad staircase, with its shallow steps, which Dolly's tiny feet had
+climbed so easily, and it led up to the warm, pleasant nurseries, where
+little children were already falling asleep, almost painlessly, in their
+cosy cots. Tony could not believe that there was not room for their
+darling, who had been so willing to come to the place she knew so well,
+yet a sob broke from his lips, which disturbed Dolly in her sleep, for
+she moaned once or twice, and stirred uneasily in his arms. The old man
+leaned his hands upon the top of his stick, and rested his white head
+upon them, until they heard light footsteps, and the rustling of a
+dress, and they saw a lady coming down stairs to them.
+
+"I think there's some mistake here, ma'am," said Oliver, his eye
+wandering absently about the large entrance-hall; "this is the Hospital
+for Sick Children, I think, and I've brought my little grandchild here,
+who is very ill indeed, yet the man at the door says there's no room for
+her. I think it must be a mistake."
+
+"No," said the lady; "I am sorry to say it is no mistake. We are quite
+full; there is not room for even one more. Indeed, we have been obliged
+to send cases away before to-day. Who is your recommendation from?"
+
+"I didn't know you'd want any recommendation," answered old Oliver, very
+mournfully; "she's very ill, and you could cure her here, and take
+better care of her than Tony and me, and I thought that was enough. I
+never thought of getting any recommendation, and I don't know where I
+could get one."
+
+"Mr. Ross 'ud give us one," said Tony, eagerly.
+
+"Yet even then," answered the lady, "we could not take her in until some
+of the cots are empty."
+
+"You don't know me," interrupted Tony, eagerly; "but Mr. Ross brought
+me here, a year ago now, and they cured me, and set me up stronger
+than ever. They was so wery kind to me, that I couldn't think of
+anythink else save bringing our little girl to 'em. I'm sure they'd
+take her in, if they only knew it was her. You jest say as it's Tony
+and Dolly, as everybody took such notice of, and they'll never turn her
+away, I'm sure."
+
+"I wish we could take her," said the lady, with tears in her eyes; "but
+it is impossible. We should be obliged to turn some other child out, and
+that could not be done to-night. You had better bring her again in the
+morning, and we'll see if there is any one well enough to make room for
+her. Let me look at the poor child for a minute."
+
+She lifted up the collar of Tony's blue jacket, which covered Dolly's
+face, and looked down at it pitifully. It was quite white now, and was
+pinched and hollow, with large blue eyes shining too brightly. She
+stretched out her arms to the lady, and made a great effort to smile.
+
+"Put Dolly into a pretty bed," she murmured, "where the sun shines, and
+she'll soon get well and go home again to gan-pa."
+
+"What can I do?" cried the lady, the tears now running down her face.
+"The place is quite full; we cannot take in one more, not one. Bring her
+here again in the morning, and we will see what can be done."
+
+"How many children have you got here?" asked old Oliver.
+
+"We have only seventy-five cots," she answered, sobbing; "and in a winter
+like this they're always full."
+
+"Only seventy-five!" repeated the old man, very sorrowfully. "Only
+seventy-five, and there are hundreds and hundreds of little children ill
+in London! They are ill in houses like mine, where the sun never shines.
+Is there no other place like this we could take our little love to?"
+
+"There are two or three other Hospitals," she answered, "but they are a
+long way off, and none of them as large as ours. They are sure to be full
+just now. I think there are not more than a hundred and fifty cots in all
+London for sick children."
+
+"Then there's no room for my Dolly?" he said.
+
+The lady shook her head without speaking, for she had her handkerchief up
+to her face.
+
+"Eh!" cried old Oliver in a wailing voice, "I don't know whatever the
+dear Lord 'ill say to that."
+
+He made a sign to Tony that they must be going home again; and the boy
+raised himself up with a strange weight and burden upon his heart. Old
+Oliver put his stick down, and took Dolly into his own arms, and laid her
+head down on his breast.
+
+"Let me carry her a little way, Tony," he said. "She's as light as a
+feather, even to poor old grandpa. I'd like to carry my little love a bit
+of the way home."
+
+"I'll tell you what I can do," said the lady, wrapping Dolly up and
+kissing her before she covered her pale face, "if you will tell me where
+you live I will speak to the doctor as soon as he comes in--for he is out
+just now--and perhaps he will come to see her. He knows a great deal
+about children, and is fond of them."
+
+"Thank you, thank you kindly, ma'am," answered old Oliver, feeling a
+little comforted. But when they stood outside, and the bleak wind blew
+about them, and he could see the soft glimmer of the light in the
+windows, within which other children were safely sheltered and
+carefully tended, his spirit sank again. He tottered now and then under
+his light burden; but he could not be persuaded to give up his little
+child to Tony again. These streets were quiet, with handsome houses on
+each side, and from one and another there came bursts of music and
+laughter as they passed by; yet Tony could catch most of the words
+which the old man was speaking.
+
+[Illustration: NO ROOM FOR DOLLY]
+
+"Dear Lord," he said, "there's only room for seventy-five of thy little
+lambs that are pining and wasting away in every dark street and alley
+like mine. Whatever can thy people be thinking about? They've got their
+own dear little children, who are ill sometimes, spite of all their
+care; and they can send for the doctor, and do all that's possible,
+never looking at the money it costs; but when they are well again they
+never think of the poor little ones who are sick and dying, with nobody
+to help them or care for them as I care for this little one. Oh, Lord,
+Lord! let my little love live! Yet thou knows what is best, and thou'lt
+do what is best. Thou loves her more than I do; and see, Lord, she is
+very ill indeed."
+
+They reached home at last, after a weary and heartbroken journey, and
+carried Dolly in and laid her upon old Oliver's bed. She was wide awake
+now, and looked very peaceful, smiling quietly into both their faces as
+they bent over her. Tony gazed deep down into her eyes, and met a glance
+from them which sent a strange tremor through him. He crept silently
+away, and stole into his dark bed under the counter, where he stretched
+himself upon his face, and buried his mouth in the chaff pillow to choke
+his sobs. What was going to happen to Dolly? What could it be that made
+him afraid of looking again into her patient and tranquil little face?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE GOLDEN CITY.
+
+
+Tony lay there in the dark, overwhelmed by his unusual terror and sorrow,
+until he heard the voice of old Oliver calling his name feebly. He
+hurried to him, and found him still beside the bed where Dolly was lying.
+He had taken off most of her clothes, and put her white nightgown over
+the rest, that she might sleep warmly in them all the night, for her
+little hands and feet felt very chilly to his touch. The fire had gone
+out while they were away, and the grate looked very black and cheerless.
+The room was in great disorder, just as they had left it, and the gas,
+which was burning high, cast a cruel glare upon it all. But Tony saw
+nothing except the dear face of Dolly, resting on one check upon the
+pillow, with her curly hair tossed about it in confusion, and her open
+eyes gathering a strange film. Beppo had made his way to her side, and
+pushed his head under her lifeless little hand, which tried to pat it now
+and then. Old Oliver was sitting on the bedstead, his eyes fastened upon
+her, and his whole body trembled violently. Tony sank down upon his
+knees, and flung his arm over Dolly, as if to save her from the unseen
+power which threatened to take her away from them.
+
+"Don't ky, gan-pa," she said, softly; "don't ky more than a minute. Nor
+Tony. Are I going to die, gan-pa?"
+
+"Yes, my little love," cried old Oliver, moaning as he said it.
+
+"Where are I going to?" asked Dolly, very faintly.
+
+"You're going to see my Lord and Master," he said; "him as loves little
+children so, and carries them in his arms, and never lets them be
+sorrowful or ill or die again."
+
+"Does he live in a bootiful place?" she asked, again.
+
+"It's a more beautiful place than I can tell," answered old Oliver. "The
+Lord Jesus gives them light brighter than the sun; and the streets are
+all of gold, and there are many little children there, who always see the
+face of their Father."
+
+"Dolly's going rere," said the little child, solemnly.
+
+She smiled for a minute or two, holding Beppo's ear between her failing
+fingers, and playing with it. Tony's eyes were dim with tears, yet he
+could see her clear face clearly through them. What could he do? Was
+there no one to help?
+
+"Master, master!" he cried. "If the Lord Jesus is here he can save her.
+Ask him, master."
+
+But old Oliver paid no heed to him. For the child who was passing away
+from him he was all eye and ear, watching and listening as keenly as in
+his best and strongest days; but he was blind and deaf to everything else
+around him. Tony's voice could not reach his brain.
+
+"Will gan-pa come rere?" whispered the failing and faltering voice of
+Dolly.
+
+"Very soon," he answered; a radiant smile coming to his face, which made
+her smile as her eyes caught the glory of it. "Very, very soon, my little
+love. You'll be there to meet me when I come."
+
+"Dolly'll watch for gan-pa," she murmured, with long pauses between the
+words, which seemed to drop one by one upon Tony's ear; "and Dolly'll
+watch at the door for Tony to come home; and she'll fret ever so if he
+never comes."
+
+Tony felt her stir restlessly under his arm, and stretch her tiny limbs
+upon the bed as if she were very tired, and the languid eyelids drooped
+slowly till they quite hid her blue eyes, and she sighed softly as
+children sigh when they fall asleep, weary of their play. Old Oliver laid
+his shaking hand tenderly upon her head.
+
+"Dear Lord!" he said, "take my little love to thyself. I give her
+up to thee."
+
+It seemed to Tony as if a thick mist of darkness fell all about him, and
+as if he were sinking down, down, very low into some horrible pit where
+he would never see the light of day again. But by-and-bye he came to
+himself, and found old Oliver sobbing in short, heavy sobs, and swaying
+himself to and fro, while Beppo was licking Dolly's hand, and barking
+with a sharp, quiet bark, as he had been wont to do when he wanted her to
+play with him. The child's small features were quite still, but there was
+an awful smile upon them such as there had never been before, and Tony
+could not bear to look upon it. He crossed her tiny hands lightly over
+one another upon her breast, and then he lifted Beppo away gently, and
+drew the bed-clothes about her, so as to hide her smiling face.
+
+"Master," he cried, "master, is she gone?"
+
+Old Oliver only answered by a deep moan; and Tony put his arm about him,
+and raised him up.
+
+"Come to your own chair, master," he said.
+
+He yielded to Tony like a child, and seated himself in the chair, where
+he had so often sat and watched Dolly while he smoked his pipe. The boy
+put his pipe between his fingers; but he only let it fall to the ground,
+where it broke into many pieces. Tony did not know what to do, nor where
+to go for any help.
+
+"Lord," he said, "if you really love the old master, do something for
+him; for I don't know whatever to do, now little Dolly's gone."
+
+He sat down on his old box, staring at Oliver and the motionless form on
+the bed, with a feeling of despair tugging at his heart. He could
+scarcely believe it was all true; for it was not very long since--only it
+seemed like long years--since he had leaped over the counter in his
+light-heartedness. But he had not sat there many minutes before he heard
+a distinct, rather loud knock at the shop-door, and he ran hastily to ask
+who was there.
+
+"Antony," said a voice he knew very well, "I have come with the doctor,
+to see what we can do for your little girl."
+
+In an instant Tony opened the door, and as Mr. Ross entered the boy flung
+his arms round him, and hid his face against him, sobbing bitterly.
+
+"Oh! you've come too late," he cried, "you've come too late! Dolly's
+dead, and I'm afraid the master's going away from me as well. They
+couldn't take her in, and she died after we had brought her home."
+
+The doctor and Mr. Ross went on into the inner room, and Tony pointed
+silently to the bed where Dolly lay. Old Oliver roused himself at the
+sound of strange voices, and, leaning upon Tony's shoulder, he staggered
+to the bedside, and drew the clothes away from her dear, smiling face.
+
+"I don't murmur," he said. "My dear Lord can't do anything unkind. He'll
+come and speak to me presently, and comfort me; but just now I'm deaf and
+blind, even to him. I've not forgot him, and he hasn't forgot me; but
+there's a many things ought to be done, and I cannot think what."
+
+"Leave it all to us," said Mr. Ross, leading him back to his chair. "But
+have you no neighbour you can go and stay with for to-night? You are an
+old man, and you must not lose your night's sleep."
+
+"No," he answered, shaking his head; "I'd rather stay here in my own
+place, if I'd a hundred other places to go to. I'm not afraid of my
+little love,--no, no! When everything is done as ought to be done,
+I'll lie in my own bed and watch her. It won't be lonesome, as long as
+she's here."
+
+In an hour's time all was settled for that night. A little resting-place
+had been made for the dead child in a corner of the room, where she lay
+covered with a coarse white sheet, which was the last one left of those
+which old Oliver's wife had spun in her girlhood. The old man had given
+his promise to go to bed when Mr. Ross and the doctor were gone; and he
+slept lightly, his face turned towards the place where his little love
+was sleeping. A faint light burnt all night in the room, and Tony, who
+could not fall asleep, sat in the chimney-corner, with Beppo upon his
+knees. There was an unutterable, quiet sorrow within him, mingled with a
+strange awe. That little child, who had played with him, and kissed him
+only a day since, was already gone into the unseen world, which was so
+very near to him now, though it had seemed so very far away and so empty
+before. It must be very near, since she had gone to it so quickly; and
+it was no longer empty, for Dolly was there; and she had said she would
+watch at the door till he came home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+A FRESH DAY DAWNS.
+
+
+Old Oliver and Tony saw their darling buried in a little grave in a
+cemetery miles away from their own home, and then they returned, desolate
+and bereaved, to the deserted city, which seemed empty indeed to them.
+The house had never looked so very dark and dreary before. Yet from time
+to time old Oliver forgot that Dolly was gone altogether, and could never
+come back; for he would call her in his eager, quavering tones, or search
+for her in some of the hiding-places, where she had often played at
+hide-and-seek with him. When mealtimes came round he would put out
+Dolly's plate and cup, which had been bought on purpose for her, with gay
+flowers painted upon them; and in the evening, over his pipe, when he had
+been used to talk to his Lord, he now very often said nothing but repeat
+again and again Dolly's little prayer, which he had himself taught her,
+"Gentle Jesus, meek and mild." It was quite plain to Tony that it would
+never do to leave him alone in his house and shop.
+
+"I've give up my place as errand-boy," he said to Mr. Ross, "'cause the
+old master grows worse and worse for forgetting, and I must mind shop for
+him now as well as I can. He's not off his head, as you may say; he's
+sharp enough sometimes; but there's no trusting to him being sharp
+always. He talks to Dolly as if she was here, and could hear him, till I
+can't hardly bear it. But I'm very fond of him,--fonder of him than
+anythink else, 'cept my little Dolly; and I've made up my mind as his
+Master shall be my master, and he's always ready to tell me all he knows
+about him. I'm no ways afeared of not getting along."
+
+Tony found that they got along very well. Mr. Ross made a point of going
+in to visit them every week, and of seeing how the business prospered in
+the boy's hands; and he put as much as he could in his way. Sad and
+sorrowful as the days were, they passed over, one after another, bringing
+with them at least the habit of living without Dolly. Every Sunday
+afternoon, however, old Oliver and Tony walked slowly through the
+streets, for the old man could only creep along with Tony's help, till
+they reached the Children's Hospital; but they never passed the door, nor
+entered in through it. Old Oliver would stand for a few minutes leaning
+heavily on Tony's shoulder, and trembling from head to foot, as his eyes
+wandered over all the front of the building; and then a low, wailing cry
+would break from his lips, "Dear Lord! there was no room for my little
+love, but thou hast found room for her!"
+
+It was a reopening of Tony's sorrow when Aunt Charlotte came up from the
+country to find that the little child had gone away altogether, leaving
+only her tiny frocks and clothes, which were neatly folded up in a
+drawer, where old Oliver treasured up a keepsake or two of his wife's.
+She discovered, too, that old Oliver had forgotten to write to
+Susan,--indeed, his hand had become too trembling to hold a pen,--and she
+wrote herself; but her letter did not reach Calcutta before Susan and her
+husband had left it, being homeward bound.
+
+It was as nearly two years as it could well be since the summer evening
+when Susan Raleigh had sent her little girl into old Oliver's shop,
+bidding her be a good girl till she came home, and thinking it would be
+only three days before she saw her again. It was nearly two years, and an
+evening something like it, when the door was darkened by the entrance of
+a tall, fine-looking man, dressed as a soldier, but with one empty sleeve
+looped up across his chest. Tony was busy behind the counter wrapping up
+magazines, which he was going to take out the next morning, and the
+soldier looked very inquisitively at him.
+
+"Hallo! my lad, who are you?" he asked, in a tone of surprise.
+
+"I'm Antony Oliver," he said; for of late he had taken to call himself by
+his old master's name.
+
+"Antony Oliver!" repeated the stranger; "I never heard of you before."
+
+"Well, I'm only Tony," he answered; "but I live with old Mr. Oliver now,
+and call him grandfather. He likes it, and it does me good. It's like
+somebody belonging to me."
+
+"Why! how long have you called him grandfather?" asked the soldier again.
+
+"Ever since our little Dolly died," said Tony, in a faltering voice.
+
+"Dolly dead!" exclaimed the man, looking ready to fall down; for his
+face went very white, and he leaned upon the counter with his one hand.
+"Oh! my poor Susan!--my poor, dear girl!--however can I tell her this
+bad news?"
+
+"Who are you?" cried Tony. "Are you Dolly's father? Oh, she's dead!
+She died last January, and we are more lonesome without her than you
+can think."
+
+"Let me see poor Susan's father," he said, after a minute or two, and
+with a very troubled face.
+
+"Ay, come in," said Tony, lifting up the flap of the counter, under which
+Dolly had so often played at hide-and-seek. "He's more hisself again; but
+his memory's bad yet. I know everythink about her, though; because she
+was so fond of me, and me of her. Come in."
+
+Raleigh entered the room, and saw old Oliver sitting in his arm-chair,
+with a pipe in his hand, and a very tranquil look upon his wrinkled face.
+The gas-light shone upon the glittering epaulettes and white sash of the
+soldier, and the old man fastened upon him a very keen, yet doubtful gaze
+of inquiry.
+
+"Don't you know me, father?" cried Raleigh, almost unable to utter a
+word. "It's your poor Susan's husband, and Dolly's father."
+
+"Dolly's father!" repeated old Oliver, rising from his chair, and
+resting his hand upon Raleigh's shoulder. "Do you know that the dear Lord
+has taken her to be where he is in glory?"
+
+"Yes, I know it," he said, with a sob.
+
+He put the old man back in his seat, and drew a chair close up to him.
+They sat thus together in sorrowful silence for some minutes, until old
+Oliver laid his hand upon the empty sleeve on Raleigh's breast.
+
+"You've lost your arm," he said, pityingly.
+
+"Ay!" answered Raleigh; "our colonel was set upon by a tiger in the
+jungle, and I saved him; but the brute tore my arm, and craunched
+the bone between his teeth till it had to come off. It's spoiled me
+for a soldier."
+
+"Yes, yes, poor fellow," answered old Oliver, "but the Lord knew all
+about it."
+
+"That he did," answered Raleigh; "and he's taught me a bit more about
+himself than I used to know. I'm not spoiled to be His soldier. But I
+don't know much about the service yet, and I shall want you to teach me,
+father. You'll let me call you father, for poor Susan's sake, won't you?"
+
+"To be sure--to be sure," said old Oliver, keeping his hand still upon
+the empty sleeve on Raleigh's breast.
+
+"Well, father," he continued, "as I am not fit for a soldier, and as the
+colonel was hurt too, we're all come home together. Only Susan's gone
+straight on with her lady and our little girl, and sent me through London
+to see after you and Dolly."
+
+"Your little girl?" said Oliver questioningly.
+
+"Yes, the one born in India. Her name's Mary, but we call her Polly.
+Susan said it made her think of our little Dolly at home. Dear! dear! I
+don't know however I shall let her know."
+
+Another fit of silence fell upon them, and Tony left them together, for
+it was time to put up the shop shutters. It seemed just like the night
+when he had followed Susan and the little girl, and loitered outside in
+the doorway opposite, to see what would happen after she had left her in
+the shop. He fancied he was a ragged, shoeless boy again, nobody loving
+him, or caring for him, and that he saw old Oliver and Dolly standing on
+the step, looking out for the mother, who had gone away, never, never to
+see her darling again. Tony's heart was very full; and when he tried to
+whistle, he was obliged to give it up, lest he should break out into sobs
+and crying. When he went back into the house Raleigh was talking again.
+
+"So Susan and me are to have one of the lodges of the colonel's park,"
+he said, "and I'm to be a sort of bailiff to look after the other outdoor
+servants about the garden and premises. It's a house with three bedrooms,
+and a very pleasant sort of little parlour, as well as a kitchen and
+scullery place downstairs. You can see the Wrekin from the parlour
+window, and the moon over it; and it's not so far away but what we could
+get a spring-cart sometimes, and drive over to your old home under the
+Wrekin. As soon as ever the colonel's lady told Susan where it was, she
+cried out, 'That's the very place for father!' You'd like to come and
+live with your own Susan again, in your own country; wouldn't you now?"
+
+"Yes, yes; for a little while," answered old Oliver, with a smile
+upon his face.
+
+Tony felt a strange and very painful shrinking at his heart. If the old
+man went away to live with his daughter in the country, his home would be
+lost to him, and he would have to go out into the great city again alone,
+with nobody to love. He could get his living now in a respectable manner,
+and there was no fear of his being driven to sleep in Covent Garden, or
+under the bridges. But he would be alone, and all the links which bound
+him to Dolly and old Oliver would be snapped asunder. He wondered if the
+Lord Jesus would let such a thing be.
+
+"But I couldn't leave Tony," cried old Oliver, suddenly; and putting on
+his spectacles to look for him.
+
+"Come here, Tony. He's like my own son to me, bless him! He calls me
+grandfather, and kept my heart up when I should have sunk very low
+without him. My Master gave him to me the very same night he gave me my
+little love. No, no; Dolly loved Tony, and Susan must come here to see
+me, but I could never leave my boy."
+
+Old Oliver had put his arm round Tony, drawing him closer and closer to
+him as he spoke, until his withered cheek pressed fondly against his
+face. Since Dolly died neither of them had felt such a thrill of
+happiness as now.
+
+"The colonel and his lady must be told about this," said Raleigh, after
+he had heard all that Tony had been and done for old Oliver; and when he
+was obliged to go away for the night, the soldier gave him such a cordial
+grasp of the hand, as set all his fingers tingling, and his heart
+throbbing with exultation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+POLLY.
+
+
+The lodge stood in a very lovely place, upon a slope of ground, which
+rose still higher to where the colonel's grand house was situated. There
+was a porch before the door, built of rough logs of pines, covered with
+ivy and honeysuckle, and with seats in it, where you could sit and look
+out over a wide, rich plain, with little hills and dales in it,
+stretching far away towards the sky-line, where some distant mountains
+lay, so like to clouds, that you could scarcely tell which were soft and
+misty vapours, and which were solid and everlasting hills. The Severn ran
+through the beautiful plain with so many windings, sometimes lying in
+shadow under deep banks, and sometimes glistening and sparkling in the
+sunlight, that it looked more like many little pools scattered about the
+meadows than one long, continuous river. Not very far away, as Raleigh
+had said, stood the Wrekin, purple in the evening haze, but by day so
+plain, that one could see the great rock on its summit, which in olden
+times served as an altar to the god of fire.
+
+Susan was very busy, and had been very busy all day over two
+things--preparing the house for the reception of her father, whom she had
+not seen for so many years, and in teaching her little girl, who was now
+eighteen months old, to say grand-pa. The one work was quite finished;
+everything was ready for old Oliver, and now she was waiting and watching
+to see the colonel's spring cart arrive from the station with her
+husband, who was gone to meet old Oliver and Tony. For Tony was not on
+any account to be parted from the old man--so said the colonel and his
+lady--but was to be employed about the garden, and as general errand boy
+for the house, and to live at the lodge with old Oliver. Susan's eyes
+were red, for as she had been busy about her work, she had several times
+cried bitterly over her lost little girl; but she had resolved within
+herself not to shed a single tear after her father was come, lest she
+should spoil the gladness of his coming home to her. At last the cart
+came in sight, and stopped, and Raleigh and Tony sprang out to help
+Oliver to get down, while Susan put down Polly in the porch, and ran to
+throw her arms round her dear old father's neck.
+
+He was very quiet, poor old Oliver. He had not spoken a word since he
+left the station, but had gazed about him as they drove along the
+pleasant lane with almost a troubled look upon his tranquil face. When
+his dim eyes caught the first glimpse of the Wrekin he lifted his hat
+from his white and trembling head, as if to greet it like some great and
+dear friend, after so many years of absence. Now he stood still at the
+wicket, leaning upon Susan's arm, and looking round him again with a
+gentle yet sad smile. The air was so fresh, after the close streets of
+London, that to him it seemed even full of scents of numberless flowers;
+and the sun was shining everywhere, upon the blossoms in the garden, and
+the fine old elm-trees in the park, and the far-off hills. He grasped
+Tony's hand in his, and bade him look well about him.
+
+"If only my little love had had a bit of sunshine!" he said, with a
+mournful and tender patience in his feeble voice.
+
+But just then--scarcely had he finished speaking--there came a shrill,
+merry little scream behind them, so like Dolly's, that both old Oliver
+and Tony turned round quickly. It could not be the same, for this little
+child was even smaller than Dolly; but as she came pattering and
+tottering down the garden-walk towards them, they saw that she had the
+same fair curly hair, and blue eyes, and rosy cheeks that Dolly had had
+two years before. She ran and hid her face in her mother's gown; but
+Susan lifted her into her arms, and held her towards old Oliver.
+
+"Say grand-pa, and kiss him, Polly," she said, coaxingly.
+
+The little child held back shyly for a minute, for old Oliver's head was
+shaking much more than usual now; but at length she put her two soft
+little hands to his face, and held it between them, while she kissed him.
+
+"Gan-pa!" she cried, crowing and chuckling with delight.
+
+They went indoors to the pleasant parlour, where old Oliver's arm-chair
+was set ready for him by the side of the fire, for Susan had kindled a
+fire, saying that he would feel the fresh air blowing from the Wrekin;
+and Polly sat first on his knee, and then upon Tony's, who could not keep
+his eyes from following all her movements. But still it was not their own
+Dolly who had made the old house in the close alley in London so happy
+and so merry for them. She was gone home to the Father's house, and was
+watching for them there. Tony might be a long time before he joined her,
+but for old Oliver the parting would be but short. As he sat in the
+evening dusk, very peacefully and contentedly, while Susan sang Polly to
+sleep in the kitchen, Tony heard him say half aloud, as his custom was,
+"Yet a little, and I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that
+where I am ye may be also. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!"
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Alone In London, by Hesba Stretton
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