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+Project Gutenberg's Dusty Diamonds Cut and Polished, by R.M. Ballantyne
+
+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: Dusty Diamonds Cut and Polished
+       A Tale of City Arab Life and Adventure
+
+Author: R.M. Ballantyne
+
+Release Date: June 7, 2007 [EBook #21729]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DUSTY DIAMONDS CUT AND POLISHED ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+Dusty Diamonds Cut and Polished, by R.M. Ballantyne.
+
+First published 1884
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+As so often with Ballantyne there are two concurrent stories in this
+book.  In one of these we meet two little stray and homeless boys in the
+vicinity of Whitechapel in the East-End of London. These two are rescued
+from the streets, trained up and sent to Canada to live as part of a
+farmer's family there.
+
+The other story concerns the mother of one of the boys, with too many
+children, a drink-habit, and a wife-beating and criminal husband:
+plainly there's not much going for her, but her eldest daughter manages
+to bring life together for the family.  The bad father, on his release
+from jail, deserts his wife, which is no bad thing; the wife takes the
+Blue Ribbon and gives up drinking; a couple of well-to-do gentlemen take
+an interest in the family; and finally they all emigrate to Canada and
+live happily ever after.
+
+Of course, it is a little more complicated than that, with a burglary
+thrown in as well as a smattering of do-good-ers and do-bad-ers. But for
+those with an interest in the street-life of the nineteenth century this
+will be a very interesting book for you.
+
+A Note about the Author.
+
+Robert Michael Ballantyne was born in 1825 and died in 1894.  He was
+educated at the Edinburgh Academy, and in 1841 he became a clerk with
+the Hudson Bay Company, working at the Red River Settlement in Northern
+Canada until 1847, arriving back in Edinburgh in 1848.  The letters he
+had written home were very amusing in their description of backwoods
+life, and his family publishing connections suggested that he should
+construct a book based on these letters.  Three of his most enduring
+books were written over the next decade, "The Young Fur Traders",
+"Ungava", "The Hudson Bay Company", and were based on his experiences
+with the H.B.C.  In this period he also wrote "The Coral island" and
+"Martin Rattler", both of these taking place in places never visited by
+Ballantyne.  Having been chided for small mistakes he made in these
+books, he resolved always to visit the places he wrote about.  With
+these books he became known as a great master of literature intended for
+teenagers.  He researched the Cornish Mines, the London Fire Brigade,
+the Postal Service, the Railways, the laying down of submarine telegraph
+cables, the construction of light-houses, the light-ship service, the
+life-boat service, South Africa, Norway, the North Sea fishing fleet,
+ballooning, deep-sea diving, Algiers, and many more, experiencing the
+lives of the men and women in these settings by living with them for
+weeks and months at a time, and he lived as they lived.
+
+He was a very true-to-life author, depicting the often squalid scenes he
+encountered with great care and attention to detail.  His young readers
+looked forward eagerly to his next books, and through the 1860s and
+1870s there was a flow of books from his pen, sometimes four in a year,
+all very good reading.  The rate of production diminished in the last
+ten or fifteen years of his life, but the quality never failed.
+
+He published over ninety books under his own name, and a few books for
+very young children under the pseudonym "Comus".
+
+For today's taste his books are perhaps a little too religious, and what
+we would nowadays call "pi".  In part that was the way people wrote in
+those days, but more important was the fact that in his days at the Red
+River Settlement, in the wilds of Canada, he had been a little
+dissolute, and he did not want his young readers to be unmindful of how
+they ought to behave, as he felt he had been.
+
+Some of his books were quite short, little over 100 pages.  These books
+formed a series intended for the children of poorer parents, having less
+pocket-money.  These books are particularly well-written and researched,
+because he wanted that readership to get the very best possible for
+their money.  They were published as six series, three books in each
+series.
+
+Re-created as an e-Text by Nick Hodson, September 2003.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+DUSTY DIAMONDS CUT AND POLISHED, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+AN ACCIDENT AND SOME OF ITS CURIOUS RESULTS.
+
+Every one has heard of those ponies--those shaggy, chubby,
+innocent-looking little creatures--for which the world is indebted, we
+suppose, to Shetland.
+
+Well, once on a time, one of the most innocent-looking, chubbiest, and
+shaggiest of Shetland ponies--a dark brown one--stood at the door of a
+mansion in the west-end of London.
+
+It was attached to a wickerwork vehicle which resembled a large
+clothes-basket on small wheels.  We do not mean, of course, that the
+pony was affectionately attached to it.  No; the attachment was
+involuntary and unavoidable, by reason of a brand-new yellow leather
+harness with brass buckles.  It objected to the attachment, obviously,
+for it sidled this way, and straddled that way, and whisked its enormous
+little tail, and tossed its rotund little head, and stamped its
+ridiculously small feet; and champed its miniature bit, as if it had
+been a war-horse of the largest size, fit to carry a Wallace, a Bruce,
+or a Richard of the Lion-heart, into the midst of raging battle.
+
+And no wonder; for many months had not elapsed since that brown creature
+had kicked up its little heels, and twirled its tail, and shaken its
+shaggy mane in all the wild exuberance of early youth and unfettered
+freedom on the heather hills of its native island.
+
+In the four-wheeled basket sat a little girl whom it is useless to
+describe as beautiful.  She was far beyond that!  Her delicate colour,
+her little straight nose, her sparkling teeth, her rosebud of a mouth,
+her enormous blue eyes, and floods of yellow hair--pooh! these are not
+worth mentioning in the same sentence with her expression.  It was that
+which carried all before it, and swept up the adoration of
+man-and-woman-kind as with the besom of fascination.
+
+She was the only child of Sir Richard Brandon.  Sir Richard was a knight
+and a widower.  He was knighted, not because of personal merit, but
+because he had been mayor of some place, sometime or other, when some
+one connected with royalty had something important to do with it!
+Little Diana was all that this knight and widower had on earth to care
+for, except, of course, his horses and dogs, and guns, and club, and
+food.  He was very particular as to his food.  Not that he was an
+epicure, or a gourmand, or luxurious, or a hard drinker, or anything of
+that sort--by no means.  He could rough it, (so he said), as well as any
+man, and put up with whatever chanced to be going, but, when there was
+no occasion for roughing it, he did like to see things well cooked and
+nicely served; and wine, you know, was not worth drinking--positively
+nauseous--if it was not of the best.
+
+Sir Richard was a poor man--a very poor man.  He had only five thousand
+a year--a mere pittance; and he managed this sum in such a peculiar way
+that he never had anything wherewith to help a struggling friend, or to
+give to the poor, or to assist the various religious and charitable
+institutions by which he was surrounded; while at certain intervals in
+the year he experienced exasperating difficulty in meeting the demands
+of those torments to society, the tradespeople--people who ought to be
+ashamed of themselves for not being willing to supply the nobility and
+gentry with food and clothing gratuitously!  Moreover, Sir Richard never
+by any chance laid anything by.
+
+Standing by the pony's head, and making tender efforts to restrain his
+waywardness, stood a boy--a street boy--a city Arab.  To a Londoner any
+description of this boy would be superfluous, but it may be well to
+state, for the benefit of the world at large, that the class to which he
+belonged embodies within its pale the quintessence of rollicking
+mischief, and the sublimate of consummate insolence.
+
+This remarkable boy was afflicted with a species of dance--not that of
+Saint Vitus, but a sort of double-shuffle, with a stamp of the right
+foot at the end--in which he was prone to indulge, consciously and
+unconsciously, at all times, and the tendency to which he sometimes
+found it difficult to resist.  He was beginning to hum the
+sharply-defined air to which he was in the habit of performing this
+dance, when little Diana said, in a silvery voice quite in keeping with
+her beauty--
+
+"Let go his head, boy; I'm quite sure that he cannot bear restraint."
+
+It may be remarked here that little Di was probably a good judge on that
+point, being herself nearly incapable of bearing restraint.
+
+"I'd better not, miss," replied the boy with profound respect in tone
+and manner, for he had yet to be paid for the job; "he seems raither
+frisky, an' might take a fancy to bolt, you know."
+
+"Let his head go, I say!" returned Miss Diana with a flashing of the
+blue eyes, and a pursing of the rosebud mouth that proved her to be one
+of Adam's race after all.
+
+"Vell, now, don't you think," rejoined the boy, in an expostulating
+tone, "that it would be as veil to vait for the guv'nor before givin'
+'im 'is 'ead?"
+
+"Do as I bid you, sir!" said Di, drawing herself up like an empress.
+
+Still the street boy held the pony's head, and it is probable that he
+would have come off the victor in this controversy, had not Diana's
+dignified action given to the reins which she held a jerk.  The brown
+pony, deeming this full permission to go on, went off with a bound that
+overturned the boy, and caused the fore-wheel to strike him on the leg
+as it passed.
+
+Springing up with the intention of giving chase to the runaway, the
+little fellow again fell, with a sharp cry of pain, for his leg was
+broken.
+
+At the same moment Sir Richard Brandon issued from the door of his
+mansion leisurely, and with an air of calm serenity, pulling on his
+gloves.  It was one of the knight's maxims that, under all
+circumstances, a gentleman should maintain an appearance of
+imperturbable serenity.  When, however, he suddenly beheld the street
+boy falling, and his daughter standing up in her wickerwork chariot,
+holding on to the brown pony like an Amazon warrior of ancient times,
+his maxim somehow evaporated.  His serenity vanished.  So did his hat as
+he bounded from beneath it, and left it far behind in his mad and
+hopeless career after the runaway.
+
+A policeman, coming up just as Sir Richard disappeared, went to the
+assistance of the street boy.
+
+"Not much hurt, youngster," he said kindly, as he observed that the boy
+was very pale, and seemed to be struggling hard to repress his feelings.
+
+"Vell, p'raps I is an' p'raps I ain't, Bobby," replied the boy with an
+unsuccessful attempt at a smile, for he felt safe to chaff or insult his
+foe in the circumstances, "but vether hurt or not it vont much matter to
+you, vill it?"
+
+He fainted as he spoke, and the look of half-humorous impudence, as well
+as that of pain, gave place to an expression of infantine repose.
+
+The policeman was so struck by the unusual sight of a street boy looking
+innocent and unconscious, that he stooped and raised him quite tenderly
+in his arms.
+
+"You'd better carry him in here," said Sir Richard Brandon's butler, who
+had come out.  "I saw it 'appen, and suspect he must be a good deal
+damaged."
+
+Sir Richard's footman backing the invitation, the boy was carried into
+the house accordingly, laid on the housemaid's bed, and attended to by
+the cook, while the policeman went out to look after the runaways.
+
+"Oh! what ever shall we do?" exclaimed the cook, as the boy showed
+symptoms of returning consciousness.
+
+"Send for the doctor," suggested the housemaid.
+
+"No," said the butler, "send for a cab, and 'ave the boy sent home.  I
+fear that master will blame me for givin' way to my feelin's, and won't
+thank me for bringin' 'im in here.  You know he is rather averse to the
+lower orders.  Besides, the poor boy will be better attended to at 'ome,
+no doubt.  I dare say you'd like to go 'ome, wouldn't you?" he said,
+observing that the boy was looking at him with a rather curious
+expression.
+
+"I dessay I should, if I could," he answered, with a mingled glance of
+mischief and pain, "but if you'll undertake to carry me, old cock, I'll
+be 'appy to go."
+
+"I'll send you in a cab, my poor boy," returned the butler, "and git a
+cabman as I'm acquainted with to take care of you."
+
+"All right! go a'ead, ye cripples," returned the boy, as the cook
+approached him with a cup of warm soup.
+
+"Oh! ain't it prime!" he said, opening his eyes very wide indeed, and
+smacking his lips.  "I think I'll go in for a smashed pin every day o'
+my life for a drop o' that stuff.  Surely it must be wot they drinks in
+'eaven!  Have 'ee got much more o' the same on 'and?"
+
+"Never mind, but you drink away while you've got the chance," replied
+the amiable cook; "there's the cab coming, so you've no time to lose."
+
+"Vell, I _am_ sorry I ain't able to 'old more, an' my pockets wont 'old
+it neither, bein' the wuss for wear.  Thankee, missus."
+
+He managed, by a strong effort, to dispose of a little more soup before
+the cab drew up.
+
+"Where do you live?" asked the butler, as he placed the boy carefully in
+the bottom of the cab with his unkempt head resting on a hassock, which
+he gave him to understand was a parting gift from the housemaid.
+
+"Vere do I live?" he repeated.  "Vy, mostly in the streets; my last 'ome
+was a sugar barrel, the one before was a donkey-cart, but I do sometimes
+condescend to wisit my parents in their mansion 'ouse in Vitechapel."
+
+"And what is your name?  Sir Richard may wish to inquire for you--
+perhaps."
+
+"May he?  Oh!  I'm sorry I ain't got my card to leave, but you just tell
+him, John--is it, or Thomas?--Ah!  Thomas.  I knowed it couldn't 'elp to
+be one or t'other;--you just tell your master that my name is Robert,
+better known as Bobby, Frog.  But I've lots of aliases, if that name
+don't please 'im.  Good-bye, Thomas.  Farewell, and if for ever, then--
+you know the rest o' the quotation, if your eddication's not bin
+neglected, w'ich is probable it was.  Oh! by the way.  This 'assik is
+the gift of the 'ouse-maid?  You observe the answer, cabby, in case you
+and I may differ about it 'ereafter."
+
+"Yes," said the amused butler, "a gift from Jessie."
+
+"Ah!--jus' so.  An' she's tender-'earted an' on'y fifteen.  Wots 'er
+tother name?  Summers, eh?  Vell, it's prettier than Vinters.  Tell 'er
+I'll not forget 'er.  Now, cabman--'ome!"
+
+A few minutes more, and Bobby Frog was on his way to the mansion in
+Whitechapel, highly delighted with his recent feast, but suffering
+extremely from his broken limb.
+
+Meanwhile, the brown pony--having passed a bold costermonger, who stood
+shouting defiance at it, and waving both arms till it was close on him,
+when he stepped quickly out of its way--eluded a dray-man, and entered
+on a fine sweep of street, where there seemed to be no obstruction worth
+mentioning.  By that time it had left the agonised father far behind.
+
+The day was fine; the air bracing.  The utmost strength of poor little
+Diana, and she applied it well, made no impression whatever on the
+pony's tough mouth.  Influences of every kind were favourable.  On the
+illogical principle, probably, that being "in for a penny" justified
+being "in for a pound," the pony laid himself out for a glorious run.
+He warmed to his work, caused the dust to fly, and the clothes-basket to
+advance with irregular bounds and swayings as he scampered along,
+driving many little dogs wild with delight, and two or three cats mad
+with fear.  Gradually he drew towards the more populous streets, and
+here, of course, the efforts on the part of the public to arrest him
+became more frequent, also more decided, though not more successful.  At
+last an inanimate object effected what man and boy had failed to
+accomplish.
+
+In a wild effort to elude a demonstrative cabman near the corner of one
+of the main thoroughfares, the brown pony brought the wheels of the
+vehicle into collision with a lamp-post.  That lamp-post went down
+before the shock like a tall head of grain before the sickle.  The front
+wheels doubled up into a sudden embrace, broke loose, and went across
+the road, one into a greengrocer's shop, the other into a chemist's
+window.  Thus diversely end many careers that begin on a footing of
+equality!  The hind-wheels went careering along the road like a new
+species of bicycle, until brought up by a donkey-cart, while the basket
+chariot rolled itself violently round the lamp-post, like a shattered
+remnant, as if resolved, before perishing, to strangle the author of all
+the mischief.  As to the pony, it stopped, and seemed surprised at first
+by the unexpected finale, but the look quickly changed--or appeared to
+change--to one of calm contentment as it surveyed the ruin.
+
+But what of the fair little charioteer?  Truly, in regard to her, a
+miracle, or something little short of one, had occurred.  The doctrine
+that extremes meet contains much truth in it--truth which is illustrated
+and exemplified more frequently, we think, than is generally supposed.
+A tremendous accident is often much less damaging to the person who
+experiences it than a slight one.  In little Diana's case, the extremes
+had met, and the result was absolute safety.  She was shot out of her
+basket carriage after the manner of a sky-rocket, but the impulse was so
+effective that, instead of causing her to fall on her head and break her
+pretty little neck, it made her perform a complete somersault, and
+alight upon her feet.  Moreover, the spot on which she alighted was
+opportune, as well as admirably suited to the circumstances.
+
+At the moment, ignorant of what was about to happen, police-constable
+Number 666--we are not quite sure of what division--in all the plenitude
+of power, and blue, and six-feet-two, approached the end of a street
+entering at right angles to the one down which our little heroine had
+flown.  He was a superb specimen of humanity, this constable, with a
+chest and shoulders like Hercules, and the figure of Apollo.  He turned
+the corner just as the child had completed her somersault, and received
+her two little feet fairly in the centre of his broad breast, driving
+him flat on his back more effectively than could have been done by the
+best prize-fighter in England!
+
+Number 666 proved a most effectual buffer, for Di, after planting her
+blow on his chest, sat plump down on his stomach, off which she sprang
+in an agony of consternation, exclaiming--
+
+"Oh!  I have killed him!  I've killed him!" and burst into tears.
+
+"No, my little lady," said Number 666, as he rose with one or two coughs
+and replaced his helmet, "you've not quite done for me, though you've
+come nearer the mark than any _man_ has ever yet accomplished.  Come,
+now, what can I do for you?  You're not hurt, I hope?"
+
+This sally was received with a laugh, almost amounting to a cheer, by
+the half-horrified crowd which had quickly assembled to witness, as it
+expected, a fatal accident.
+
+"Hurt? oh! no, I'm not hurt," exclaimed Di, while tears still converted
+her eyes into blue lakelets as she looked anxiously up in the face of
+Number 666; "but I'm quite sure you must be hurt--awfully.  I'm _so_
+sorry!  Indeed I am, for I didn't mean to knock you down."
+
+This also was received by the crowd with a hearty laugh, while Number
+666 sought to comfort the child by earnestly assuring her that he was
+not hurt in the least--only a little stunned at first, but that was
+quite gone.
+
+"Wot does she mean by knockin' of 'im down?" asked a small butcher's
+boy, who had come on the scene just too late, of a small baker's boy who
+had, happily, been there from the beginning.
+
+"She means wot she says," replied the small baker's boy with the
+dignified reticence of superior knowledge, "she knocked the constable
+down."
+
+"Wot! a leetle gurl knock a six-foot bobby down?--walk-_er_!"
+
+"Very good; you've no call to b'lieve it unless you like," replied the
+baker's boy, with a look of pity at the unbelieving butcher, "but she
+did it, though--an' that's six month with 'ard labour, if it ain't five
+year."
+
+At this point the crowd opened up to let a maniac enter.  He was
+breathless, hatless, moist, and frantic.
+
+"My child! my darling! my dear Di!" he gasped.
+
+"Papa!" responded Diana, with a little scream, and, leaping into his
+arms, grasped him in a genuine hug.
+
+"Oh!  I say," whispered the small butcher, "it's a melly-drammy--all for
+nuffin!"
+
+"My!" responded the small baker, with a solemn look, "won't the Lord
+left-tenant be down on 'em for play-actin' without a licence, just!"
+
+"Is the pony killed?" inquired Sir Richard, recovering himself.
+
+"Not in the least, sir.  'Ere 'e is, sir; all alive an' kickin',"
+answered the small butcher, delighted to have the chance of making
+himself offensively useful, "but the hinsurance offices wouldn't 'ave
+the clo'se-baskit at no price.  Shall I order up the remains of your
+carriage, sir?"
+
+"Oh!  I'm so glad he's not dead," said Diana, looking hastily up, "but
+this policeman was nearly killed, and _I_ did it!  He saved my life,
+papa."
+
+A chorus of voices here explained to Sir Richard how Number 666 had come
+up in the nick of time to receive the flying child upon his bosom.
+
+"I am deeply grateful to you," said the knight, turning to the
+constable, and extending his hand, which the latter shook modestly while
+disclaiming any merit for having merely performed his duty--he might
+say, involuntarily.
+
+"Will you come to my house?" said Sir Richard.  "Here is my card.  I
+should like to see you again, and pray, see that some one looks after my
+pony and--"
+
+"And the remains," suggested the small butcher, seeing that Sir Richard
+hesitated.
+
+"Be so good as to call a cab," said Sir Richard in a general way to any
+one who chose to obey.
+
+"Here you are, sir!" cried a peculiarly sharp cabby, who, correctly
+judging from the state of affairs that his services would be required,
+had drawn near to bide his time.
+
+Sir Richard and his little daughter got in and were driven home, leaving
+Number 666 to look after the pony and the remains.
+
+Thus curiously were introduced to each other some of the characters in
+our tale.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+THE IRRESISTIBLE POWER OF LOVE.
+
+Need we remark that there was a great deal of embracing on the part of
+Di and her nurse when the former returned home?  The child was an
+affectionate creature as well as passionate.  The nurse, Mrs Screwbury,
+was also affectionate without being passionate.  Poor Diana had never
+known a mother's love or care; but good, steady, stout Mrs Screwbury
+did what in her lay to fill the place of mother.
+
+Sir Richard filled the place of father pretty much as a lamp-post might
+have done had it owned a child.  He illuminated her to some extent--
+explained things in general, stiffly, and shed a feeble ray around
+himself; but his light did not extend far.  He was proud of her,
+however, and very fond of her--when good.  When not good, he was--or
+rather had been--in the habit of dismissing her to the nursery.
+
+Nevertheless, the child exercised very considerable and ever-increasing
+influence over her father; for, although stiff, the knight was by no
+means destitute of natural affection, and sometimes observed, with moist
+eyes, strong traces of resemblance to his lost wife in the beautiful
+child.  Indeed, as years advanced, he became a more and more obedient
+father, and was obviously on the high road to abject slavery.
+
+"Papa," said Di, while they were at luncheon that day, not long after
+the accident, "I _am_ so sorry for that poor policeman.  It seems such a
+dreadful thing to have actually jumped upon him! and oh! you should have
+heard his poor head hit the pavement, and seen his pretty helmet go
+spinning along like a boy's top, ever so far.  I wonder it didn't kill
+him.  I'm _so_ sorry."
+
+Di emphasised her sorrow by laughing, for she had a keen sense of the
+ludicrous, and the memory of the spinning helmet was strong upon her
+just then.
+
+"It must indeed have been an unpleasant blow," replied Sir Richard,
+gravely, "but then, dear, you couldn't help it, you know--and I dare say
+he is none the worse for it now.  Men like him are not easily injured.
+I fear we cannot say as much for the boy who was holding the pony."
+
+"Oh!  I quite forgot about him," exclaimed Di; "the naughty boy! he
+wouldn't let go the pony's reins when I bid him, but I saw he tumbled
+down when we set off."
+
+"Yes, he has been somewhat severely punished, I fear, for his
+disobedience.  His leg had been broken.  Is it not so, Balls?"
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the butler, "'e 'as 'ad 'is--"
+
+Balls got no farther, for Diana, who had been struck dumb for the moment
+by the news, recovered herself.
+
+"His leg broken!" she exclaimed with a look of consternation; "Oh! the
+poor, poor boy!--the dear boy! and it was me did that too, as well as
+knocking down the poor policeman!"
+
+There is no saying to what lengths the remorseful child would have gone
+in the way of self-condemnation if her father had not turned her
+thoughts from herself by asking what had been done for the boy.
+
+"We sent 'im 'ome, sir, in a cab."
+
+"I'm afraid that was a little too prompt," returned the knight
+thoughtfully.  "A broken leg requires careful treatment, I suppose.  You
+should have had him into the house, and sent for a doctor."
+
+Balls coughed.  He was slightly chagrined to find that the violation of
+his own humane feelings had been needless, and that his attempt to do as
+he thought his master would have wished was in vain.
+
+"I thought, Sir Richard, that you didn't like the lower orders to go
+about the 'ouse more--"
+
+Again little Di interrupted the butler by asking excitedly where the
+boy's home was.
+
+"In the neighbour'ood of W'itechapel, Miss Di."
+
+"Then, papa, we will go straight off to see him," said the child, in the
+tone of one whose mind is fully made up.  "You and I shall go together--
+won't we? good papa!"
+
+"That will do, Balls, you may go.  No, my dear Di, I think we had better
+not.  I will write to one of the city missionaries whom I know, and ask
+him to--"
+
+"No, but, papa--dear papa, we _must_ go.  The city missionary could
+never say how very, _very_ sorry I am that he should have broken his leg
+while helping me.  And then I should _so_ like to sit by him and tell
+him stories, and give him his soup and gruel, and read to him.  Poor,
+_poor_ boy, we _must_ go, papa, won't you?"
+
+"Not to-day, dear.  It is impossible to go to-day.  There, now, don't
+begin to cry.  Perhaps--perhaps to-morrow--but think, my love; you have
+no idea how dirty--how _very_ nasty--the places are in which our lower
+orders live."
+
+"Oh! yes I have," said Di eagerly.  "Haven't I seen our nursery on
+cleaning days?"
+
+A faint flicker of a smile passed over the knight's countenance.
+
+"True, darling, but the places are far, far dirtier than that.  Then the
+smells.  Oh! they are very dreadful--"
+
+"What--worse than _we_ have when there's cabbage for dinner?"
+
+"Yes, much worse than that."
+
+"I don't care, papa.  We _must_ go to see the boy--the poor, _poor_ boy,
+in spite of dirt and smells.  And then, you know--let me up on your knee
+and I'll tell you all about it.  There!  Well, then, you know, I'd tidy
+the room up, and even wash it a little.  Oh, you can't think how nicely
+I washed up my doll's room--her corner, you know,--that day when I spilt
+all her soup in trying to feed her, and then, while trying to wipe it
+up, I accidentally burst her, and all her inside came out--the sawdust,
+I mean.  It was the worst mess I ever made, but I cleaned it up as well
+as Jessie herself could have done--so nurse said."
+
+"But the messes down in Whitechapel are much worse than you have
+described, dear," expostulated the parent, who felt that his powers of
+resistance were going.
+
+"So much the better, papa," replied Di, kissing her sire's lethargic
+visage.  "I should like _so_ much to try if I could clean up something
+worse than my doll's room.  And you've promised, you know."
+
+"No--only said `perhaps,'" returned Sir Richard quickly.
+
+"Well, that's the same thing; and now that it's all nicely settled, I'll
+go and see nurse.  Good-bye, papa."
+
+"Good-bye, dear," returned the knight, resigning himself to his fate and
+the newspaper.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+POVERTY MANAGES TO BOARD OUT HER INFANT FOR NOTHING.
+
+On the night of the day about which we have been writing, a woman,
+dressed in "unwomanly rags" crept out of the shadow of the houses near
+London Bridge.  She was a thin, middle-aged woman, with a countenance
+from which sorrow, suffering, and sin had not been able to obliterate
+entirely the traces of beauty.  She carried a bundle in her arms which
+was easily recognisable as a baby, from the careful and affectionate
+manner in which the woman's thin, out-spread fingers grasped it.
+
+Hurrying on to the bridge till she reached the middle of one of the
+arches, she paused and looked over.  The Thames was black and gurgling,
+for it was intensely dark, and the tide half ebb at the time.  The
+turbid waters chafed noisily on the stone piers as if the sins and
+sorrows of the great city had been somehow communicated to them.
+
+But the distance from the parapet to the surface of the stream was
+great.  It seemed awful in the woman's eyes.  She shuddered and drew
+back.
+
+"Oh! for courage--only for one minute!" she murmured, clasping the
+bundle closer to her breast.
+
+The action drew off a corner of the scanty rag which she called a shawl,
+and revealed a small and round, yet exceedingly thin face, the black
+eyes of which seemed to gaze in solemn wonder at the scene of darkness
+visible which was revealed.  The woman stood between two lamps in the
+darkest place she could find, but enough of light reached her to glitter
+in the baby's solemn eyes as they met her gaze, and it made a pitiful
+attempt to smile as it recognised its mother.
+
+"God help me!  I can't," muttered the woman with a shiver, as if an
+ice-block had touched her heart.
+
+She drew the rag hastily over the baby's head again, pressed it closer
+to her breast, retraced her steps, and dived into the shadows from which
+she had emerged.
+
+This was one of the "lower orders" to whom Sir Richard Brandon had such
+an objection, whom he found it, he said, so difficult to deal with, (no
+wonder, for he never tried to deal with them at all, in any sense worthy
+of the name), and whom it was, he said, useless to assist, because all
+_he_ could do in such a vast accumulation of poverty would be a mere
+drop in the bucket.  Hence Sir Richard thought it best to keep the drop
+in his pocket where it could be felt and do good--at least to himself,
+rather than dissipate it in an almost empty bucket.  The bucket,
+however, was not quite empty--thanks to a few thousands of people who
+differed from the knight upon that point.
+
+The thin woman hastened through the streets as regardless of passers-by
+as they were of her, until she reached the neighbourhood of Commercial
+Street, Spitalfields.
+
+Here she paused and looked anxiously round her.  She had left the main
+thoroughfare, and the spot on which she stood was dimly lighted.
+Whatever she looked or waited for, did not, however, soon appear, for
+she stood under a lamp-post, muttering to herself, "I _must_ git rid of
+it.  Better to do so than see it starved to death before my eyes."
+
+Presently a foot-fall was heard, and a man drew near.  The woman gazed
+intently into his face.  It was not a pleasant face.  There was a scowl
+on it.  She drew back and let him pass.  Then several women passed, but
+she took no notice of them.  Then another man appeared.  His face seemed
+a jolly one.  The woman stepped forward at once and confronted him.
+
+"Please, sir," she began, but the man was too sharp for her.
+
+"Come now--you've brought out that baby on purpose to humbug people with
+it.  Don't fancy you'll throw dust in _my_ eyes.  I'm too old a cock for
+that.  Don't you know that you're breaking the law by begging?"
+
+"I'm _not_ begging," retorted the woman, almost fiercely.
+
+"Oh! indeed.  Why do you stop me, then?"
+
+"I merely wished to ask if your name is Thompson."
+
+"Ah hem!" ejaculated the man with a broad grin, "well no, madam, my name
+is _not_ Thompson."
+
+"Well, then," rejoined the woman, still indignantly, "you may move on."
+
+She had used an expression all too familiar to herself, and the man,
+obeying the order with a bow and a mocking laugh, disappeared like those
+who had gone before him.
+
+For some time no one else appeared save a policeman.  When he
+approached, the woman went past him down the street, as if bent on some
+business, but when he was out of sight she returned to the old spot,
+which was near the entrance to an alley.
+
+At last the woman's patience was rewarded by the sight of a burly little
+elderly man, whose face of benignity was unmistakably genuine.
+Remembering the previous man's reference to the baby, she covered it up
+carefully, and held it more like a bundle.
+
+Stepping up to the newcomer at once, she put the same question as to
+name, and also asked if he lived in Russell Square.
+
+"No, my good woman," replied the burly little man, with a look of
+mingled surprise and pity, "my name is _not_ Thompson.  It is Twitter--
+Samuel Twitter, of Twitter, Slime and--, but," he added, checking
+himself, under a sudden and rare impulse of prudence, "why do you ask my
+name and address?"
+
+The woman gave an almost hysterical laugh at having been so successful
+in her somewhat clumsy scheme, and, without uttering another word,
+darted down the alley.  She passed rapidly round by a back way to
+another point of the same street she had left--well ahead of the spot
+where she had stood so long and so patiently that night.  Here she
+suddenly uncovered the baby's face and kissed it passionately for a few
+moments.  Then, wrapping it in the ragged shawl, with its little head
+out, she laid it on the middle of the footpath full in the light of a
+lamp, and retired to await the result.
+
+When the woman rushed away, as above related, Mr Samuel Twitter stood
+for some minutes rooted to the spot, lost in amazement.  He was found in
+that condition by the returning policeman.
+
+"Constable," said he, cocking his hat to one side the better to scratch
+his bald head, "there are strange people in this region."
+
+"Indeed there are, sir."
+
+"Yes, but I mean _very_ strange people."
+
+"Well, sir, if you insist on it, I won't deny that some of them are
+_very_ strange."
+
+"Yes, well--good-night, constable," said Mr Twitter, moving slowly
+forward in a mystified state of mind, while the guardian of the night
+continued his rounds, thinking to himself that he had just parted from
+one of the very strangest of the people.
+
+Suddenly Samuel Twitter came to a full stop, for there lay the small
+baby gazing at him with its solemn eyes, apparently quite indifferent to
+the hardness and coldness of its bed of stone.
+
+"Abandoned!" gasped the burly little man.
+
+Whether Mr Twitter referred to the infant's moral character, or to its
+being shamefully forsaken, we cannot now prove, but he instantly caught
+the bundle in his arms and gazed at it.  Possibly his gaze may have been
+too intense, for the mild little creature opened a small mouth that bore
+no proportion whatever to the eyes, and attempted to cry, but the
+attempt was a failure.  It had not strength to cry.
+
+The burly little man's soul was touched to the centre by the sight.  He
+kissed the baby's forehead, pressed it to his ample breast, and hurried
+away.  If he had taken time to think he might have gone to a
+police-office, or a night refuge, or some such haven of rest for the
+weary, but when Twitter's feelings were touched he became a man of
+impulse.  He did not take time to think--except to the extent that, on
+reaching the main thoroughfare, he hailed a cab and was driven home.
+
+The poor mother had followed him with the intention of seeing him home.
+Of course the cab put an end to that.  She felt comparatively easy,
+however, knowing, as she did, that her child was in the keeping of
+"Twitter, Slime and ---."  That was quite enough to enable her to trace
+Mr Twitter out.  Comforting herself as well as she could with this
+reflection, she sat down in a dark corner on a cold door-step, and,
+covering her face with both hands, wept as though her heart would break.
+
+Gradually her sobs subsided, and, rising, she hurried away, shivering
+with cold, for her thin cotton dress was a poor protection against the
+night chills, and her ragged shawl was--gone with the baby.
+
+In a few minutes she reached a part of the Whitechapel district where
+some of the deepest poverty and wretchedness in London is to be found.
+Turning into a labyrinth of small streets and alleys, she paused in the
+neighbourhood of the court in which was her home--if such it could be
+called.
+
+"Is it worth while going back to him?" she muttered.  "He nearly killed
+baby, and it wouldn't take much to make him kill me.  And oh! he was so
+different--once!"
+
+While she stood irresolute, the man of whom she spoke chanced to turn
+the corner, and ran against her, somewhat roughly.
+
+"Hallo! is that you?" he demanded, in tones that told too clearly where
+he had been spending the night.
+
+"Yes, Ned, it's me.  I was just thinking about going home."
+
+"Home, indeed--'stime to b'goin' home.  Where'v you bin?  The babby 'll
+'v bin squallin' pretty stiff by this time."
+
+"No fear of baby now," returned the wife almost defiantly; "it's gone."
+
+"Gone!" almost shouted the husband.  "You haven't murdered it, have
+you?"
+
+"No, but I've put it in safe keeping, where _you_ can't get at it, and,
+now I know that, I don't care what you do to _me_."
+
+"Ha! we'll see about that.  Come along."
+
+He seized the woman by the arm and hurried her towards their dwelling.
+
+It was little better than a cellar, the door being reached by a descent
+of five or six much-worn steps.  To the surprise of the couple the door,
+which was usually shut at that hour, stood partly open, and a bright
+light shone within.
+
+"Wastin' coal and candle," growled the man with an angry oath, as he
+approached.
+
+"Hetty didn't use to be so extravagant," remarked the woman, in some
+surprise.
+
+As she spoke the door was flung wide open, and an overgrown but very
+handsome girl peered out.
+
+"Oh! father, I thought it was your voice," she said.  "Mother, is that
+you?  Come in, quick.  Here's Bobby brought home in a cab with a broken
+leg."
+
+On hearing this the man's voice softened, and, entering the room, he
+went up to a heap of straw in one corner whereon our little friend Bobby
+Frog--the street-Arab--lay.
+
+"Hallo!  Bobby, wot's wrong with 'ee?  You ain't used to come to grief,"
+said the father, laying his hand on the boy's shoulder, and giving him a
+rough shake.
+
+Things oftentimes "are not what they seem."  The shake was the man's
+mode of expressing sympathy, for he was fond of his son, regarding him,
+with some reason, as a most hopeful pupil in the ways of wickedness.
+
+"It's o' no use, father," said the boy, drawing his breath quickly and
+knitting his brows, "you can't stir me up with a long pole now.  I'm
+past that."
+
+"What! have 'ee bin runned over?"
+
+"No--on'y run down, or knocked down."
+
+"Who did it?  On'y give me his name an' address, an' as sure as my
+name's Ned I'll--"
+
+He finished the sentence with a sufficiently expressive scowl and
+clenching of a huge fist, which had many a time done great execution in
+the prize ring.
+
+"It wasn't a he, father, it was a she."
+
+"Well, no matter, if I on'y had my fingers on her windpipe I'd squeeze
+it summat."
+
+"If you did I'd bang your nose!  She didn't go for to do it a-purpose,
+you old grampus," retorted Bobby, intending the remark to be taken as a
+gentle yet affectionate reproof.  "A doctor's bin an' set my leg,"
+continued the boy, "an' made it as stiff as a poker wi' what 'e calls
+splints.  He says I won't be able to go about for ever so many weeks."
+
+"An' who's to feed you, I wonder, doorin' them weeks?  An' who sent for
+the doctor?  Was it him as supplied the fire an' candle to-night?"
+
+"No, father, it was me," answered Hetty, who was engaged in stirring
+something in a small saucepan, the loose handle of which was attached to
+its battered body by only one rivet; the other rivet had given way on an
+occasion when Ned Frog sent it flying through the doorway after his
+retreating wife.  "You see I was paid my wages to-night, so I could
+afford it, as well as to buy some coal and a candle, for the doctor said
+Bobby must be kept warm."
+
+"Afford it!" exclaimed Ned, in rising wrath, "how can 'ee say you can
+afford it w'en I 'aven't had enough grog to _half_ screw me, an' not a
+brown left.  Did the doctor ask a fee?"
+
+"No, father, I offered him one, but he wouldn't take it."
+
+"Ah--very good on 'im!  I wonder them fellows has the cheek to ask fees
+for on'y givin' advice.  W'y, I'd give advice myself all day long at a
+penny an hour, an' think myself well off too if I got that--better off
+than them as got the advice anyhow.  What are you sittin' starin' at an'
+sulkin' there for?"
+
+This last remark was addressed gruffly to Mrs Frog, who, during the
+previous conversation, had seated herself on a low three-legged stool,
+and, clasping her hands over her knees, gazed at the dirty blank walls
+in blanker despair.
+
+The poor woman realised the situation better than her drunken husband
+did.  As a bird-fancier he contributed little, almost nothing, to the
+general fund on which this family subsisted.  He was a huge, powerful
+fellow, and had various methods of obtaining money--some obvious and
+others mysterious--but nearly all his earnings went to the gin-palace,
+for Ned was a man of might, and could stand an enormous quantity of
+drink.  Hetty, who worked, perhaps we should say slaved, for a firm
+which paid her one shilling a week, could not manage to find food for
+them all.  Mrs Frog herself with her infant to care for, had found it
+hard work at any time to earn a few pence, and now Bobby's active little
+limbs were reduced to inaction, converting him into a consumer instead
+of a producer.  In short, the glaring fact that the family expenses
+would be increased while the family income was diminished, stared Mrs
+Frog as blankly in the face as she stared at the dirty blank wall.
+
+And her case was worse, even, than people in better circumstances might
+imagine, for the family lived so literally from hand to mouth that there
+was no time even to think when a difficulty arose or disaster befell.
+They rented their room from a man who styled it a furnished apartment,
+in virtue of a rickety table, a broken chair, a worn-out sheet or two, a
+dilapidated counterpane, four ragged blankets, and the infirm saucepan
+before mentioned, besides a few articles of cracked or broken crockery.
+For this accommodation the landlord charged ninepence per day, which sum
+had to be paid _every night_ before the family was allowed to retire to
+rest!  In the event of failure to pay they would have been turned out
+into the street at once, and the door padlocked.  Thus the necessity for
+a constant, though small, supply of cash became urgent, and the
+consequent instability of "home" very depressing.
+
+To preserve his goods from the pawnbroker, and prevent a moonlight
+flitting, this landlord had printed on his sheets the words "stolen from
+---" and on the blankets and counterpane were stamped the words "stop
+thief!"
+
+Mrs Frog made no reply to her husband's gruff question, which induced
+the man to seize an empty bottle, as being the best way of rousing her
+attention.
+
+"Come, you let mother alone, dad," suggested Bobby, "she ain't
+a-aggrawatin' of you just now."
+
+"Why, mother," exclaimed Hetty, who was so busy with Bobby's supper,
+and, withal, so accustomed to the woman's looks of hopeless misery that
+she had failed to observe anything unusual until her attention was thus
+called to her, "what ever have you done with the baby?"
+
+"Ah--you may well ask that," growled Ned.
+
+Even the boy seemed to forget his pain for a moment as he now observed,
+anxiously, that his mother had not the usual bundle on her breast.
+
+"The baby's gone!" she said, bitterly, still keeping her eyes on the
+blank wall.
+
+"Gone!--how?--lost? killed? speak, mother," burst from Hetty and the
+boy.
+
+"No, only gone to where it will be better cared for than here."
+
+"Come, explain, old woman," said Ned, again laying his hand on the
+bottle.
+
+As Hetty went and took her hand gently, Mrs Frog condescended to
+explain, but absolutely refused to tell to whose care the baby had been
+consigned.
+
+"Well--it ain't a bad riddance, after all," said the man, as he rose,
+and, staggering into a corner where another bundle of straw was spread
+on the floor, flung himself down.  Appropriately drawing two of the
+"stop thief" blankets over him, he went to sleep.
+
+Then Mrs Frog, feeling comparatively sure of quiet for the remainder of
+the night, drew her stool close to the side of her son, and held such
+intercourse with him as she seldom had the chance of holding while Bobby
+was in a state of full health and bodily vigour.  Hetty, meanwhile,
+ministered to them both, for she was one of those dusty diamonds of what
+may be styled the East-end diggings of London--not so rare, perhaps, as
+many people may suppose--whose lustre is dimmed and intrinsic value
+somewhat concealed by the neglect and the moral as well as physical
+filth by which they are surrounded.
+
+"Of course you've paid the ninepence, Hetty?"
+
+"Yes, mother."
+
+"You might 'ave guessed that," said Bobby, "for, if she 'adn't we
+shouldn't 'ave bin here."
+
+"That and the firing and candle, with what the doctor ordered, has used
+up all I had earned, even though I did some extra work and was paid for
+it," said Hetty with a sigh.  "But I don't grudge it, Bobby--I'm only
+sorry because there's nothing more coming to me till next week."
+
+"Meanwhile there is nothing for _this_ week," said Mrs Frog with a
+return of the despair, as she looked at her prostrate son, "for all I
+can manage to earn will barely make up the rent--if it does even that--
+and father, you know, drinks nearly all he makes.  God help us!"
+
+"God _will_ help us," said Hetty, sitting down on the floor and gently
+stroking the back of her mother's hand, "for He sent the trouble, and
+will hear us when we cry to Him."
+
+"Pray to Him, then, Hetty, for it's no use askin' me to join you.  I
+can't pray.  An' don't let your father hear, else he'll be wild."
+
+The poor girl bent her head on her knees as she sat, and prayed
+silently.  Her mother and brother, neither of whom had any faith in
+prayer, remained silent, while her father, breathing stertorously in the
+corner, slept the sleep of the drunkard.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+SAMUEL TWITTER ASTONISHES MRS. TWITTER AND HER FRIENDS.
+
+In a former chapter we described, to some extent, the person and
+belongings of a very poor man with five thousand a year.  Let us now
+make the acquaintance of a very rich one with an income of five hundred.
+
+He has already introduced himself to the reader under the name of Samuel
+Twitter.
+
+On the night of which we write Mrs Twitter happened to have a "few
+friends" to tea.  And let no one suppose that Mrs Twitter's few friends
+were to be put off with afternoon tea--that miserable invention of
+modern times--nor with a sham meal of sweet warm water and thin bread
+and butter.  By no means.  We have said that Samuel Twitter was rich,
+and Mrs Twitter, conscious of her husband's riches, as well as grateful
+for them, went in for the substantial and luxurious to an amazing
+extent.
+
+Unlimited pork sausages and inexhaustible buttered toast, balanced with
+muffins or crumpets, was her idea of "tea."  The liquid was a secondary
+point--in one sense--but it was always strong.  It was the only strong
+liquid in fact allowed in the house, for Mr Twitter, Mrs Twitter, and
+all the little Twitters were members of the Blue Ribbon Army; more or
+less enthusiastic according to their light and capacity.
+
+The young Twitters descended in a graduated scale from Sammy, the
+eldest, (about sixteen), down through Molly, and Willie, and Fred, and
+Lucy, to Alice the so-called "baby"--though she was at that time a
+remarkably robust baby of four years.
+
+Mrs Twitter's few friends were aware of her tendencies, and appreciated
+her hospitality, insomuch that the "few" bade fair to develop by degrees
+into many.
+
+Well, Mrs Twitter had her few friends to tea, and conviviality was at
+its height.  The subject of conversation was poverty.  Mrs Loper, a
+weak-minded but amiable lady, asserted that a large family with 500
+pounds a year was a poor family.  Mrs Loper did not know that Mrs
+Twitter's income was five hundred, but she suspected it.  Mrs Twitter
+herself carefully avoided giving the slightest hint on the subject.
+
+"Of course," continued Mrs Loper, "I don't mean to say that people with
+five hundred are _very_ poor, you know; indeed it all depends on the
+family.  With six children like you, now, to feed and clothe and
+educate, and with everything so dear as it is now, I should say that
+five hundred was poverty."
+
+"Well, I don't quite agree with you, Mrs Loper, on that point.  To my
+mind it does not so much depend on the family, as on the notions, and
+the capacity to manage, in the head of the family.  I remember one
+family just now, whose head was cut off suddenly, I may say in the prime
+of life.  A hundred and fifty a year or thereabouts was the income the
+widow had to count on, and she was left with five little ones to rear.
+She trained them well, gave them good educations, made most of their
+garments with her own hands when they were little, and sent one of her
+boys to college, yet was noted for the amount of time she spent in
+visiting the poor, the sick, and the afflicted, for whom she had always
+a little to spare out of her limited income.  Now, if wealth is to be
+measured by results, I think we may say that that poor lady was rich.
+She was deeply mourned by a large circle of poor people when she was
+taken home to the better land.  Her small means, having been judiciously
+invested by a brother, increased a little towards the close of life, but
+she never was what the world esteems rich."
+
+Mrs Twitter looked at a very tall man with a dark unhandsome
+countenance, as if to invite his opinion.
+
+"I quite agree with you," he said, helping himself to a crumpet, "there
+are some people with small incomes who seem to be always in funds, just
+as there are other people with large incomes who are always hard-up.
+The former are really rich, the latter really poor."
+
+Having delivered himself of these sentiments somewhat sententiously, Mr
+Crackaby,--that was his name,--proceeded to consume the crumpet.
+
+There was a general tendency on the part of the other guests to agree
+with their hostess, but one black sheep in the flock objected.  He quite
+agreed, of course, with the general principle that liberality with small
+means was beautiful to behold as well as desirable to possess--the
+liberality, not the small means--and that, on the other hand, riches
+with a narrow niggardly spirit was abominable, but then--and the black
+sheep came, usually, to the strongest part of his argument when he said
+"but then"--it was an uncommonly difficult thing, when everything was up
+to famine prices, and gold was depreciated in value owing to the
+gold-fields, and silver was nowhere, and coppers were changed into
+bronze,--exceedingly difficult to practise liberality and at the same
+time to make the two ends meet.
+
+As no one clearly saw the exact bearing of the black sheep's argument,
+they all replied with that half idiotic simper with which Ignorance
+seeks to conceal herself, and which Politeness substitutes for the more
+emphatic "pooh," or the inelegant "bosh."  Then, applying themselves
+with renewed zest to the muffins, they put about ship, nautically
+speaking, and went off on a new tack.
+
+"Mr Twitter is rather late to-night, I think?" said Mr Crackaby,
+consulting his watch, which was antique and turnipy in character.
+
+"He is, indeed," replied the hostess, "business must have detained him,
+for he is the very soul of punctuality.  That is one of his many good
+qualities, and it is _such_ a comfort, for I can always depend on him to
+the minute,--breakfast, dinner, tea; he never keeps us waiting, as too
+many men do, except, of course, when he is unavoidably detained by
+business."
+
+"Ah, yes, business has much to answer for," remarked Mrs Loper, in a
+tone which suggested that she held business to be an incorrigibly bad
+fellow; "whatever mischief happens with one's husband it's sure to be
+business that did it."
+
+"Pardon me, madam," objected the black sheep, whose name, by the way,
+was Stickler, "business does bring about much of the disaster that often
+appertains to wedded life, but mischief is sometimes done by other
+means, such, for instance, as accidents, robberies, murders--"
+
+"Oh!  Mr Stickler," suddenly interrupted a stout, smiling lady, named
+Larrabel, who usually did the audience part of Mrs Twitter's little tea
+parties, "how _can_ you suggest such ideas, especially when Mr Twitter
+is unusually late?"
+
+Mr Stickler protested that he had no intention of alarming the company
+by disagreeable suggestions, that he had spoken of accident, robbery,
+and murder in the abstract.
+
+"There, you've said it all over again," interrupted Mrs Larrabel, with
+an unwonted frown.
+
+"But then," continued Stickler, regardless of the interruption, "a
+broken leg, or a rifled pocket and stunned person, or a cut windpipe,
+may be applicable to the argument in hand without being applied to Mr
+Twitter."
+
+"Surely," said Mrs Loper, who deemed the reply unanswerable.
+
+In this edifying strain the conversation flowed on until the evening
+grew late and the party began to grow alarmed.
+
+"I do hope nothing has happened to him," said Mrs Loper, with a
+solemnised face.
+
+"I think not.  I have seen him come home much later than this--though
+not often," said the hostess, the only one of the party who seemed quite
+at ease, and who led the conversation back again into shallower
+channels.
+
+As the night advanced, however, the alarm became deeper, and it was even
+suggested by Mrs Loper that Crackaby should proceed to Twitter's
+office--a distance of three miles--to inquire whether and when he had
+left; while the smiling Mrs Larrabel proposed to send information to
+the headquarters of the police in Scotland Yard, because the police knew
+everything, and could find out anything.
+
+"You have no idea, my dear," she said, "how clever they are at Scotland
+Yard.  Would you believe it, I left my umbrellar the other day in a cab,
+and I didn't know the number of the cab, for numbers won't remain in my
+head, nor the look of the cabman, for I never look at cabmen, they are
+so rude sometimes.  I didn't even remember the place where I got into
+the cab, for I can't remember places when I've to go to so many, so I
+gave up my umbrellar for lost and was going away, when a policeman
+stepped up to me and asked in a very civil tone if I had lost anything.
+He was so polite and pleasant that I told him of my loss, though I knew
+it would do me no good, as he had not seen the cab or the cabman.
+
+"`I think, madam,' he said, `that if you go down to Scotland Yard
+to-morrow morning, you may probably find it there.'
+
+"`Young man,' said I, `do you take me for a fool!'
+
+"`No, madam, I don't,' he replied.
+
+"`Or do you take my umbrellar for a fool,' said I, `that it should walk
+down to Scotland Yard of its own accord and wait there till I called for
+it?'
+
+"`Certainly not, madam,' he answered with such a pleasant smile that I
+half forgave him.
+
+"`Nevertheless if you happen to be in the neighbourhood of Scotland Yard
+to-morrow,' he added, `it might be as well to call in and inquire.'
+
+"`Thank you,' said I, with a stiff bow as I left him.  On the way home,
+however, I thought there might be something in it, so I did go down to
+Scotland Yard next day, where I was received with as much civility as if
+I had been a lady of quality, and was taken to a room as full of
+umbrellas as an egg's full of meat--almost.
+
+"`You'd know the umbrellar if you saw it, madam,' said the polite
+constable who escorted me.
+
+"`Know it, sir!' said I, `yes, I should think I would.  Seven and
+sixpence it cost me--new, and I've only had it a week--brown silk with a
+plain handle--why, there it is!'  And there it was sure enough, and he
+gave it to me at once, only requiring me to write my name in a book,
+which I did with great difficulty because of my gloves, and being so
+nervous.  Now, how did the young policeman that spoke to me the day
+before know that my umbrellar would go there, and how did it get there?
+They say the days of miracles are over, but I don't think so, for that
+was a miracle if ever there was one."
+
+"The days of miracles are indeed over, ma'am," said the black sheep,
+"but then that is no reason why things which are in themselves
+commonplace should not appear miraculous to the uninstructed mind.  When
+I inform you that our laws compel cabmen under heavy penalties to convey
+left umbrellas and parcels to the police-office, the miracle may not
+seem quite so surprising."
+
+Most people dislike to have their miracles unmasked.  Mrs Larrabel
+turned from the black sheep to her hostess without replying, and
+repeated her suggestion about making inquiries at Scotland Yard--thus
+delicately showing that although, possibly, convinced, she was by no
+means converted.
+
+They were interrupted at this point by a hurried knock at the street
+door.
+
+"There he is at last," exclaimed every one.
+
+"It is his knock, certainly," said Mrs Twitter, with a perplexed look,
+"but rather peculiar--not so firm as usual--there it is again!
+Impatient!  I never knew my Sam impatient before in all our wedded life.
+You'd better open the door, dear," she said, turning to the eldest
+Twitter, he being the only one of the six who was privileged to sit up
+late, "Mary seems to have fallen asleep."
+
+Before the eldest Twitter could obey, the maligned Mary was heard to
+open the door and utter an exclamation of surprise, and her master's
+step was heard to ascend the stair rather unsteadily.
+
+The guests looked at each other anxiously.  It might be that to some
+minds--certainly to that of the black sheep--visions of violated
+blue-ribbonism occurred.  As certainly these visions did _not_ occur to
+Mrs Twitter.  She would sooner have doubted her clergyman than her
+husband.  Trustfulness formed a prominent part of her character, and her
+confidence in her Sam was unbounded.
+
+Even when her husband came against the drawing-room door with an awkward
+bang--the passage being dark--opened it with a fling, and stood before
+the guests with a flushed countenance, blazing eyes, a peculiar
+deprecatory smile, and a dirty ragged bundle in his arms, she did not
+doubt him.
+
+"Forgive me, my dear," he said, gazing at his wife in a manner that
+might well have justified the black sheep's thought, "screwed," "I--I--
+business kept me in the office very late, and then--" He cast an
+imbecile glance at the bundle.
+
+"What _ever_ have you got there, Sam?" asked his wondering wife.
+
+"Goodness me! it moves!" exclaimed Mrs Loper.
+
+"Live poultry!" thought the black sheep, and visions of police cells and
+penal servitude floated before his depraved mental vision.
+
+"Yes, Mrs Loper, it moves.  It is alive--though not very much alive, I
+fear.  My dear, I've found--found a baby--picked it up in the street.
+Not a soul there but me.  Would have perished or been trodden on if I
+had not taken it up.  See here!"
+
+He untied the dirty bundle as he spoke, and uncovered the round little
+pinched face with the great solemn eyes, which gazed, still wonderingly,
+at the assembled company.
+
+It is due to the assembled company to add that it returned the gaze with
+compound interest.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+TREATS STILL FURTHER OF RICHES, POVERTY, BABIES, AND POLICE.
+
+When Mr and Mrs Twitter had dismissed the few friends that night, they
+sat down at their own fireside, with no one near them but the little
+foundling, which lay in the youngest Twitter's disused cradle, gazing at
+them with its usual solemnity, for it did not seem to require sleep.
+They opened up their minds to each other thus:--
+
+"Now, Samuel," said Mrs Twitter, "the question is, what are you going
+to do with it?"
+
+"Well, Mariar," returned her spouse, with an assumption of profound
+gravity, "I suppose we must send it to the workhouse."
+
+"You know quite well, Sam, that you don't mean that," said Mrs Twitter,
+"the dear little forsaken mite!  Just look at its solemn eyes.  It has
+been clearly cast upon us, Sam, and it seems to me that we are bound to
+look after it."
+
+"What! with six of our own, Mariar?"
+
+"Yes, Sam.  Isn't there a song which says something about luck in odd
+numbers?"
+
+"And with only 500 pounds a year?" objected Mr Twitter.
+
+"_Only_ five hundred.  How can you speak so?  We are _rich_ with five
+hundred.  Can we not educate our little ones?"
+
+"Yes, my dear."
+
+"And entertain our friends?"
+
+"Yes, my love,--with crumpets and tea."
+
+"Don't forget muffins and bloater paste, and German sausage and
+occasional legs of mutton, you ungrateful man!"
+
+"I don't forget 'em, Mariar.  My recollection of 'em is powerful; I may
+even say vivid."
+
+"Well," continued the lady, "haven't you been able to lend small sums on
+several occasions to friends--"
+
+"Yes, my dear,--and they are _still_ loans," murmured the husband.
+
+"And don't we give a little--I sometimes think too little--regularly to
+the poor, and to the church, and haven't we got a nest-egg laid by in
+the Post-office savings-bank?"
+
+"All true, Mariar, and all _your_ doing.  But for your thrifty ways, and
+economical tendencies, and rare financial abilities, I should have been
+bankrupt long ere now."
+
+Mr Twitter was nothing more than just in this statement of his wife's
+character.  She was one of those happily constituted women who make the
+best and the most of everything, and who, while by no means turning her
+eyes away from the dark sides of things, nevertheless gave people the
+impression that she saw only their bright sides.  Her economy would have
+degenerated into nearness if it had not been commensurate with her
+liberality, for while, on the one hand, she was ever anxious, almost
+eager, to give to the needy and suffering every penny that she could
+spare, she was, on the other hand, strictly economical in trifles.
+Indeed Mrs Twitter's vocabulary did not contain the word trifle.  One
+of her favourite texts of Scripture, which was always in her mind, and
+which she had illuminated in gold and hung on her bedroom walls with
+many other words of God, was, "Gather up the fragments, that nothing be
+lost."  Acting on this principle with all her heart, she gathered up the
+fragments of time, so that she had always a good deal of that commodity
+to spare, and was never in a hurry.  She gathered up bits of twine and
+made neat little rings of them, which she deposited in a basket--a
+pretty large basket--which in time became such a repository of wealth in
+that respect that the six Twitters never failed to find the exact size
+and quality of cordage wanted by them--and, indeed, even after the
+eldest, Sammy, came to the years of discretion, if he had suddenly
+required a cable suited to restrain a first-rate iron-clad, his mind
+would, in the first blush of the thing, have reverted to mother's
+basket!  If friends wrote short notes to Mrs Twitter--which they often
+did, for the sympathetic find plenty of correspondents--the blank leaves
+were always torn off and consigned to a scrap-paper box, and the pile
+grew big enough at last to have set up a small stationer in business.
+And so with everything that came under her influence at home or abroad.
+She emphatically did what she could to prevent waste, and became a
+living fulfilment of the well-known proverb, for as she wasted not she
+wanted not.
+
+But to return from this digression--
+
+"Well, then," said Mrs Twitter, "don't go and find fault, Samuel," (she
+used the name in full when anxious to be impressive), "with what
+Providence has given us, by putting the word `only' to it, for we are
+_rich_ with five hundred a year."
+
+Mr Twitter freely admitted that he was wrong, and said he would be more
+careful in future of the use to which he put the word "only."
+
+"But," said he, "we haven't a hole or corner in the house to put the
+poor thing in.  To be sure, there's the coal-cellar and the scuttle
+might be rigged up as a cradle, but--"
+
+He paused, and looked at his wife.  The deceiver did not mean all this
+to be taken as a real objection.  He was himself anxious to retain the
+infant, and only made this show of opposition to enlist Maria more
+certainly on his side.
+
+"Not a corner!" she exclaimed, "why, is there not the whole parlour?  Do
+you suppose that a baby requires a four-post bed, and a wash-hand-stand,
+and a five-foot mirror?  Couldn't we lift the poor darling in and out in
+half a minute?  Besides, there is our own room.  I feel as if there was
+an uncomfortable want of some sort ever since _our_ baby was
+transplanted to the nursery.  So we will establish the old bassinet and
+put the mite there."
+
+"And what shall we call it, Maria?"
+
+"Call it--why, call it--call it--Mite--no name could be more
+appropriate."
+
+"But, my love, Mite, if a name at all, is a man's--that is, it sounds
+like a masculine name."
+
+"Call it Mita, then."
+
+And so it was named, and thus that poor little waif came to be adopted
+by that "rich" family.
+
+It seems to be our mission, at this time, to introduce our readers to
+various homes--the homes of England, so to speak!  But let not our
+readers become impatient, while we lead the way to one more home, and
+open the door with our secret latch-key.
+
+This home is in some respects peculiar.  It is not a poor one, for it is
+comfortable and clean.  Neither is it a rich one, for there are few
+ornaments, and no luxuries about it.  Over the fire stoops a comely
+young woman, as well as one can judge, at least, from the rather faint
+light that enters through a small window facing a brick wall.  The wall
+is only five feet from the window, and some previous occupant of the
+rooms had painted on it a rough landscape, with three very green trees
+and a very blue lake, and a swan in the middle thereof, sitting on an
+inverted swan which was meant to be his reflection, but somehow seemed
+rather more real than himself.  The picture is better, perhaps, than the
+bricks were, yet it is not enlivening.  The only other objects in the
+room worth mentioning are, a particularly small book-shelf in a corner;
+a cuckoo-clock on the mantel-shelf, an engraved portrait of Queen
+Victoria on the wall opposite in a gilt frame, and a portrait of Sir
+Robert Peel in a frame of rosewood beside it.
+
+On a little table in the centre of the room are the remains of a repast.
+Under the table is a very small child, probably four years of age.
+Near the window is another small, but older child--a boy of about six or
+seven.  He is engaged in fitting on his little head a great black cloth
+helmet with a bronze badge, and a peak behind as well as before.
+
+Having nearly extinguished himself with the helmet, the small boy seizes
+a very large truncheon, and makes a desperate effort to flourish it.
+
+Close to the comely woman stands a very tall, very handsome, and very
+powerful man, who is putting in the uppermost buttons of a
+police-constable's uniform.
+
+Behold, reader, the _tableau vivant_ to which we would call your
+attention!
+
+"Where d'you go on duty to-day, Giles," asked the comely young woman,
+raising her face to that of her husband.
+
+"Oxford Circus," replied the policeman.  "It is the first time I've been
+put on fixed-point duty.  That's the reason I'm able to breakfast with
+you and the children, Molly, instead of being off at half-past five in
+the morning as usual.  I shall be on for a month."
+
+"I'm glad of it, Giles, for it gives the children a chance of seeing
+something of you.  I wish you'd let me look at that cut on your
+shoulder.  Do!"
+
+"No, no, Molly," returned the man, as he pushed his wife playfully away
+from him.  "Hands off!  You know the punishment for assaulting the
+police is heavy!  Now then, Monty," (to the boy), "give up my helmet and
+truncheon.  I must be off."
+
+"Not yet, daddy," cried Monty, "I's a pleeceman of the A Division,
+Number 2, 'ats me, an' I'm goin' to catch a t'ief.  I 'mell 'im."
+
+"You smell him, do you?  Where is he, d'you think?"
+
+"Oh!  I know," replied the small policeman--here he came close up to his
+father, and, getting on tiptoe, said in a very audible whisper, "he's
+under de table, but don' tell 'im I know.  His name's Joe!"
+
+"All right, I'll keep quiet, Monty, but look alive and nab him quick,
+for I must be off."
+
+Thus urged the small policeman went on tiptoe to the table, made a
+sudden dive under it, and collared his little brother.
+
+The arrest, however, being far more prompt than had been expected, the
+"t'ief" refused to be captured.  A struggle ensued, in the course of
+which the helmet rolled off, a corner of the tablecloth was pulled down,
+and the earthenware teapot fell with a crash to the floor.
+
+"It's my duty, I fear," said Giles, "to take you both into custody and
+lock you up in a cell for breaking the teapot as well as the peace, but
+I'll be merciful and let you off this time, Monty, if you lend your
+mother a hand to pick up the pieces."
+
+Monty agreed to accept this compromise.  The helmet and truncheon were
+put to their proper uses, and the merciful police-constable went out "on
+duty."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+WEALTH PAYS A VISIT TO POVERTY.
+
+It was an interesting sight to watch police-constable Number 666 as he
+went through the performance of his arduous duties that day at the
+Regent Circus in Oxford Street.
+
+To those who are unacquainted with London, it may be necessary to remark
+that this circus is one of those great centres of traffic where two main
+arteries cross and tend to cause so much obstruction, that complete
+stoppages would become frequent were it not for the admirable management
+of the several members of the police force who are stationed there to
+keep order.  The "Oxford Circus," as it is sometimes called, is by no
+means the largest or most crowded of such crossings, nevertheless the
+tide of traffic is sufficiently strong and continuous there to require
+several police-constables on constant duty.  When men are detailed for
+such "Fixed-Point" duty they go on it for a month at a time, and have
+different hours from the other men, namely, from nine in the morning
+till five in the afternoon.
+
+We have said it was interesting to watch our big hero, Number 666, in
+the performance of his arduous duties.  He occupied the crossing on the
+city side of the circus.
+
+It was a magnificent afternoon, and all the metropolitan butterflies
+were out.  Busses flowed on in a continuous stream, looking like big
+bullies who incline to use their weight and strength to crush through
+all obstruction.  The drivers of these were for the most part wise men,
+and restrained themselves and their steeds.  In one or two instances,
+where the drivers were unwise, a glance from the bright eye of Giles
+Scott was quite sufficient to keep all right.
+
+And Giles could only afford to bestow a fragmentary glance at any time
+on the refractory, for, almost at one and the same moment he had to
+check the impetuous, hold up a warning hand to the unruly, rescue a
+runaway child from innumerable horse-legs, pilot a stout but timid lady
+from what we may call refuge-island, in the middle of the roadway, to
+the pavement, answer an imbecile's question as to the whereabouts of the
+Tower or Saint Paul's, order a loitering cabby to move on, and look out
+for his own toes, as well as give moderate attention to the
+carriage-poles which perpetually threatened the small of his own back.
+
+We should imagine that the premium of insurance on the life of Number
+666 was fabulous in amount, but cannot tell.
+
+Besides his great height, Giles possessed a drooping moustache, which
+added much to his dignified appearance.  He was also imperturbably
+grave, except when offering aid to a lady or a little child, on which
+occasions the faintest symptoms of a smile floated for a moment on his
+visage like an April sunbeam.  At all other times his expression was
+that of incorruptible justice and awful immobility.  No amount of chaff,
+no quantity of abuse, no kind of flattery, no sort of threat could move
+him any more than the seething billows of the Mediterranean can move
+Gibraltar.  Costermongers growled at him hopelessly.  Irate cabmen saw
+that their wisdom lay in submission.  Criminals felt that once in his
+grasp their case was hopeless, just as, conversely, old ladies felt that
+once under his protection they were in absolute security.  Even
+street-boys felt that references to "bobbies," "coppers," and "slops;"
+questions as to how 'is 'ead felt up there; who rolled 'im hout so long;
+whether his mother knew 'e was hout; whether 'e'd sell 'em a bit of 'is
+legs; with advice to come down off the ladder, or to go 'ome to bed--
+that all these were utterly thrown away and lost upon Giles Scott.
+
+The garb of the London policeman is not, as every one knows, founded on
+the principles of aesthetics.  Neither has it been devised on
+utilitarian principles.  Indeed we doubt whether the originator of it,
+(and we are happy to profess ignorance of his name), proceeded on any
+principle whatever, except the gratification of a wild and degraded
+fancy.  The colour, of course, is not objectionable, and the helmet
+might be worse, but the tunic is such that the idea of grace or elegance
+may not consist with it.
+
+We mention these facts because Giles Scott was so well-made that he
+forced his tunic to look well, and thus added one more to the already
+numerous "exceptions" which are said to "prove the rule."
+
+"Allow me, madam," said Giles, offering his right-hand to an elderly
+female, who, having screwed up her courage to make a rush, got into
+sudden danger and became mentally hysterical in the midst of a
+conglomerate of hoofs, poles, horse-heads, and wheels.
+
+The female allowed him, and the result was sudden safety, a gasp of
+relief, and departure of hysteria.
+
+"Not yet, please," said Giles, holding up a warning right-hand to the
+crowd on refuge-island, while with his left waving gently to and fro he
+gave permission to the mighty stream to flow.  "Now," he added, holding
+up the left-hand suddenly.  The stream was stopped as abruptly as were
+the waters of Jordan in days of old, and the storm-staid crew on
+refuge-island made a rush for the mainland.  It was a trifling matter to
+most of them that rush, but of serious moment to the few whose limbs had
+lost their elasticity, or whose minds could not shake off the memory of
+the fact that between 200 and 300 lives are lost in London streets by
+accidents every year, and that between 3000 and 4000 are more or less
+severely injured annually.
+
+Before the human stream had got quite across, an impatient hansom made a
+push.  The eagle eye of Number 666 had observed the intention, and in a
+moment his gigantic figure stood calmly in front of the horse, whose
+head was raised high above his helmet as the driver tightened the reins
+violently.
+
+Just then a small slipshod girl made an anxious dash from refuge-island,
+lost courage, and turned to run back, changed her mind, got bewildered,
+stopped suddenly and yelled.
+
+Giles caught her by the arm, bore her to the pavement, and turned, just
+in time to see the hansom dash on in the hope of being overlooked.  Vain
+hope!  Number 666 saw the number of the hansom, booked it in his memory
+while he assisted in raising up an old gentleman who had been
+overturned, though not injured, in endeavouring to avoid it.
+
+During the lull--for there are lulls in the rush of London traffic, as
+in the storms of nature,--Giles transferred the number of that hansom to
+his note-book, thereby laying up a little treat for its driver in the
+shape of a little trial the next day terminating, probably, with a fine.
+
+Towards five in the afternoon the strain of all this began to tell even
+on the powerful frame of Giles Scott, but no symptom did he show of
+fatigue, and so much reserve force did he possess that it is probable he
+would have exhibited as calm and unwearied a front if he had remained on
+duty for eighteen hours instead of eight.
+
+About that hour, also, there came an unusual glut to the traffic, in the
+form of a troop of the horse-guards.  These magnificent creatures,
+resplendent in glittering steel, white plumes, and black boots, were
+passing westward.  Giles stood in front of the arrested stream.  A
+number of people stood, as it were, under his shadow.  Refuge-island was
+overflowing.  Comments, chiefly eulogistic, were being freely made and
+some impatience was being manifested by drivers, when a little shriek
+was heard, and a child's voice exclaimed:--
+
+"Oh! papa, papa--there's _my_ policeman--the one I so nearly killed.
+He's _not_ dead after all!"
+
+Giles forgot his dignity for one moment, and, looking round, met the
+eager gaze of little Di Brandon.
+
+Another moment and duty required his undivided attention, so that he
+lost sight of her, but Di took good care not to lose sight of him.
+
+"We will wait here, darling," said her father, referring to
+refuge-island on which he stood, "and when he is disengaged we can speak
+to him."
+
+"Oh!  I'm _so_ glad he's not dead," said little Di, "and p'raps he'll be
+able to show us the way to my boy's home."
+
+Di had a method of adopting, in a motherly way, all who, in the remotest
+manner, came into her life.  Thus she not only spoke of our butcher and
+our baker, which was natural, but referred to "my policeman" and "my
+boy" ever since the day of the accident.
+
+When Giles had set his portion of the traffic in harmonious motion he
+returned to his island, and was not sorry to receive the dignified
+greeting of Sir Richard Brandon, while he was delighted as well as
+amused by the enthusiastic grasp with which Di seized his huge hand in
+both of her little ones, and the earnest manner in which she inquired
+after his health, and if she had hurt him much.
+
+"Did they put you to bed and give you hot gruel?" she asked, with
+touching pathos.
+
+"No, miss, they didn't think I was hurt quite enough to require it,"
+answered Giles, his drooping moustache curling slightly as he spoke.
+
+"I had hoped to see you at my house," said Sir Richard, "you did not
+call."
+
+"Thank you, sir, I did not think the little service I rendered your
+daughter worth making so much of.  I called, however, the same evening,
+to inquire for her, but did not wish to intrude on you."
+
+"It would have been no intrusion, friend," returned Sir Richard, with
+grand condescension.  "One who has saved my child's life has a claim
+upon my consideration."
+
+"A dook 'e must be," said a small street boy in a loud stage whisper to
+a dray-man--for small street-boys are sown broadcast in London, and turn
+up at all places on every occasion, "or p'raps," he added on reflection,
+"'e's on'y a markiss."
+
+"Now then," said Giles to the dray-man with a motion of the hand that
+caused him to move on, while he cast a look on the boy which induced him
+to move off.
+
+"By the way, constable," said Sir Richard, "I am on my way to visit a
+poor boy whose leg was broken on the day my pony ran away.  He was
+holding the pony at the time.  He lives in Whitechapel somewhere.  I
+have the address here in my note-book."
+
+"Excuse me, sir, one moment," said Number 666, going towards a crowd
+which had gathered round a fallen horse.  "I happen to be going to that
+district myself," he continued on returning, "what is the boy's name?"
+
+"Robert--perhaps I should rather say Bobby Frog," answered Sir Richard.
+
+"The name is familiar," returned the policeman, "but in London there are
+so many--what's his address, sir,--Roy's Court, near Commercial Street?
+Oh!  I know it well--one of the worst parts of London.  I know the boy
+too.  He is somewhat noted in that neighbourhood for giving the police
+trouble.  Not a bad-hearted fellow, I believe, but full of mischief, and
+has been brought up among thieves from his birth.  His father is, or
+was, a bird-fancier and seller of penny articles on the streets, besides
+being a professional pugilist.  You will be the better for protection
+there, sir.  I would advise you not to go alone.  If you can wait for
+five or ten minutes," added Giles, "I shall be off duty and will be
+happy to accompany you."
+
+Sir Richard agreed to wait.  Within the time mentioned Giles was
+relieved, and, entering a cab with his friends, drove towards
+Whitechapel.  They had to pass near our policeman's lodgings on the way.
+
+"Would you object, sir, stopping at my house for five minutes?" he
+asked.
+
+"Certainly not," returned the knight, "I am in no hurry."
+
+Number 666 stopped the cab, leaped out and disappeared through a narrow
+passage.  In less than five minutes a very tall gentlemanly man issued
+from the same passage and approached them.  Little Di opened her blue
+eyes to their very uttermost.  It was _her_ policeman in plain clothes!
+
+She did not like the change at all at first, but before the end of the
+drive got used to him in his new aspect--all the more readily that he
+seemed to have cast off much of his stiffness and reserve with his blue
+skin.
+
+Near the metropolitan railway station in Whitechapel the cab was
+dismissed, and Giles led the father and child along the crowded
+thoroughfare until they reached Commercial Street, along which they
+proceeded a short distance.
+
+"We are now near some of the worst parts of London, sir," said Giles,
+"where great numbers of the criminal and most abandoned characters
+dwell."
+
+"Indeed," said Sir Richard, who did not seem to be much gratified by the
+information.
+
+As for Di, she was nearly crying.  The news that _her_ boy was a thief
+and was born in the midst of such naughty people had fallen with
+chilling influence on her heart, for she had never thought of anything
+but the story-book "poor but honest parents!"
+
+"What large building is that?" inquired the knight, who began to wish
+that he had not given way to his daughter's importunities, "the one
+opposite, I mean, with placards under the windows."
+
+"That is the well-known Home of Industry, instituted and managed by Miss
+Macpherson and a staff of volunteer workers.  They do a deal of good,
+sir, in this neighbourhood."
+
+"Ah! indeed," said Sir Richard, who had never before heard of the Home
+of Industry.  "And, pray, what particular industry does this Miss Mac--
+what did you call her?"
+
+"Macpherson.  The lady, you know, who sends out so many rescued waifs
+and strays to Canada, and spends all her time in caring for the poorest
+of the poor in the East-End and in preaching the gospel to them.  You've
+often seen accounts of her work, no doubt, in the _Christian_?"
+
+"Well--n-no.  I read the _Times_, but, now you mention it, I have some
+faint remembrance of seeing reference to such matters.  Very
+self-denying, no doubt, and praiseworthy, though I must say that I doubt
+the use of preaching the gospel to such persons.  From what I have seen
+of these lowest people I should think they were too deeply sunk in
+depravity to be capable of appreciating the lofty and sublime sentiments
+of Christianity."
+
+Number 666 felt a touch of surprise at these words, though he was too
+well-bred a policeman to express his feelings by word or look.  In fact,
+although not pre-eminently noted for piety, he had been led by training,
+and afterwards by personal experience, to view this matter from a very
+different standpoint from that of Sir Richard.  He made no reply,
+however, but, turning round the corner of the Home of Industry, entered
+a narrow street which bore palpable evidence of being the abode of
+deepest poverty.  From the faces and garments of the inhabitants it was
+also evidently associated with the deepest depravity.
+
+As little Di saw some of the residents sitting on their doorsteps with
+scratched faces, swelled lips and cheeks, and dishevelled hair, and
+beheld the children in half-naked condition rolling in the kennel and
+extremely filthy, she clung closer to her father's side and began to
+suspect there were some phases of life she had never seen--had not even
+dreamt of!
+
+What the knight's thoughts were we cannot tell, for he said nothing, but
+disgust was more prominent than pity on his fine countenance.  Those who
+sat on the doorsteps, or lolled with a dissipated air against the
+door-posts, seemed to appreciate him at his proper value, for they
+scowled at him as he passed.  They recognised Number 666, however,
+(perhaps by his bearing), and gave him only a passing glance of
+indifference.
+
+"You said it would be dangerous for me to come here by myself," said Sir
+Richard, turning to Giles, as he entered another and even worse street.
+"Are they then so violent?"
+
+"Many of them are among the worst criminals in London, sir.  Here is the
+court of which you are in search: Roy's Court."
+
+As he spoke, Ned Frog staggered out of his own doorway, clenched his
+fists, and looked with a vindictive scowl at the strangers.  A second
+glance induced him to unclench his fists and reel round the corner on
+his way to a neighbouring grog-shop.  Whatever other shops may decay in
+that region, the grog-shops, like noxious weeds, always flourish.
+
+The court was apparently much deserted at that hour, for the men had not
+yet returned from their work--whatever that might be--and most of the
+women were within doors.
+
+"This is the house," continued Giles, descending the few steps, and
+tapping at the door; "I have been here before.  They know me."
+
+The door was opened by Hetty, and for the first time since entering
+those regions of poverty and crime, little Di felt a slight rise in her
+spirits, for through Hetty's face shone the bright spirit within; albeit
+the shining was through some dirt and dishevelment, good principle not
+being able altogether to overcome the depressing influences of extreme
+poverty and suffering.
+
+"Is your mother at home, Hetty!"
+
+"Oh! yes, sir.  Mother, here's Mr Scott.  Come in, sir.  We are so glad
+to see you, and--"
+
+She stopped, and gazed inquiringly at the visitors who followed.
+
+"I've brought some friends of Bobby to inquire for him.  Sir Richard
+Brandon--Mrs Frog."
+
+Number 666 stood aside, and, with something like a smile on his face,
+ceremoniously presented Wealth to Poverty.
+
+Wealth made a slightly confused bow to Poverty, and Poverty, looking
+askance at Wealth, dropt a mild courtesy.
+
+"Vell now, I'm a Dutchman if it ain't the hangel!" exclaimed a voice in
+the corner of the small room, before either Wealth or Poverty could
+utter a word.
+
+"Oh! it's _my_ boy," exclaimed Di with delight, forgetting or ignoring
+the poverty, dirt, and extremely bad air, as she ran forward and took
+hold of Bobby's hand.
+
+It was a pre-eminently dirty hand, and formed a remarkable contrast to
+the little hands that grasped it!
+
+The small street boy was, for the first time in his life, bereft of
+speech!  When that faculty returned, he remarked in language which was
+obscure to Di:--
+
+"Vell, if this ain't a go!"
+
+"What is a go?" asked Di with innocent surprise.  Instead of answering,
+Bobby Frog burst into a fit of laughter, but stopped rather suddenly
+with an expression of pain.
+
+"Oh! 'old on!  I say.  This won't do.  Doctor 'e said I musn't larf,
+'cause it shakes the leg too much.  But, you know, wot's a cove to do
+ven a hangel comes to him and axes sitch rum questions?"
+
+Again he laughed, and again stopped short in pain.
+
+"I'm _so_ sorry!  Does it feel _very_ painful?  You can't think how
+constantly I've been thinking of you since the accident; for it was all
+my fault.  If I hadn't jumped up in such a passion, the pony wouldn't
+have run away, and you wouldn't have been hurt.  I'm so _very, very_
+sorry, and I got dear papa to bring me here to tell you so, and to see
+if we could do anything to make you well."
+
+Again Bobby was rendered speechless, but his mind was active.
+
+"Wot!  I ain't dreamin', am I?  'As a hangel _really_ come to my bedside
+all the vay from the Vest-end, an' brought 'er dear pa'--vich means the
+guv'nor, I fancy--all for to tell me--a kid whose life is spent in
+`movin' on'--that she's wery, wery, sorry I've got my leg broke, an'
+that she's bin an' done it, an' she would like to know if she can do
+hanythink as'll make me vell!  But it ain't true.  It's a big lie!  I'm
+dreamin', that's all.  I've been took to hospital, an' got d'lirious--
+that's wot it is.  I'll try to sleep!"
+
+With this end in view he shut his eyes, and remained quite still for a
+few seconds, and when Di looked at his pinched and pale face in this
+placid condition, the tears _would_ overflow their natural boundary, and
+sobs _would_ rise up in her pretty throat, but she choked them back for
+fear of disturbing her boy.
+
+Presently the boy opened his eyes.
+
+"Wot, are you there yet?" he asked.
+
+"Oh yes.  Did you think I was going away?" she replied, with a look of
+innocent surprise.  "I won't leave you now.  I'll stay here and nurse
+you, if papa will let me.  I have slept once on a shake-down, when I was
+forced by a storm to stay all night at a juv'nile party.  So if you've a
+corner here, it will do nicely--"
+
+"My dear child," interrupted her amazed father, "you are talking
+nonsense.  And--do keep a little further from the bed.  There may be--
+you know--infection--"
+
+"Oh! you needn't fear infection here, sir," said Mrs Frog, somewhat
+sharply.  "We are poor enough, God knows, though I _have_ seen better
+times, but we keep ourselves pretty clean, though we can't afford to
+spend much on soap when food is so dear, and money so scarce--so _very_
+scarce!"
+
+"Forgive me, my good woman," said Sir Richard, hastily, "I did not mean
+to offend, but circumstances would seem to favour the idea--of--of--"
+
+And here Wealth--although a bank director and chairman of several
+boards, and capable of making a neat, if weakly, speech on economic laws
+and the currency when occasion required--was dumb before Poverty.
+Indeed, though he had often theorised about that stricken creature, he
+had never before fairly hunted her down, run her into her den, and
+fairly looked her in the face.
+
+"The fact is, Mrs Frog," said Giles Scott, coming to the rescue, "Sir
+Richard is anxious to know something about your affairs--your family,
+you know, and your means of--by the way, where is baby?" he said looking
+round the room.
+
+"She's gone lost," said Mrs Frog.
+
+"Lost?" repeated Giles, with a significant look.
+
+"Ay, lost," repeated Mrs Frog, with a look of equal significance.
+
+"Bless me, how did you lose your child?" asked Sir Richard, in some
+surprise.
+
+"Oh! sir, that often happens to us poor folk.  We're used to it," said
+Mrs Frog, in a half bantering half bitter tone.
+
+Sir Richard suddenly called to mind the fact--which had not before
+impressed him, though he had read and commented on it--that 11,835
+children under ten years of age had been lost that year, (and it was no
+exceptional year, as police reports will show), in the streets of
+London, and that 23 of these children were _never found_.
+
+He now beheld, as he imagined, one of the losers of the lost ones, and
+felt stricken.
+
+"Well now," said Giles to Mrs Frog, "let's hear how you get along.
+What does your husband do?"
+
+"He mostly does nothin' but drink.  Sometimes he sells little birds;
+sometimes he sells penny watches or boot-laces in Cheapside, an' turns
+in a little that way, but it all goes to the grog-shop; none of it comes
+here.  Then he has a mill now an' again--"
+
+"A mill?" said Sir Richard,--"is it a snuff or flour--"
+
+"He's a professional pugilist," explained Giles.
+
+"An' he's employed at a music-hall," continued Mrs Frog, "to call out
+the songs an' keep order.  An' Bobby always used to pick a few coppers
+by runnin' messages, sellin' matches, and odd jobs.  But he's knocked
+over now."
+
+"And yourself.  How do you add to the general fund?" asked Sir Richard,
+becoming interested in the household management of Poverty.
+
+"Well, I char a bit an' wash a bit, sir, when I'm well enough--which
+ain't often.  An' sometimes I lights the Jews' fires for 'em, an' clean
+up their 'earths on Saturdays--w'ich is their Sundays, sir.  But Hetty
+works like a horse.  It's she as keeps us from the work'us, sir.  She's
+got employment at a slop shop, and by workin' 'ard all day manages to
+make about one shillin' a week."
+
+"I beg your pardon--how much?"
+
+"One shillin', sir."
+
+"Ah, you mean one shilling a day, I suppose."
+
+"No, sir, I mean one shillin' a _week_.  Mr Scott there knows that I'm
+tellin' what's true."
+
+Giles nodded, and Sir Richard said, "ha-a-hem," having nothing more
+lucid to remark on such an amazing financial problem as was here set
+before him.
+
+"But," continued Mrs Frog, "poor Hetty has had a sad disappointment
+this week--"
+
+"Oh! mother," interrupted Hetty, "don't trouble the gentleman with that.
+Perhaps he wouldn't understand it, for of course he hasn't heard about
+all the outs and ins of slop-work."
+
+"Pardon me, my good girl," said Sir Richard, "I have not, as you truly
+remark, studied the details of slop-work minutely, but my mind is not
+unaccustomed to financial matters.  Pray let me hear about this--"
+
+A savage growling, something between a mastiff and a man, outside the
+door, here interrupted the visitor, and a hand was heard fumbling about
+the latch.  As the hand seemed to lack skill to open the door the foot
+considerately took the duty in hand and burst it open, whereupon the
+huge frame of Ned Frog stumbled into the room and fell prostrate at the
+feet of Sir Richard, who rose hastily and stepped back.
+
+The pugilist sprang up, doubled his ever ready fists, and, glaring at
+the knight, asked savagely:
+
+"Who the--"
+
+He was checked in the utterance of a ferocious oath, for at that moment
+he encountered the grave eye of Number 666.
+
+Relaxing his fists he thrust them into his coat-pockets, and, with a
+subdued air, staggered out of the house.
+
+"My 'usband, sir," said Mrs Frog, in answer to her visitor's inquiring
+glance.
+
+"Oh! is that his usual mode of returning home?"
+
+"No, sir," answered Bobby from his corner, for he was beginning to be
+amused by the succession of surprises which Wealth was receiving, "'e
+don't always come in so.  Sometimes 'e sends 'is 'ead first an' the feet
+come afterwards.  In any case the furniture's apt to suffer, not to
+mention the in'abitants, but you've saved us to-night, sir, or, raither,
+Mr Scott 'as saved both us an' you."
+
+Poor little Di, who had been terribly frightened, clung closer to her
+father's arm on hearing this.
+
+"Perhaps," said Sir Richard, "it would be as well that we should go, in
+case Mr Frog should return."
+
+He was about to say good-bye when Di checked him, and, despite her
+fears, urged a short delay.
+
+"We haven't heard, you know, about the slops yet.  Do stop just one
+minute, dear papa.  I wonder if it's like the beef-tea nurse makes for
+me when I'm ill."
+
+"It's not that kind of slops, darling, but ready-made clothing to which
+reference is made.  But you are right.  Let us hear about it, Miss
+Hetty."
+
+The idea of "Miss" being applied to Hetty, and slops compared to
+beef-tea proved almost too much for the broken-legged boy in the corner,
+but he put strong constraint on himself and listened.
+
+"Indeed, sir, I do not complain," said Hetty, quite distressed at being
+thus forcibly dragged into notice.  "I am thankful for what has been
+sent--indeed I am--only it _was_ a great disappointment, particularly at
+this time, when we so much needed all we could make amongst us."
+
+She stopped and had difficulty in restraining tears.  "Go on, Hetty,"
+said her mother, "and don't be afraid.  Bless you, he's not goin' to
+report what you say."
+
+"I know that, mother.  Well, sir, this was the way on it.  They
+sometimes--"
+
+"Excuse me--who are `they'?"
+
+"I beg pardon, sir, I--I'd rather not tell."
+
+"Very well.  I respect your feelings, my girl.  Some slop-making firm, I
+suppose.  Go on."
+
+"Yes, sir.  Well--they sometimes gives me extra work to do at home.  It
+do come pretty hard on me after goin' through the regular day's work,
+from early mornin' till night, but then, you see, it brings in a little
+more money--and, I'm strong, thank God."
+
+Sir Richard looked at Hetty's thin and colourless though pretty face,
+and thought it possible that she might be stronger with advantage.
+
+"Of late," continued the girl, "I've bin havin' extra work in this way,
+and last week I got twelve children's ulsters to make up.  This job when
+finished would bring me six and sixpence."
+
+"How much?"
+
+"Six and sixpence, sir."
+
+"For the whole twelve?" asked Sir Richard.
+
+"Yes, sir--that was sixpence halfpenny for makin' up each ulster.  It's
+not much, sir."
+
+"No," murmured Wealth in an absent manner; "sixpence halfpenny is _not_
+much."
+
+"But when I took them back," continued Hetty--and here the tears became
+again obstreperous and difficult to restrain--"the master said he'd
+forgot to tell me that this order was for the colonies, that he had
+taken it at a very low price, and that he could only give me three
+shillin's for the job.  Of--of course three shillin's is better the
+nothin', but after workin' hard for such a long long time an' expectin'
+six, it was--"
+
+Here the tears refused to be pent up any longer, and the poor girl
+quietly bending forward hid her face in her hand.
+
+"Come, I think we will go now," said Sir Richard, rising hastily.
+"Good-night, Mrs Frog, I shall probably see you again--at least--you
+shall hear from me.  Now, Di--say good-night to your boy."
+
+In a few minutes Sir Richard stood outside, taking in deep draughts of
+the comparatively fresher air of the court.
+
+"The old screw," growled Bobby, when the door was shut.  "'E didn't
+leave us so much as a single bob--not even a brown, though 'e pretends
+that six of 'em ain't much."
+
+"Don't be hard on him, Bobby," said Hetty, drying her eyes; "he spoke
+very kind, you know, an' p'raps he means to help us afterwards."
+
+"Spoke kind," retorted the indignant boy; "I tell 'ee wot, Hetty, you're
+far too soft an' forgivin'.  I s'pose that's wot they teaches you in
+Sunday-school at George Yard--eh?  Vill speakin' kind feed us, vill it
+clothe us, vill it pay for our lodgin's!"
+
+The door opened at that moment, and Number 666 re-entered.
+
+"The gentleman sent me back to give you this, Mrs Frog," laying a
+sovereign on the rickety table.  "He said he didn't like to offer it to
+you himself for fear of hurting your feelings, but I told him he needn't
+be afraid on that score!  Was I right, Missis?  Look well after it, now,
+an' see that Ned don't get his fingers on it."
+
+Giles left the room, and Mrs Frog, taking up the piece of gold, fondled
+it for some time in her thin fingers, as though she wished to make quite
+sure of its reality.  Then wrapping it carefully in a piece of old
+newspaper, she thrust it into her bosom.
+
+Bobby gazed at her in silence up to this point, and then turned his face
+to the wall.  He did not speak, but we cannot say that he did not pray,
+for, mentally he said, "I beg your parding, old gen'l'm'n, an' I on'y
+pray that a lot of fellers like you may come 'ere sometimes to 'urt our
+feelin's in that vay!"
+
+At that moment Hetty bent over the bed, and, softly kissing her
+brother's dirty face, whispered, "Yes, Bobby, that's what they teach me
+in Sunday-school at George Yard."
+
+Thereafter Wealth drove home in a cab, and Poverty went to bed in her
+rags.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+BICYCLING AND ITS OCCASIONAL RESULTS.
+
+It is pleasant to turn from the smoke and turmoil of the city to the
+fresh air and quiet of the country.
+
+To the man who spends most of his time in the heart of London, going
+into the country--even for a short distance--is like passing into the
+fields of Elysium.  This was, at all events, the opinion of Stephen
+Welland; and Stephen must have been a good judge, for he tried the
+change frequently, being exceedingly fond of bicycling, and occasionally
+taking what he termed long spins on that remarkable instrument.
+
+One morning, early in the summer-time, young Welland, (he was only
+eighteen), mounted his iron horse in the neighbourhood of Kensington,
+and glided away at a leisurely pace through the crowded streets.
+Arrived in the suburbs of London he got up steam, to use his own phrase,
+and went at a rapid pace until he met a "chum," by appointment.  This
+chum was also mounted on a bicycle, and was none other than our friend
+Samuel Twitter, Junior--known at home as Sammy, and by his companions as
+Sam.
+
+"Isn't it a glorious day, Sam?" said Welland as he rode up and sprang
+off his steed.
+
+"Magnificent!" answered his friend, also dismounting and shaking hands.
+"Why, Stephen, what an enormous machine you ride!"
+
+"Yes, it's pretty high--48 inches.  My legs are long, you see.  Well,
+where are we to run to-day?"
+
+"Wherever you like," said Sam, "only let it be a short run, not more
+than forty miles, for I've got an appointment this afternoon with my old
+dad which I can't get off."
+
+"That'll do very well," said Welland, "so we can go round by--"
+
+Here he described a route by country road and village, which we pretend
+not to remember.  It is sufficient to know that it represented the
+required "short" run of forty miles--such is the estimate of distance by
+the youth of the present day!
+
+"Now then, off we go," said Welland, giving his wheel--he quite ignored
+the existence of the little thing at the back--a shove, putting his left
+foot on the treadle, and flinging his right leg gracefully over.
+
+Young Twitter followed suit, but Sammy was neither expert nor graceful.
+True, he could ride easily, and travel long distances, but he could only
+mount by means of the somewhat clumsy process of hopping behind for
+several yards.
+
+Once up, however, he went swiftly enough alongside his tall companion,
+and the two friends thereafter kept abreast.
+
+"Oh! isn't it a charming sensation to have the cool air fanning one's
+cheeks, and feel the soft tremor of the wheel, and see the trees and
+houses flow past at such a pace?  It is the likest thing to flying I
+ever felt," said Welland, as they descended a slight incline at,
+probably, fifteen miles an hour.
+
+"It is delightful," replied Sam, "but, I say, we better put on the
+brakes here a bit.  It gets much steeper further down."
+
+Instead of applying the brake, however, young Welland, in the exuberance
+of his joy, threw his long legs over the handles, and went down the
+slope at railway speed, ready, as he remarked, for a jump if anything
+should go wrong.
+
+Twitter was by no means as bold as his friend, but, being ashamed to
+show the white feather, he quietly threw his shorter legs over the
+handles, and thus the two, perched--from a fore-and-aft point of view--
+upon nothing, went in triumph to the bottom of the hill.
+
+A long stretch of smooth level road now lay before them.  It required
+the merest touch on the treadles to send them skimming along like
+skaters on smooth ice, or swallows flying low.  Like gentle ghosts they
+fleeted along with little more than a muffled sound, for their axles
+turned in ball-sockets and their warning bells were silent save when
+touched.
+
+Onward they went with untiring energy, mile after mile, passing
+everything on the way--pedestrians, equestrians, carts and gigs; driving
+over the level ground with easy force, taking the hills with a rush to
+keep up the pace, and descending on the other sides at what Welland
+styled a "lightning run."
+
+Now they were skimming along a road which skirted the margin of a canal,
+the one with hands in his coat-pockets, the other with his arms crossed,
+and both steering with their feet; now passing under a railway-arch, and
+giving a wild shout, partly to rouse the slumbering echoes that lodged
+there, and partly to rouse the spirit of a small dog which chanced to be
+passing under it--in both cases successfully!  Anon they were gliding
+over a piece of exposed ground on which the sun beat with intense light,
+causing their shadows to race along with them.  Again they were down in
+a hollow, gliding under a row of trees, where they shut off a little of
+the steam and removed their caps, the better to enjoy the grateful
+shade.  Soon they were out in the sunshine again, the spokes of their
+wheels invisible as they topped a small eminence from the summit of
+which they took in one comprehensive view of undulating lands, with
+villages scattered all round, farm-houses here and there, green fields
+and flowering meadows, traversed by rivulet or canal, with cattle,
+sheep, and horses gazing at them in silent or startled wonder, and birds
+twittering welcome from the trees and hedge-rows everywhere.
+
+Now they were crossing a bridge and nearing a small town where they had
+to put hands to the handles again and steer with precaution, for little
+dogs had a tendency to bolt out at them from unexpected corners, and
+poultry is prone to lose its heads and rush into the very jaws of
+danger, in a cackling effort to avoid it.  Stray kittens and pigs, too,
+exhibited obstinate tendencies, and only gave in when it was nearly too
+late for repentance.  Little children, also, became sources of danger,
+standing in the middle of roads until, perceiving a possible
+catastrophe, they dashed wildly aside--always to the very side on which
+the riders had resolved to pass,--and escaped by absolute miracle!
+
+Presently they came to a steep hill.  It was not steep enough to
+necessitate dismounting, but it rendered a rush inadvisable.  They
+therefore worked up slowly, and, on gaining the top, got off to breathe
+and rest a while.
+
+"That _was_ a glorious run, wasn't it, Sam?" said Welland, flicking the
+dust from his knees with his handkerchief.  "What d'ye say to a glass of
+beer?"
+
+"Can't do it, Stephen, I'm Blue Ribbon."
+
+"Oh! nonsense.  Why not do as I do--drink in moderation?"
+
+"Well, I didn't think much about it when I put it on," said Sam, who was
+a very sensitive, and not very strong-minded youth; "the rest of us did
+it, you know, by father's advice, and I joined because they did."
+
+Welland laughed rather sarcastically at this, but made no rejoinder, and
+Sam, who could not stand being laughed at, said--
+
+"Well, come, I'll go in for one glass.  I'll be my own doctor, and
+prescribe it medicinally!  Besides, it's an exceptional occasion this,
+for it is awfully hot."
+
+"It's about the best run I ever had in the same space of time," said
+Welland on quitting the beer shop.
+
+"First-rate," returned Sam, "I wish my old dad could ride with us.  He
+_would_ enjoy it so."
+
+"Couldn't we bring him out on a horse?  He could ride that, I suppose?"
+
+"Never saw him on a horse but once," said Sam, "and that time he fell
+off.  But it's worth suggesting to him."
+
+"Better if he got a tricycle," said Welland.
+
+"I don't think that would do, for he's too old for long rides, and too
+short-winded.  Now, Stephen, I'm not going to run down this hill.  We
+_must_ take it easy, for it's far too steep."
+
+"Nonsense, man, it's nothing to speak of; see, I'll go first and show
+you the way."
+
+He gave the treadle a thrust that sent him off like an arrow from a bow.
+
+"Stay! there's a caravan or something at the bottom--wild beasts' show,
+I think!  Stop! hold on!"
+
+But Sam Twitter shouted in vain.  Welland's was a joyous spirit, apt to
+run away with him.  He placed his legs over the handles for security,
+and allowed the machine to run.  It gathered speed as it went, for the
+hill became steeper, insomuch that the rider once or twice felt the
+hind-wheel rise, and had to lean well back to keep it on the ground.
+The pace began to exceed even Welland's idea of pleasure, but now it was
+too late to use the brake, for well did he know that on such a slope and
+going at such a pace the slightest check on the front wheel would send
+him over.  He did not feel alarmed however, for he was now near the
+bottom of the hill, and half a minute more would send him in safety on
+the level road at the foot.
+
+But just at the foot there was a sharpish turn in the road, and Welland
+looked at it earnestly.  At an ordinary pace such a turn could have been
+easily taken, but at such a rate as he had by that time attained, he
+felt it would require a tremendous lean over to accomplish it.  Still he
+lost no confidence, for he was an athlete by practice if not by
+profession, and he gathered up his energies for the moment of action.
+
+The people of the caravan--whoever they were--had seen him coming, and,
+beginning to realise his danger to some extent, had hastily cleared the
+road to let him pass.
+
+Welland considered the rate of speed; felt, rather than calculated, the
+angle of inclination; leaned over boldly until the tire almost slipped
+sideways on the road, and came rushing round with a magnificent sweep,
+when, horrible sight! a slight ridge of what is called road-metal
+crossed the entire road from side to side!  A drain or water pipe had
+recently been repaired, and the new ridge had not yet been worn down by
+traffic.  There was no time for thought or change of action.  Another
+moment and the wheel was upon it, the crash came, and the rider went off
+with such force that he was shot well in advance of the machine, as it
+went with tremendous violence into the ditch.  If Welland's feet had
+been on the treadles he must have turned a complete somersault.  As it
+was he alighted on his feet, but came to the ground with such force that
+he failed to save himself.  One frantic effort he made and then went
+down headlong and rolled over on his back in a state of insensibility.
+
+When Sam Twitter came to the bottom of the hill with the brake well
+applied he was able to check himself in time to escape the danger, and
+ran to where his friend lay.
+
+For a few minutes the unfortunate youth lay as if he had been dead.
+Then his blood resumed its flow, and when the eyes opened he found Sam
+kneeling on one side of him with a smelling bottle which some lady had
+lent him, and a kindly-faced elderly man with an iron-grey beard
+kneeling on the other side and holding a cup of water to his lips.
+
+"That's right, Stephen, look up," said Sam, who was terribly frightened,
+"you're not much hurt, are you?"
+
+"Hurt, old fellow, eh?" sighed Stephen, "why should I be hurt?  Where am
+I?  What has happened?"
+
+"Take a sip, my young friend, it will revive you," said the man with the
+kindly face.  "You have had a narrow escape, but God has mercifully
+spared you.  Try to move now; gently--we must see that no bones have
+been broken before allowing you to rise."
+
+By this time Welland had completely recovered, and was anxious to rise;
+all the more that a crowd of children surrounded him, among whom he
+observed several ladies and gentlemen, but he lay still until the kindly
+stranger had felt him all over and come to the conclusion that no
+serious damage had been done.
+
+"Oh!  I'm all right, thank you," said the youth on rising, and affecting
+to move as though nothing had happened, but he was constrained to catch
+hold of the stranger rather suddenly, and sat down on the grass by the
+road-side.
+
+"I do believe I've got a shake after all," he said with a perplexed
+smile and sigh.  "But," he added, looking round with an attempt at
+gaiety, "I suspect my poor bicycle has got a worse shake.  Do look after
+it, Sam, and see how it is."
+
+Twitter soon returned with a crestfallen expression.  "It's done for,
+Stephen.  I'm sorry to say the whole concern seems to be mashed up into
+a kind of wire-fencing!"
+
+"Is it past mending, Sam?"
+
+"Past mending by any ordinary blacksmith, certainly.  No one but the
+maker can doctor it, and I should think it would take him a fortnight at
+least."
+
+"What is to be done?" said Stephen, with some of his companion's regret
+of tone.  "What a fool I was to take such a hill--spoilt such a glorious
+day too--for you as well as myself, Sam.  I'm _very_ sorry, but that
+won't mend matters."
+
+"Are you far from home, gentlemen?" asked the man with the iron-grey
+beard, who had listened to the conversation with a look of sympathy.
+
+"Ay, much too far to walk," said Welland.  "D'you happen to know how far
+off the nearest railway station is?"
+
+"Three miles," answered the stranger, "and in your condition you are
+quite unfit to walk that distance."
+
+"I'm not so sure of that," replied the youth, with a pitiful look.  "I
+think I'm game for three miles, if I had nothing to carry but myself,
+but I can't leave my bicycle in the ditch, you know!"
+
+"Of course you can't," rejoined the stranger in a cheery tone, "and I
+think we can help you in this difficulty.  I am a London City
+Missionary.  My name is John Seaward.  We have, as you see, brought out
+a number of our Sunday-school children, to give them a sight of God's
+beautiful earth; poor things, they've been used to bricks, mortar, and
+stone all their lives hitherto.  Now, if you choose to spend the
+remainder of the day with us, we will be happy to give you and the
+injured bicycle a place in our vans till we reach a cabstand or a
+railway station.  What say you?  It will give much pleasure to me and
+the teachers."
+
+Welland glanced at his friend.  "You see, Sam, there's no help for it,
+old boy.  You'll have to return alone."
+
+"Unless your friend will also join us," said the missionary.
+
+"You are very kind," said Sam, "but I cannot stay, as I have an
+engagement which must be kept.  Never mind, Stephen.  I'll just complete
+the trip alone, and comfort myself with the assurance that I leave you
+in good hands.  So, good-bye, old boy."
+
+"Good-bye, Twitter," said Stephen, grasping his friend's hand.
+
+"Twitter," repeated the missionary, "I heard your friend call you Sam
+just now.  Excuse my asking--are you related to Samuel Twitter of
+Twitter, Slime, and Company, in the city?"
+
+"I'm his eldest son," said Sam.
+
+"Then I have much pleasure in making your acquaintance," returned the
+other, extending his hand, "for although I have never met your father, I
+know your mother well.  She is one of the best and most regular teachers
+in our Sunday-schools.  Is she not, Hetty?" he said, turning to a
+sweet-faced girl who stood near him.
+
+"Indeed she is, I was her pupil for some years, and now I teach one of
+her old classes," replied the girl.
+
+"I work in the neighbourhood of Whitechapel, sir," continued the
+missionary, "and most of the children here attend the Institution in
+George Yard."
+
+"Well, I shall tell my mother of this unexpected meeting," said Sam, as
+he remounted his bicycle.  "Good-bye, Stephen.  Don't romp too much with
+the children!"
+
+"Adieu, Sam, and don't break your neck on the bicycle."
+
+In a few minutes Sam Twitter and his bicycle were out of sight.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+A GREAT AND MEMORABLE DAY.
+
+When young Stephen Welland was conducted by John Seaward the missionary
+into a large field dotted with trees, close to where his accident had
+happened, he found that the children and their guardians were busily
+engaged in making arrangements for the spending of an enjoyable day.
+
+And then he also found that this was not a mere monster excursion of
+ordinary Sunday-schools, but one of exceedingly poor children, whose
+garments, faces, and general condition, told too surely that they
+belonged to the lowest grade in the social scale.
+
+"Yes," said the missionary, in reply to some question from Welland, "the
+agency at George Yard, to which I have referred, has a wide-embracing
+influence--though but a small lump of leaven when compared with the mass
+of corruption around it.  This is a flock of the ragged and utterly
+forlorn, to many of whom green fields and fresh air are absolutely new,
+but we have other flocks besides these."
+
+"Indeed!  Well, now I look at them more carefully, I see that their
+garments do speak of squalid poverty.  I have never before seen such a
+ragged crew, though I have sometimes encountered individuals of the
+class on the streets."
+
+"Hm!" coughed the missionary with a peculiar smile.  "They are not so
+ragged as they were.  Neither are they as ragged as they will be in an
+hour or two."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that these very rough little ones have to receive peculiar
+treatment before we can give them such an outing as they are having
+to-day.  As you see, swings and see-saws have been put up here, toys are
+now being distributed, and a plentiful feast will ere long be
+forthcoming, through the kindness of a Christian gentleman whose heart
+the Lord has inclined to `consider the poor,' but before we could
+venture to move the little band, much of their ragged clothing had to be
+stitched up to prevent it falling off on the journey, and we had to make
+them move carefully on their way to the train--for vans have brought us
+only part of the way.  Now that they are here, our minds are somewhat
+relieved, but I suspect that the effect of games and romping will undo
+much of our handiwork.  Come, let us watch them."
+
+The youth and the missionary advanced towards a group of the children,
+whose souls, for the time being, were steeped in a see-saw.  This
+instrument of delight consisted of a strong plank balanced on the trunk
+of a noble tree which had been recently felled, with many others, to
+thin the woods of the philanthropist's park.  It was an enormous
+see-saw! such as the ragged creatures had never before seen--perhaps
+never conceived of, their experiences in such joys having been hitherto
+confined to small bits of broken plank placed over empty beer barrels,
+or back-yard fences.  No fewer than eight children were able to find
+accommodation on it at one and the same time, besides one of the bigger
+boys to straddle in the centre; and it required the utmost vigilance on
+the part of a young man teacher at one end of the machine, and Hetty
+Frog at the other end, to prevent the little ragamuffins at either
+extremity from being forced off.
+
+Already the missionary's anticipation in regard to the undoing of their
+labour had begun to be verified.  There were at least four of the eight
+whose nether garments had succumbed to the effort made in mounting the
+plank, and various patches of flesh-colour revealed the fact that the
+poor little wearers were innocent of flannels.  But it was summer-time,
+and the fact had little effect either on wearers or spectators.  The
+missionary, however, was not so absorbed in the present but that he felt
+impelled to remark to Welland: "That is their winter as well as summer
+clothing."
+
+The bicyclist said nothing in reply, but the remark was not lost upon
+him.
+
+"Now, Dick Swiller," said the young man teacher, "I see what you're up
+to.  You mustn't do it!"
+
+Richard Swiller, who was a particularly rugged as well as ragged boy of
+about thirteen, not being in the habit of taking advice, did do it.
+That is, he sent his end of the plank up with such violence that the
+other end came to the ground with a shock which caused those who sat
+there to gasp, while it all but unseated most of those who were on the
+higher end.  Indeed one very small and pinched but intelligent little
+boy, named by his companions Blobby, who looked as if Time, through the
+influence of privation and suffering, had been dwindling instead of
+developing him,--actually did come off with a cry of alarm, which,
+however, changed into a laugh of glee when he found himself in his
+teacher's arms, instead of lying "busted on the ground," as he
+afterwards expressed it when relating the incident to an admiring
+audience of fellow ragamuffins in the slums of Spitalfields.
+
+Blobby was immediately restored to his lost position, and Swiller was
+degraded, besides being made to stand behind a large tree for a quarter
+of an hour in forced inaction, so that he might have time to meditate on
+the evil consequences of disobedience.
+
+"Take care, Robin," said Hetty, to a very small but astonishingly
+energetic fellow, at her end of the see-saw, who was impressed with the
+notion that he was doing good service by wriggling his own body up and
+down, "if you go on so, you'll push Lilly Snow off."
+
+Robin, unlike Dick, was obedient.  He ceased his efforts, and thereby
+saved the last button which held his much too small waistcoat across his
+bare bosom.
+
+"What a sweet face the child she calls Lilly Snow has--if it were only
+clean," observed Welland.  "A little soap and water with a hair brush
+would make her quite beautiful."
+
+"Yes, she is very pretty," said the missionary and the kindly smile with
+which he had been watching the fun vanished, as he added in a sorrowful
+voice, "her case is a very sad one, dear child.  Her mother is a poor
+but deserving woman who earns a little now and then by tailoring, but
+she has been crushed for years by a wicked and drunken husband who has
+at last deserted her.  We know not where he is, perhaps dead.  Five
+times has her home been broken up by him, and many a time has she with
+her little one been obliged to sit on doorsteps all night, when
+homeless.  Little Lilly attends our Sunday-school regularly, and Hetty
+is her teacher.  It is not long since Hetty herself was a scholar, and I
+know that she is very anxious to lead Lilly to the Lord.  The sufferings
+and sorrows to which this poor child has been exposed have told upon her
+severely, and I fear that her health will give way.  A day in the
+country like this may do her good perhaps."
+
+As the missionary spoke little Lilly threw up her arms and uttered a cry
+of alarm.  Robin, although obedient, was short of memory, and his
+energetic spirit being too strong for his excitable little frame he had
+recommenced his wriggling, with the effect of bursting the last button
+off his waistcoat and thrusting Lilly off the plank.  She was received,
+however, on Hetty's breast, who fell with her to the ground.
+
+"Not hurt, Hetty!" exclaimed the missionary, running forward to help the
+girl up.
+
+"Oh! no, sir," replied Hetty with a short laugh, as she rose and placed
+Lilly on a safer part of the see-saw.
+
+"Come here, Hetty," said John Seaward, "and rest a while.  You have done
+enough just now; let some one else take your place."
+
+After repairing the buttonless waistcoat with a pin and giving its owner
+a caution, Hetty went and sat down on the grass beside the missionary.
+
+"How is Bobby?" asked the latter, "I have not found a moment to speak to
+you till now."
+
+"Thank you, sir, he's better; much better.  I fear he will be well too
+soon."
+
+"How so?  That's a strange remark, my girl."
+
+"It may seem strange, sir, but--you know--father's very fond of Bobby."
+
+"Well, Hetty, that's not a bad sign of your father."
+
+"Oh but, sir, father sits at his bedside when he's sober, an' has such
+long talks with him about robberies and burglaries, and presses him very
+hard to agree to go out with him when he's well.  I can't bear to hear
+it, for dear Bobby seems to listen to what he says, though sometimes he
+refuses, and defies him to do his worst, especially when he--"
+
+"Stay, dear girl.  It is very very sad, but don't tell me anything more
+about your father.  Tell it all to Jesus, Hetty.  He not only
+sympathises with, but is able to save--even to the uttermost."
+
+"Yes, thank God for that `uttermost,'" said the poor girl, clasping her
+hands quickly together.  "Oh, I understood that when He saved _me_, and
+I will trust to it now."
+
+"And the gentleman who called on you,--has he been again?" asked the
+missionary.
+
+"No, sir, he has only come once, but he has sent his butler three or
+four times with some money for us, and always with the message that it
+is from Miss Diana, to be divided between Bobby and me.  Unfortunately
+father chanced to be at home the first time he came and got it all, so
+we got none of it.  But he was out the other times.  The butler is an
+oldish man, and a very strange one.  He went about our court crying."
+
+"Crying!  Hetty, that's a curious condition for an oldish butler to be
+in."
+
+"Oh, of course I don't mean cryin' out like a baby," said Hetty, looking
+down with a modest smile, "but I saw tears in his eyes, and sometimes
+they got on his cheeks.  I can't think what's the matter with him."
+
+Whatever Mr Seaward thought on this point he said nothing, but asked if
+Bobby was able to go out.
+
+Oh yes, he was quite able to walk about now with a little help, Hetty
+said, and she had taken several walks with him and tried to get him to
+speak about his soul, but he only laughed at that, and said he had too
+much trouble with his body to think about his soul--there was time
+enough for that!
+
+They were interrupted at this point by a merry shout of glee, and,
+looking up, found that young Welland had mounted the see-saw, taken
+Lilly Snow in front of him, had Dick Swiller reinstated to
+counterbalance his extra weight, and was enjoying himself in a most
+hilarious manner among the fluttering rags.  Assuredly, the fluttering
+rags did not enjoy themselves a whit less hilariously than he.
+
+In this condition he was found by the owner of the grounds, George
+Brisbane, Esquire, of Lively Hall, who, accompanied by his wife, and a
+tall, dignified friend with a little girl, approached the see-saw.
+
+"I am glad you enjoy yourself so much, my young friend," he said to
+Welland; "to which of the ragged schools may you belong?"
+
+In much confusion--for he was rather shy--Welland made several abortive
+efforts to check the see-saw, which efforts Dick Swiller resisted to the
+uttermost, to the intense amusement of a little girl who held Mrs
+Brisbane's hand.  At last he succeeded in arresting it and leaped off.
+
+"I beg pardon," he said, taking off his cap to the lady as he advanced,
+"for intruding uninvited on--"
+
+"Pray don't speak of intrusion," interrupted Mr Brisbane, extending his
+hand; "if you are here as Mr Seaward's friend you are a welcome guest.
+Your only intrusion was among the little ones, but as they seem not to
+resent it neither do I."
+
+Welland grasped the proffered hand.  "Thank you very much," he returned,
+"but I can scarcely lay claim to Mr Seaward's friendship.  The fact is,
+I am here in consequence of an accident to my bicycle."
+
+"Oh! then you _are_ one of the poor unfortunates after all," said the
+host.  "Come, you are doubly welcome.  Not hurt much, I hope.  No?
+That's all right.  But don't let me keep you from your amusements.
+Remember, we shall expect you at the feast on the lawn.  You see, Sir
+Richard," he added, turning to his dignified friend, "when we go in for
+this sort of thing we don't do it by halves.  To have any lasting
+effect, it must make a deep impression.  So we have got up all sorts of
+amusements, as you observe, and shall have no fewer than two good feeds.
+Come, let us visit some other--Why, what are you gazing at so
+intently?"
+
+He might well ask the question, for Sir Richard Brandon had just
+observed Hetty Frog, and she, unaccustomed to such marked attention, was
+gazing in perplexed confusion on the ground.  At the same time little
+Di, having caught sight of her, quitted Mrs Brisbane, ran towards her
+with a delighted scream, and clasping her hand in both of hers,
+proclaimed her the sister of "my boy!"
+
+Hetty's was not the nature to refuse such affection.  Though among the
+poorest of the poor, and clothed in the shabbiest and most patchy of
+garments, (which in her case, however, were neat, clean and well
+mended), she was rich in a loving disposition; so that, forgetting
+herself and the presence of others, she stooped and folded the little
+girl in her arms.  And, when the soft brown hair and pale pretty face of
+Poverty were thus seen as it were co-mingling with the golden locks and
+rosy cheeks of Wealth, even Sir Richard was forced to admit to himself
+that it was not after all a very outrageous piece of impropriety!
+
+"Oh!  I'm _so_ glad to hear that he's much better, and been out too!  I
+would have come to see him again long long ago, but p--"
+
+She checked herself, for Mrs Screwbury had carefully explained to her
+that no good girl ever said anything against her parents; and little Di
+had swallowed the lesson, for, when not led by passion, she was
+extremely teachable.
+
+"And oh!" she continued, opening her great blue lakelets to their widest
+state of solemnity, "you haven't the smallest bit of notion how I have
+dreamt about my boy--and my policeman too!  I never can get over the
+feeling that they might both have been killed, and if they had, you
+know, it would have been me that did it; only think!  I would have--
+been--a murderer!  P'raps they'd have hanged me!"
+
+"But they weren't killed, dear," said Hetty, unable to restrain a smile
+at the awful solemnity of the child, and the terrible fate referred to.
+
+"No--I'm _so_ glad, but I can't get over it," continued Di, while those
+near to her stood quietly by unable to avoid overhearing, even if they
+had wished to do so.  "And they do such strange things in my dreams,"
+continued Di, "you can't think.  Only last night I was in our
+basket-cart--the dream-one, you know, not the real one--and the
+dream-pony ran away again, and gave my boy such a dreadful knock that he
+fell flat down on his back, tumbled over two or three times, and rose
+up--a policeman!  Not _my_ policeman, you know, but quite another one
+that I had never seen before!  But the very oddest thing of all was that
+it made me so angry that I jumped with all my might on to his breast,
+and when I got there it wasn't the policeman but the pony! and it was
+dead--quite dead, for I had killed it, and I wasn't sorry at all--not a
+bit!"
+
+This was too much for Hetty, who burst into a laugh, and Sir Richard
+thought it time to go and see the games that were going on in other
+parts of the field, accompanied by Welland and the missionary, while
+Hetty returned to her special pet Lilly Snow.
+
+And, truly, if "one touch of nature makes the whole world kin," there
+were touches of nature enough seen that day among these outcasts of
+society to have warranted their claiming kin with the whole world.
+
+Leap-frog was greatly in favour, because the practitioners could abandon
+themselves to a squirrel-and-cat sort of bound on the soft grass, which
+they had never dared to indulge in on the London pavements.  It was a
+trying game, however, to the rags, which not only betrayed their
+character to the eye by the exhibition of flesh-tints through numerous
+holes, but addressed themselves also to the ears by means of frequent
+and explosive rendings.  Pins, however, were applied to the worst of
+these with admirable though temporary effect, and the fun became faster
+and more furious,--especially so when the points of some of the pins
+touched up the flesh-tints unexpectedly.
+
+On these occasions the touches of nature became strongly pronounced--
+expressing themselves generally in a yell.  Another evidence of worldly
+kinship was, that the touched-up ones, instead of attributing the
+misfortune to accident, were prone to turn round with fierce scowl and
+doubled fists under the impression that a guilty comrade was in rear!
+
+The proceedings were totally arrested for one hour at mid-day, when
+unlimited food was issued, and many of the forlorn ones began to feel
+the rare sensation of being stuffed quite full and rendered incapable of
+wishing for more!  But this was a mere interlude.  Like little giants
+refreshed they rose up again to play--to swing, to leap, to wrestle, to
+ramble, to gather flowers, to roll on the grass, to bask in the
+gladdening sunshine, and, in some cases, to thank God for all His
+mercies, in spite of the latent feeling of regret that there was so
+little of all that enjoyment in the slums, and dark courts, and filthy
+back-streets of the monster city.
+
+Of course all the pins were extracted in this second act of the play,
+and innumerable new and gaping wounds were introduced into the clothing,
+insomuch that all ordinary civilised people, except philanthropists,
+would have been shocked with the appearance of the little ones.
+
+But it was during the third and closing act of the play that the affair
+culminated.  The scene was laid on the lawn in front of Mr Brisbane's
+mansion.
+
+Enter, at one end of the lawn, a band of small and dirty but flushed and
+happy boys and girls, in rags which might appropriately be styled
+ribbons.  At the other end of the lawn a train of domestics bearing
+trays with tea, cakes, buns, pies, fruits, and other delectable things,
+to which the ragged army sits down.
+
+Enter host and hostess, with Sir Richard, friends and attendants.
+
+(_Host_.)--after asking a blessing--"My little friends, this afternoon
+we meet to eat, and only one request have I to make--that you shall do
+your duty well."  (Small boy in ribbons.--"Von't I, just!") "No platter
+shall return to my house till it be empty.  No little one shall quit
+these premises till he be full; what cannot be eaten must be carried
+away."
+
+(The ragged army cheers.)
+
+(_Host_.)--"Enough.  Fall-to."
+
+(They fall-to.)
+
+(_Little boy_ in tatters, pausing.)--"_I_ shan't fall two, I'll fall
+three or four."
+
+(_Another little boy_, in worse tatters.)--"So shall I."
+
+(_First little boy_.)--"I say, Jim, wot would mother say if she was
+here?"
+
+(_Jim_.)--"She'd say nothin'.  'Er mouth 'ud be too full to speak."
+
+(Prolonged silence.  Only mastication heard, mingled with a few cases of
+choking, which are promptly dealt with.)
+
+(_Blobby_, with a sigh.)--"I say, Robin, I'm gettin' tight."
+
+(_Robin_, with a gasp.)--"So am I; I'm about bustin'."
+
+(_Blobby_, coming to another pause.)--"I say, Robin, I'm as full as I
+can 'old.  So's all my pockits, an' there's some left over!"
+
+(_Robin--sharply_.)--"Stick it in your 'at, then."
+
+(Blobby takes off his billycock, thrusts the remnant of food therein,
+and puts it on.)
+
+Enter the brass band of the neighbouring village, (the bandsmen being
+boys), which plays a selection of airs, and sends a few of the smaller
+ragamuffins to sleep.
+
+(_Sir Richard Brandon_, confidentially to his friend.)--"It is an
+amazing sight."
+
+(_Host_.)--"Would that it were a more common sight!"
+
+Enter more domestics with more tea, buns, and fruit; but the army is
+glutted, and the pockets are brought into requisition: much pinning
+being a necessary consequence.
+
+(_Lilly Snow_, softly.)--"It's like 'eaven!"
+
+(_Hetty_, remonstratingly.)--"Oh!  Lilly, 'eaven is quite different."
+
+(_Dick Swiller_.)--"I'm sorry for it.  Couldn't be much 'appier to my
+mind."
+
+(_Host_.)--"Now, dear boys and girls, before we close the proceedings of
+this happy day, my excellent friend, your missionary, Mr Seaward, will
+say a few words."
+
+John Seaward steps to the front, and says a few words--says them so
+well, too, so simply, so kindly, yet so heartily, that the army is
+roused to a pitch of great enthusiasm; but we leave this speech to the
+reader's imagination: after which--_Exeunt Omnes_.
+
+And, as the curtain of night falls on these ragged ones, scattered now,
+many of them, to varied homes of vice, and filth, and misery, the heavy
+eyelids close to open again, perchance, in ecstatic dreams of food, and
+fun and green fields, fresh air and sunshine, which impress them more or
+less with the idea embodied in the aphorism, that "God made the country,
+but man made the town."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+HOW THE POOR ARE SUCCOURED.
+
+"I am obliged to you, Mr Seaward, for coming out of your way to see
+me," said Sir Richard Brandon, while little Di brought their visitor a
+chair.  "I know that your time is fully occupied, and would not have
+asked you to call had not my friend Mr Brisbane assured me that you had
+to pass my house daily on your way to--to business."
+
+"No apology, Sir Richard, pray.  I am at all times ready to answer a
+call whether of the poor or the rich, if by any means I may help my
+Lord's cause."
+
+The knight thought for a moment that he might claim to be classed among
+the poor, seeing that his miserable pittance of five thousand barely
+enabled him to make the two ends meet, but he only said:
+
+"Ever since we had the pleasure of meeting at that gathering of ragged
+children, my little girl here has been asking so many questions about
+poor people--the lower orders, I mean--which I could not answer, that I
+have asked you to call, that we may get some information about them.
+You see, Diana is an eccentric little puss," (Di opened her eyes very
+wide at this, wondering what "eccentric" could mean), "and she has got
+into a most unaccountable habit of thinking and planning about poor
+people."
+
+"A good habit, Sir Richard," said the missionary.  "`Blessed are they
+that consider the poor.'"
+
+Sir Richard acknowledged this remark with a little bow.  "Now, we should
+like to ask, if you have no objection, what is your chief object in the
+mission at--what did you say its name--ah!  George Yard?"
+
+"To save souls," said Mr Seaward.
+
+"Oh--ah--precisely," said the knight, taken somewhat aback by the nature
+and brevity of the answer, "that of course; but I meant, how do you
+proceed?  What is the method, and what the machinery that you put in
+motion?"
+
+"Perhaps," said the missionary, drawing a small pamphlet from his
+pocket, "this will furnish you with all the information you desire.  You
+can read it over to Miss Diana at your leisure--and don't return it; I
+have plenty more.  Meanwhile I may briefly state that the mission
+premises are in George Yard, High Street, Whitechapel, one of the worst
+parts of the east of London, where the fire of sin and crime rages most
+fiercely; where the soldiers of the Cross are comparatively few, and
+would be overwhelmed by mere numbers, were it not that they are
+invincible, carrying on the war as they do in the strength of Him who
+said, `Lo, I am with you alway.'
+
+"In the old coaching days," continued Mr Seaward, "this was a great
+centre, a starting-point for mail-coaches.  For nigh thirty years the
+mission has been there.  The `Black Horse' was a public-house in George
+Yard, once known to the magistrates as one of the worst gin-shops and
+resort of thieves and nurseries of crime in London.  That public-house
+is now a shelter for friendless girls, and a place where sick children
+of the poor are gratuitously fed."
+
+From this point the missionary went off into a graphic account of
+incidents illustrative of the great work done by the mission, and
+succeeded in deeply interesting both Diana and her father, though the
+latter held himself well in hand, knowing, as he was fond of remarking,
+that there were two sides to every question.
+
+Checking his visitor at one point, he said, "You have mentioned ragged
+schools and the good that is done by them, but why should not the
+school-boards look after such children?"
+
+"Because, Sir Richard, the school-boards cannot reach them.  There are
+upwards of 150,000 people in London who have never lived more than three
+months in one place.  No law reaches this class, because they do not
+stay long enough in any neighbourhood for the school-board authorities
+to put the law into operation.  Now, nearly three hundred of the
+children of these wanderers meet in our Free Ragged Day Schools twice a
+day for instruction.  Here we teach them as efficiently as we can in
+secular matters, and of course they are taught the Word of God, and told
+of Jesus the Saviour of sinners; but our difficulties are great, for
+children as well as parents are often in extremest poverty, the former
+suffering from hunger even when sent to school--and they never stay with
+us long.  Let me give you an instance:--
+
+"One morning a mother came and begged to have her children admitted.
+She had just left the workhouse.  Three children in rags, that did not
+suffice to cover much less to protect them, stood by her side.  She did
+not know where they were to sleep that night, but hoped to obtain a
+little charing and earn enough to obtain a lodging somewhere.  She could
+not take the children with her while seeking work--Would we take them
+in? for, if not, they would have to be left in the streets, and as they
+were very young they might lose themselves or be run over.  We took them
+in, fed, sympathised with, and taught them.  In the afternoon the mother
+returned weary, hungry, dejected.  She had failed to obtain employment,
+and took the children away to apply for admission to a casual ward."
+
+"What is a casual ward, Mr Missionary?" asked Di.
+
+"Seaward, my love,--his name is not Missionary," said Sir Richard.
+
+"A casual ward," answered the visitor, "is an exceedingly plain room
+with rows of very poor beds; mere wooden frames with canvas stretched on
+them, in which any miserable beggars who choose to submit to the rules
+may sleep for a night after eating a bit of bread and a basin of gruel--
+for all which they pay nothing.  It is a very poor and comfortless
+place--at least you would think it so--and is meant to save poor people
+from sleeping, perhaps dying, in the streets."
+
+"Do some people sleep in the streets?" asked Di in great surprise.
+
+"Yes, dear, I'm sorry to say that many do."
+
+"D'you mean on the stones, in their night-dresses?" asked the child with
+increasing surprise.
+
+"Yes, love," said her father, "but in their ordinary clothes, not in
+their night-dresses--they have no night-dresses."
+
+Little Di had now reached a pitch of surprise which rendered her dumb,
+so the missionary continued:
+
+"Here is another case.  A poor widow called once, and said she would be
+so grateful if we would admit her little girl and boy into the schools.
+She looked clean and tidy, and the children had not been neglected.  She
+could not afford to pay for them, as she had not a penny in the world,
+and applied to us because we made no charge.  The children were admitted
+and supplied with a plain but nourishing meal, while their mother went
+away to seek for work.  We did not hear how she sped, but she had
+probably taken her case to God, and found Him faithful, for she had
+said, before going away, `I know that God is the Father of the
+fatherless, and the husband of the widow.'
+
+"Again, another poor woman came.  Her husband had fallen sick.  Till
+within a few days her children had been at a school and paid for, but
+now the bread-winner was ill--might never recover--and had gone to the
+hospital.  These children were at once admitted, and in each case
+investigation was made to test the veracity of the applicants.
+
+"Of course," continued the missionary, "I have spoken chiefly about the
+agencies with which I happen to have come personally in contact, but it
+must not be supposed that therefore I ignore or am indifferent to the
+other grand centres of influence which are elsewhere at work in London;
+such as, for instance, the various agencies set agoing and superintended
+by Dr Barnardo, whose _Home for Working and Destitute Boys_, in Stepney
+Causeway, is a shelter from which thousands of rescued little ones go
+forth to labour as honest and useful members of society, instead of
+dying miserably in the slums of London, or growing up to recruit the
+ranks of our criminal classes.  These agencies, besides rescuing
+destitute and neglected children, include _Homes for destitute girls_
+and for _little boys_ in Ilford and Jersey, an _Infirmary for sick
+children of the destitute classes_ in Stepney, _Orphan Homes, Ragged and
+Day schools, Free dinner-table to destitute children, Mission Halls,
+Coffee Palaces_, and, in short, a grand net-work of beneficent
+agencies--Evangelistic, Temperance, and Medical--for the conduct of
+which is required not far short of One Hundred Pounds a day!"
+
+Even Sir Richard Brandon, with all his supposed financial capacities,
+seemed struck with the magnitude of this sum.
+
+"And where does Dr Barnardo obtain so large an amount?" he asked.
+
+"From the voluntary gifts of those who sympathise with and consider the
+poor," replied Seaward.
+
+"Then," he added, "there is that noble work carried on by Miss Rye of
+the _Emigration Home for Destitute Little Girls_, at the Avenue House,
+Peckham, from which a stream of destitute little ones continually flows
+to Canada, where they are much wanted, and who, if allowed to remain
+here, would almost certainly be _lost_.  Strong testimony to the value
+of this work has been given by the Bishops of Toronto and Niagara, and
+other competent judges.  Let me mention a case of one of Miss Rye's
+little ones, which speaks for itself.
+
+"A little girl of six was deserted by both father and mother."
+
+"Oh! _poor_ little thing!" exclaimed the sympathetic Di, with an amazing
+series of pitiful curves about her eyebrows.
+
+"Yes, poor indeed!" responded Seaward.  "The mother forsook her first;
+then her father took her on the tramp, but the little feet could not
+travel fast enough, so he got tired of her and offered her to a
+workhouse.  They refused her, so the tramping was continued, and at last
+baby was sold for three shillings to a stranger man.  On taking his
+purchase home, however, the man found that his wife was unwilling to
+receive her; he therefore sent poor little baby adrift in the streets of
+London!"
+
+"_What_ a shame!" cried Di, with flashing orbs.
+
+"Was it not?  But, when father and mother cast this little one off, the
+Lord cared for it.  An inspector of police, who found it, took it to his
+wife, and she carried it to Miss Rye's Home, where it was at once
+received and cared for, and, doubtless, this little foundling girl is
+now dwelling happily and usefully with a Canadian family."
+
+"How nice!" exclaimed Di, her eyes, lips, and teeth bearing eloquent
+witness to her satisfaction.
+
+"But no doubt you have heard of Miss Rye's work, as well as that of Miss
+Annie Macpherson at the Home of Industry, and, perhaps, contributed
+to--"
+
+"No," interrupted Sir Richard, quickly, "I do not contribute; but pray,
+Mr Seaward, are there other institutions of this sort in London?"
+
+"Oh! yes, there are several, it would take me too long to go into the
+details of the various agencies we have for succouring the poor.  There
+is, among others, The Church of England `_Central Home for Waifs and
+Strays_,' with a `Receiving House' for boys in Upper Clapton, and one
+for girls in East Dulwich, with the Archbishop of Canterbury for its
+President.  Possibly you may have heard of the `_Strangers' Rest_,' in
+Saint George Street, Ratcliff Highway, where, as far as man can judge,
+great and permanent good is being constantly done to the souls of
+sailors.  A sailor once entered this `Rest' considerably the worse for
+drink.  He was spoken to by Christian friends, and asked to sign the
+pledge.  He did so, and has now been steadfast for years.  Returning
+from a long voyage lately, he went to revisit the _Rest_, and there, at
+the Bible-class, prayed.  Part of his prayer was--`God bless the
+Strangers' Rest.  O Lord, we thank Thee for this place, and we shall
+thank Thee to all eternity.'  This is a sample of the feeling with which
+the place is regarded by those who have received blessing there.  In the
+same street, only a few doors from this Rest, is the `_Sailor's Welcome
+Home_.'  This is more of a home than the other, for it furnishes lodging
+and unintoxicating refreshment, while its devoted soul-loving manager,
+Miss Child, and her assistant workers, go fearlessly into the very dens
+of iniquity, and do all they can to bring sailors to Jesus, and induce
+them to take the pledge against strong drink, in which work they are,
+through God's blessing, wonderfully successful.  These two missions
+work, as it were, into each other's hands.  In the `Rest' are held
+prayer-meetings and Bible-classes, and when these are dismissed, the
+sailors find the open door of the `Welcome Home' ready to receive them,
+and the inmates there seek to deepen the good influence that has been
+brought to bear at the meetings--and this in the midst of one of the
+very worst parts of London, where temptation to every species of evil is
+rampant, on the right-hand and on the left, before and behind.
+
+"But, Sir Richard, although I say that a grand and extensive work of
+salvation to soul, body, and spirit is being done to thousands of men,
+and women, and children, by the agencies which I have mentioned, and by
+many similar agencies which I have not now time to mention, as well as
+by the band of City Missionaries to which I have the honour to belong, I
+would earnestly point out that these all put together only scratch the
+surface of the vast mass of corruption which has to be dealt with in
+this seething world of London, the population of which is, as you are
+aware, equal to that of all Scotland; and very specially would I remark
+that the work is almost exclusively carried on by the _voluntary
+contributions_ of those who `consider the poor!'
+
+"The little tract which I have given you will explain much of the
+details of this great work, as carried on in the George Yard Mission.
+When you have read that, if you desire it, I will call on you again.
+Meanwhile engagements compel me to take my leave."
+
+After luncheon, that day, Sir Richard drew his chair to the window, but
+instead of taking up the newspaper and recommending his little one to
+visit the nursery, he said:
+
+"Come here, Di.  You and I will examine this pamphlet--this little
+book--and I'll try to explain it, for reports are usually very dry."
+
+Di looked innocently puzzled.  "Should reports always be wet, papa?"
+
+Sir Richard came nearer to the confines of a laugh than he had reached
+for a long time past.
+
+"No, love--not exactly wet, but--hm--you shall hear.  Draw the stool
+close to my knee and lay your head on it."
+
+With his large hand on the golden tresses, Sir Richard Brandon began to
+examine the record of work done in the George Yard Mission.
+
+"What is this?" he said.  "_Toy Classes_,--why, this must be something
+quite in your way, Di."
+
+"Oh yes, I'm sure of that, for I adore toys.  Tell me about it."
+
+"These toy classes are for the cheerless and neglected," said the
+knight, frowning in a businesslike way at the pamphlet.  "Sometimes so
+many as eighty neglected little ones attend these classes.  On one
+occasion, only one of these had boots on, which were very old, much too
+large, and both lefts.  When they were seated, toys and scrap-books were
+lent to them.  There were puzzles, and toy-bricks, and many other things
+which kept them quite happy for an hour.  Of course the opportunity was
+seized to tell them about Jesus and His love.  A blessed lesson which
+they would not have had a chance of learning at home--if they had homes;
+but many of them had none.  When it was time to go they said--`Can't we
+stay longer?'
+
+"The beginning of this class was interesting," said Sir Richard,
+continuing to read.  "The thought arose--`gather in the most forlorn and
+wretched children; those who are seldom seen to smile, or heard to
+laugh; there are many such who require Christian sympathy.'  The thought
+was immediately acted on.  A little barefooted ragged boy was sent into
+the streets to bring in the children.  Soon there was a crowd round the
+school-door.  The most miserable among the little ones were admitted.
+The proceedings commenced with prayer--then the toys were distributed,
+the dirty little hands became active, and the dirty little faces began
+to look happy.  When the toys were gathered up, some could not be found,
+so, at the next meeting, some of the bigger children were set to watch
+the smaller ones.  Presently one little detective said: `Please,
+teacher, Teddy's got a horse in his pocket,' and another said that Sally
+had an elephant in her pinafore!  Occasion was thus found to show the
+evil of stealing, and teach the blessedness of honesty.  They soon gave
+up pilfering, and they now play with the toys without desiring to take
+them away."
+
+"How nice!" said Di.  "Go on, papa."
+
+"What can this be?" continued Sir Richard, quoting--"_Wild Flowers of
+the Forest Day Nursery_.  Oh!  I see--very good idea.  I'll not read it,
+Di, I'll tell you about it.  There are many poor widows, you must know,
+and women whose husbands are bad, who have no money to buy food and
+shelter for themselves and little ones except what they can earn each
+day.  But some of these poor women have babies, and they can't work, you
+know, with babies in their arms, neither can they leave the babies at
+home with no one to look after them, except, perhaps, little sisters or
+brothers not much older than themselves, so they take their babies to
+this Cradle-Home, and each pays only twopence, for which small sum her
+baby is taken in, washed, clothed, warmed, fed, and amused by kind
+nurses, who keep it till the mother returns from her work to get it back
+again.  Isn't that good?"
+
+"Oh! yes," assented Di, with all her heart.
+
+"And I read here," continued her father, "that thousands of the infants
+of the poor die every year because they have not enough food, or enough
+clothing to keep them warm."
+
+"Oh _what_ a pity!" exclaimed Di, the tears of ready sympathy rushing
+hot into her upturned eyes.
+
+"So you see," continued Sir Richard, who had unconsciously, as it were,
+become a pleader for the poor, "if there were a great many nurseries of
+this kind all over London, a great many little lives would be saved."
+
+"And why are there not a great many nurseries of that kind, papa?"
+
+"Well, I suppose, it is because there are no funds."
+
+"No what? papa."
+
+"Not enough of money, dear."
+
+"Oh! _what_ a pity!  I wish I had lots and lots of money, and then
+wouldn't I have Cradle-Homes everywhere?"
+
+Sir Richard, knowing that he had "lots and lots" of money, but had not
+hitherto contributed one farthing to the object under consideration,
+thought it best to change the subject by going on with the George Yard
+Record.
+
+But we will not conduct the reader through it all--interesting though
+the subject certainly is.  Suffice it to say that he found the account
+classed under several heads.  Under "_Feeding the Hungry_," for
+instance, he learned that many poor children are entirely without food,
+sometimes, for a whole day, so that only two courses are open to them--
+to steal food and become criminals, or drift into sickness and die.
+From which fate many hundreds are annually rescued by timely aid at
+George Yard, the supplies for which are sent by liberal-minded
+Christians in all ranks of life--from Mr Crackaby with his 150 pounds a
+year, up through Mr Brisbane and his class to the present Earl of
+Shaftesbury--who, by the way, has taken a deep interest and lent able
+support to this particular Mission for more than a quarter of a century.
+But the name of Sir Richard Brandon did not appear on the roll of
+contributors.  He had not studied the "lower orders" much, except from a
+politico-economical-argumentative after-dinner-port-winey point of view.
+
+Under the head of "_Clothing necessitous Children_," he found that some
+of the little ones presented themselves at the school-door in such a
+net-work of rags, probably infected, as to be unfit even for a Ragged
+School.  They were therefore taken in, had their garments destroyed, and
+were supplied with new clothes.  Also, that about 1000 children between
+the ages of three and fourteen years were connected with the
+Institution--scattered among the various works of usefulness conducted
+for the young.
+
+Under "_Work among Lads_," he found that those big boys whom one sees
+idling about corners of streets, fancying themselves men, smoking with
+obvious dislike and pretended pleasure, and on the highroad to the jail
+and the gallows--that those boys were enticed into classes opened for
+carpentry, turning, fretwork, and other attractive industrial pursuits--
+including even printing, at a press supplied by Lord Shaftesbury.  This,
+in connection with evening classes for reading, writing, and
+arithmetic--the whole leading up to the grand object and aim of all--the
+salvation of souls.
+
+Under other heads he found that outcast boys were received, sheltered,
+sent to Industrial Homes, or returned to friends and parents; that
+temperance meetings were held, and drunkards, male and female, sought
+out, prayed for, lovingly reasoned with, and reclaimed from this perhaps
+the greatest curse of the land; that Juvenile Bands of Hope were formed,
+on the ground of prevention being better than cure; that lodging-houses,
+where the poorest of the poor, and the lowest of the low do congregate,
+were visited, and the gospel proclaimed to ears that were deaf to nearly
+every good influence; that mothers' meetings were held--one of them at
+that old headquarters of sin, the "Black Horse," where counsel and
+sympathy were mingled with a Clothing Club and a Bible-woman; that there
+were a Working Men's Benefit Society, Bible-Classes, Sunday-School, a
+Sewing-Class, a Mutual Labour Loan Society, a Shelter for Homeless
+Girls, a library, an Invalid Children's Dinner, a bath-room and
+lavatory, a Flower Mission, and--hear it, ye who fancy that a penny
+stands very low in the scale of financial littleness--a Farthing Bank!
+All this free--conducted by an unpaid band of considerably over a
+hundred Christian workers, male and female--and leavening the
+foundations of society, without which, and similar missions, there would
+be very few leavening influences at all, and the superstructure of
+society would stand a pretty fair chance of being burst up or blown to
+atoms--though the superstructure is not very willing to believe the
+fact!
+
+In addition to all this, Sir Richard learned, to his great amazement,
+that the Jews won't light their fires on the Sabbath-day--that is, on
+our Saturday--that they won't even poke it, and that this abstinence is
+the immediate cause of a source of revenue to the un-Jewish poor, whom
+the Jews hire to light and poke their fires for them.
+
+And, lastly, Sir Richard Brandon learned that Mr George Holland, who
+had managed that mission for more than quarter of a century, was
+resolved, in the strength of the Lord, to seek out the lost and rescue
+the perishing, even though he, Sir Richard, and all who resembled him,
+should refuse to aid by tongue or hand in the glorious work of rescuing
+the poor from sin and its consequences.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+BALLS, BOBBY, SIR RICHARD, AND GILES APPEAR ON THE STAGE.
+
+As from the sublime to the ridiculous there is but a step, so, from the
+dining-room to the kitchen there is but a stair.  Let us descend the
+stair and learn that while Sir Richard was expounding the subject of
+"the poor" to little Di, Mr Balls, the butler, was engaged on the same
+subject in the servants' hall.
+
+"I cannot tell you," said Balls, "what a impression the sight o' these
+poor people made on me."
+
+"La!  Mr Balls," said the cook, who was not unacquainted with low life
+in London, having herself been born within sound of Bow-Bells, "you've
+got no occasion to worrit yourself about it.  It 'as never bin
+different."
+
+"That makes it all the worse, cook," returned Balls, standing with his
+back to the fireplace and his legs wide apart; "if it was only a
+temporary depression in trade, or the repeal of the corn laws that did
+it, one could stand it, but to think that such a state of things
+_always_ goes on is something fearful.  You know I'm a country-bred man
+myself, and ain't used to the town, or to such awful sights of squalor.
+It almost made me weep, I do assure you.  One room that I looked into
+had a mother and two children in it, and I declare to you that the
+little boy was going about stark naked, and his sister was only just a
+slight degree better."
+
+"P'raps they was goin' to bed," suggested Mrs Screwbury.
+
+"No, nurse, they wasn't; they was playing about evidently in their usual
+costume--for that evenin' at least.  I would not have believed it if I
+had not seen it.  And the mother was so tattered and draggled and
+dirty--which, also, was the room."
+
+"Was that in the court where the Frogs live?" asked Jessie Summers.
+
+"It was, and a dreadful court too--shocking!"
+
+"By the way, Mr Balls," asked the cook, "is there any chance o' that
+brat of a boy Bobby, as they call him, coming here?  I can't think why
+master has offered to take such a creeter into his service."
+
+"No, cook, there is no chance.  I forgot to tell you about that little
+matter.  The boy was here yesterday and he refused--absolutely declined
+a splendid offer."
+
+"I'm glad to hear it," returned the cook.
+
+"Tell us about it, Mr Balls," said Jessie Summers with a reproachful
+look at the other.  "I'm quite fond of that boy--he's such a smart
+fellow, and wouldn't be bad-looking if he'd only wash his face and comb
+his hair."
+
+"He's smart enough, no doubt, but impudence is his strong point,"
+rejoined the butler with a laugh.  The way he spoke to the master beats
+everything.
+
+"`I've sent for you, my boy,' said Sir Richard, in his usual dignified,
+kindly way, `to offer you the situation of under-gardener in my
+establishment.'"
+
+"`Oh! that's wot you wants with me, is it?' said the boy, as bold as
+brass; indeed I may say as bold as gun-metal, for his eyes an' teeth
+glittered as he spoke, and he said it with the air of a dook.  Master
+didn't quite seem to like it, but I saw he laid restraint on himself and
+said: `You have to thank my daughter for this offer--'
+
+"`Thank you, Miss,' said the boy, turnin' to Miss Di with a low bow,
+imitatin' Sir Richard's manner, I thought, as much as he could.
+
+"`Of course,' continued the master, rather sharply, `I offer you this
+situation out of mere charity--'
+
+"`Oh! you do, do you?' said the extraordinary boy in the coolest manner,
+`but wot if I objec' to receive charity?  Ven I 'olds a 'orse I expecs
+to be paid for so doin', same as you expecs to be paid w'en you attends
+a board-meetin' to grin an' do nuffin.'
+
+"`Come, come, boy,' said Sir Richard, gettin' redder in the face than I
+ever before saw him, `I am not accustomed to low pleasantry, and--'
+
+"`An' I ain't accustomed,' broke in the boy, `to 'igh hinsults.  Do you
+think that every gent what years a coat an' pants with 'oles in 'em is a
+beggar?'
+
+"For some moments master seemed to be struck speechless, an' I feared
+that in spite of his well-known gentleness of character he'd throw the
+ink-stand at the boy's head, but he didn't; he merely said in a low
+voice, `I would dismiss you at once, boy, were it not that I have
+promised my daughter to offer you employment, and you can see by her
+looks how much your unnatural conduct grieves her.'
+
+"An' this was true, for poor Miss Di sat there with her hands clasped,
+her eyes full of tears, her eyebrows disappearin' among her hair with
+astonishment, and her whole appearance the very pictur' of distress.
+`However,' continued Sir Richard, `I still make you the offer, though I
+doubt much whether you will be able to retain the situation.  Your wages
+will--'
+
+"`Please sir,' pleaded the boy, `don't mention the wages.  I couldn't
+stand that.  Indeed I couldn't; it would really be too much for me.'
+
+"`Why, what do you mean?' says master.
+
+"`I mean,' says Impudence, `that I agree with you.  I don't think I
+_could_ retain the sitivation, cause w'y?  In the fust place, I ain't
+got no talent at gardenin'.  The on'y time I tried it was w'en I planted
+a toolip in a flower-pot, an' w'en I dug it up to see 'ow it was
+a-gittin on a cove told me I'd planted it upside down.  However, I
+wasn't goin' to be beat by that cove, so I say to 'im, Jack, I says, I
+planted it so a purpus, an' w'en it sprouts I'm a-goin' to 'ang it up to
+see if it won't grow through the 'ole in the bottom.  In the second
+place, I couldn't retain the sitivation 'cause I don't intend to take
+it, though you was to offer me six thousand no shillin's an' no pence no
+farthin's a year as salary.'
+
+"I r'ally did think master would ha' dropt out of his chair at that.  As
+for Miss Di, she was so tickled that she gave a sort of hysterical
+laugh.
+
+"`Balls,' said master, `show him out, and--' he pulled up short, but I
+knew he meant to say have an eye on the great-coats and umbrellas, so I
+showed the boy out, an' he went down-stairs, quite quiet, but the last
+thing I saw of him was performin' a sort of minstrel dance at the end of
+the street just before he turned the corner and disappeared."
+
+"Imp'rence!" exclaimed the cook.
+
+"Naughty, ungrateful boy!" said Mrs Screwbury.
+
+"But it was plucky of him," said Jessie Summers.
+
+"I would call it cheeky," said Balls, "I can't think what put it into
+his head to go on so."
+
+If Mr Balls had followed Bobby Frog in spirit, watched his subsequent
+movements, and listened to his remarks, perhaps he might have understood
+the meaning of his conduct a little better.
+
+After he had turned the corner of the street, as above mentioned, Bobby
+trotted on for a short space, and then, coming to a full stop, executed
+a few steps of the minstrel dance, at the end of which he brought his
+foot down with tremendous emphasis on the pavement, and said--
+
+"Yes, I've bin an' done it.  I know'd I was game for a good deal, but I
+did _not_ think I was up to that.  One never knows wot 'e's fit for till
+'e tries.  Wot'll Hetty think, I wonder?"
+
+What Hetty thought he soon found out, for he overtook her on the Thames
+embankment on her way home.  Bobby was fond of that route, though a
+little out of his way, because he loved the running water, though it
+_was_ muddy, and the sight of steamers and barges.
+
+"Well, Bobby," she said, laying her hand on his shoulder, "where have
+you been?"
+
+"To see old Swallow'd-the-poker, Hetty."
+
+"What took you there?" asked the girl in surprise.
+
+"My legs.  You don't suppose I've set up my carriage yet, do you?"
+
+"Come, you know what I mean."
+
+"Vell, then, I went because I was sent for, an' wot d'ye think? the old
+gen'l'man hoffered me the sitivation of under-gardener!"
+
+"You don't say so!  Oh!  Bobby, what a lucky boy--an' what a kind
+gentleman!  Tell me all about it now," said Hetty, pressing her hand
+more tenderly on her brother's shoulder.  "What wages is he to give
+you?"
+
+"No wages wotsomever."
+
+Hetty looked into her brother's face with an expression of concerned
+surprise.  She knew some tradespeople who made her work hard for so very
+little, that it was not difficult to believe in a gentleman asking her
+brother to work for nothin'!  Still she had thought better of Sir
+Richard, and expected to hear something more creditable to him.
+
+"Ah, you may look, but I do assure you he is to give me no wages, an'
+I'm to do no work."
+
+Here Bobby executed a few steps of his favourite dance, but evidently
+from mere habit, and unconsciously, for he left off in the middle, and
+seemed to forget the salient point of emphasis with his foot.
+
+"What _do_ you mean, Bobby?--be earnest, like a dear boy, for once."
+
+"Earnest!" exclaimed the urchin with vehemence.  "I never was more in
+earnest in my life.  You should 'ave seen Swallow'd-the-poker w'en I
+refused to 'ave it."
+
+"Refused it?"
+
+"Ay--refused it.  Come Hetty, I'll explain."
+
+The boy dropped his facetious tone and manner while he rapidly ran over
+the chief points of his interview with Sir Richard.
+
+"But why did you refuse so good an offer?" asked Hetty, still unable to
+repress her surprise.
+
+"Because of daddy."
+
+"Daddy?"
+
+"Ay, daddy.  You know he's fond o' me, is daddy, and, d'ye know, though
+p'r'aps you mayn't believe it, I'm raither fond o' _him_; but 'e's a bad
+'un, is daddy.  He's bent on mischief, you see, an' 'e's set his 'art on
+my 'elpin' of 'im.  But I _wont_ 'elp 'im--that's flat.  Now, what d'ye
+think, Hetty," (here he dropped his voice to almost a whisper and looked
+solemn), "dad wants to make use o' me to commit a burglary on
+Swallow'd-the-poker's 'ouse."
+
+"You don't mean it, Bobby!"
+
+"But I do, Hetty.  Dad found out from that rediklous butler that goes
+veepin' around our court like a leeky pump, that the old gen'l'man was
+goin' to hoffer me this sitivation, an 'e's bin wery 'ard on me to
+accept it, so that I may find out the ways o' the 'ouse where the plate
+an' waluables lay, let 'im in some fine dark night an' 'elp 'im to carry
+off the swag."
+
+A distressed expression marked poor Hetty's reception of this news, but
+she said never a word.
+
+"Now you won't tell, Hetty?" said the boy with a look of real anxiety on
+his face.  "It's not so much his killin' me I cares about, but I
+wouldn't bring daddy to grief for any money.  I'd raither 'elp 'im than
+that.  You'll not say a word to nobody?"
+
+"No, Bobby, I won't say a word."
+
+"Vell, you see," continued the boy, "ven I'd made myself so disagreeable
+that the old gen'l'man would 'ave nothin' to do with me, I came straight
+away, an' 'ere I am; but it _was_ a trial, let me tell you, specially
+ven 'e come to mention wages--an sitch a 'eavenly smell o' roasted
+wittles come up from the kitchen too at the moment, but I 'ad only to
+look at Miss Di, to make me as stubborn as a nox or a hass.  `Wot!'
+thinks I to myself, `betray that hangel--no, never!' yet if I was to go
+into that 'ouse I know I'd do it, for daddy's got sitch a wheedlin' way
+with 'im w'en 'e likes, that I couldn't 'old hout long--so I giv' old
+Swallowed-the-poker sitch a lot o' cheek that I thought 'e'd kick me
+right through the winder.  He was considerable astonished as well as
+riled, I can tell you, an' Miss Di's face was a pictur', but the old
+butler was the sight.  He'd got 'is face screwed up into sitch a state
+o' surprise that it looked like a eight-day clock with a gamboil.  Now,
+Hetty, I'm goin' to tell 'ee what'll take your breath away.  I've made
+up my mind to go to Canada!"
+
+Hetty did, on hearing this, look as if her breath had been taken away.
+When it returned sufficiently she said:
+
+"Bobby, what put that into your head?"
+
+"The 'Ome of Hindustry," said Bobby with a mysterious look.
+
+"The Home of Industry," repeated the girl in surprise, for she knew that
+Institution well, having frequently assisted its workers in their labour
+of love.
+
+"Yes, that's the name--'Ome of Hindustry, what sends off so many ragged
+boys to Canada under Miss Macpherson."
+
+"Ay, Bobby, it does a great deal more than that," returned the girl.
+"Sending off poor boys and girls to Canada is only one branch of its
+work.  If you'd bin to its tea-meetin's for the destitute, as I have,
+an' its clothin' meetin's and its mothers' meetin's, an--"
+
+"'Ow d'ye know I 'aven't bin at 'em all?" asked the boy with an impudent
+look.
+
+"Well, you know, you couldn't have been at the mothers' meetings,
+Bobby."
+
+"Oh! for the matter o' that, no more could you."
+
+"True, but I've heard of them all many and many a time; but come, tell
+me all about it.  How did you come to go near the Home of Industry at
+all after refusing so often to go with me?"
+
+"Vell, I didn't go because of bein' axed to go, you may be sure o' that,
+but my little dosser, Tim Lumpy, you remember 'im?  The cove wi' the
+nose like a button, an' no body to speak of--all legs an' arms, like a
+'uman win'-mill; vell, you must know they've nabbed 'im, an' given 'im a
+rig-out o' noo slops, an' they're goin' to send 'im to Canada.  So I
+'appened to be down near the 'Ome one day three weeks past, an' I see
+Lumpy a-goin' in.  `'Allo!' says I.  `'Allo!' says 'e; an' then 'e told
+me all about it.  `Does they feed you well?'  I axed.  `Oh! don't they,
+just!' said 'e.  `There's to be a blow hout this wery night,' said 'e.
+`I wonder,' says I, `if they'd let me in, for I'm uncommon 'ungry, I
+tell you; 'ad nuffin' to heat since last night.'  Just as I said that, a
+lot o' fellers like me came tumblin' up to the door--so I sneaked in wi'
+the rest--for I thought they'd kick me hout if they knowed I'd come
+without inwitation."
+
+"Well, and what then?" asked Hetty.
+
+Here our little street-Arab began to tell, in his own peculiar language
+and style, how that he went in, and found a number of ladies in an upper
+room with forms set, and hot tea and bread to be had--as much as they
+could stuff--for nothing; that the boys were very wild and unruly at
+first, but that after the chief lady had prayed they became better, and
+that when half-a-dozen nice little girls were brought in and had sung a
+hymn or two they were quite quiet and ready to listen.  Like many other
+people, this city Arab did not like to speak out freely, even to his
+sister, on matters that touched his feelings deeply, but he said enough
+to let the eager and thankful Hetty know that not only had Jesus and His
+love been preached to the boys, but she perceived that what had been
+said and sung had made an unusual impression, though the little ragged
+waif sought to conceal it under the veil of cool pleasantry, and she now
+recognised the fact that the prayers which she had been putting up for
+many a day in her brother's behalf had been answered.
+
+"Oh!  I'm so happy," she said; and, unable to restrain herself, flung
+her arms round Bobby's neck and kissed him.
+
+It was evident that the little fellow rather liked this, though he
+pretended that he did not.
+
+"Come, old gal," he said brusquely, "none o' that sort o' thing.  I
+can't stand it.  Don't you see, the popilation is lookin' at us in
+surprise; besides, you've bin an' crushed all my shirt front!"
+
+"But," continued Hetty, as they walked on again, "I'm not happy to hear
+that you are goin' to Canada.  What ever will I do without you, Bobby?"
+
+Poor girl, she could well afford to do without him in one sense, for he
+had hitherto been chiefly an object of anxiety and expense to her,
+though also an object of love.
+
+"I'm sorry to think of goin' too, Hetty, for your sake an' mother's, but
+for daddy's sake and my own I _must_ go.  You see, I can't 'old hout
+agin 'im.  W'en 'e makes up 'is mind to a thing you know 'e sticks to
+it, for 'e's a tough un; an' 'e's got sitch a wheedlin' sort o' way with
+'im that I can't 'elp givin' in a'most.  So, you see, it'll be better
+for both of us that I should go away.  But I'll come back, you know,
+Hetty, with a fortin--see if I don't--an' then, oh! won't I keep a
+carridge an' a ridin' 'oss for daddy, an' feed mother an' you on
+plum-duff an' pork sassengers to breakfast, dinner, an' supper, with ice
+cream for a relish!"
+
+Poor Hetty did not even smile at this prospect of temporal felicity.
+She felt that in the main the boy was right, and that the only chance he
+had of escaping the toils in which her father was wrapping him by the
+strange union of affection and villainy, was to leave the country.  She
+knew, also, that, thanks to the Home of Industry and its promoters, the
+sending of a ragged, friendless, penniless London waif, clothed and in
+his right mind, to a new land of bright and hopeful prospects, was an
+event brought within the bounds of possibility.
+
+That night Bob Frog stood with his dosser, (i.e. his friend), Tim Lumpy,
+discussing their future prospects in the partial privacy of a
+railway-arch.  They talked long, and, for waifs, earnestly--both as to
+the land they were about to quit and that to which they were going; and
+the surprising fact might have been noted by a listener--had there been
+any such present, save a homeless cat--that neither of the boys
+perpetrated a joke for the space of at least ten minutes.
+
+"Vy," observed little Frog at length, "you seem to 'ave got all the fun
+drove out o' you, Lumpy."
+
+"Not a bit on it," returned the other, with a hurt look, as though he
+had been charged with some serious misdemeanour, "but it do seem sitch a
+shabby thing to go an' forsake my blind old mother."
+
+"But yer blind old mother wants you to go," said Bobby, "an' says she'll
+be well looked arter by the ladies of the 'Ome, and that she wouldn't
+stand in the way o' your prospec's.  Besides, she ain't yer mother!"
+
+This was true.  Tim Lumpy had neither father nor mother, nor relative on
+earth, and the old woman who, out of sheer pity, had taken him in and
+allowed him to call her "_mother_," was a widow at the lowest possible
+round of that social ladder, at the top of which--figuratively
+speaking--sits Her Gracious Majesty the Queen.  Mrs Lumpy had found him
+on her door-step, weeping and in rags, at the early age of five years.
+She had taken him in, and fed him on part of a penny loaf which formed
+the sole edible substance for her own breakfast.  She had mended his
+rags to the extent of her ability, but she had not washed his face,
+having no soap of her own, and not caring to borrow from neighbours who
+were in the same destitute condition.  Besides, she had too hard a
+battle to fight with an ever-present and pressing foe, to care much
+about dirt, and no doubt deemed a wash of tears now and then sufficient.
+Lumpy himself seemed to agree with her as to this, for he washed
+himself in that fashion frequently.
+
+Having sought for his parents in vain, with the aid of the police, Mrs
+Lumpy quietly kept the boy on; gave him her surname, prefixed that of
+Timothy, answered to the call of mother, and then left him to do very
+much as he pleased.
+
+In these circumstances, it was not surprising that little Tim soon grew
+to be one of the pests of his alley.  Tim was a weak-eyed boy, and
+remarkably thin, being, as his friend had said, composed chiefly of legs
+and arms.  There must have been a good deal of brain also, for he was
+keen-witted, as people soon began to find out to their cost.  Tim was
+observant also.  He observed, on nearing the age of ten years, that in
+the great river of life which daily flowed past him, there were certain
+faces which indicated tender and kindly hearts, coupled with defective
+brain-action, and a good deal of self-will.  He became painfully shrewd
+in reading such faces, and, on wet days, would present himself to them
+with his bare little red feet and half-naked body, rain water, (doing
+duty for tears), running from his weak bloodshot eyes, and falsehoods of
+the most pitiable, complex, and impudent character pouring from his thin
+blue lips, whilst awful solemnity seemed to shine on his visage.  The
+certain result was--coppers!
+
+These kindly ones have, unwittingly of course, changed a text of
+Scripture, and, for the words "_consider_ the poor," read "throw coppers
+to the poor!"  You see, it is much easier to relieve one's feelings by
+giving away a few pence, than to take the trouble of visiting, inquiring
+about, and otherwise _considering_, the poor!  At all events it would
+seem so, for Tim began to grow comparatively rich, and corrupted, still
+more deeply, associates who were already buried sufficiently in the
+depths of corruption.
+
+At last little Tim was met by a lady who had befriended him more than
+once, and who asked him why he preferred begging in the streets to going
+to the ragged school, where he would get not only food for the body, but
+for the soul.  He replied that he was hungry, and his mother had no
+victuals to give him, so he had gone out to beg.  The lady went straight
+to Mrs Lumpy, found the story to be true, and that the poor half-blind
+old woman was quite unable to support the boy and herself.  The lady
+prevailed on the old woman to attend the meetings for poor, aged, and
+infirm women in Miss Macpherson's "Beehive," and little Tim was taken
+into the "Home for Destitute Little Boys under ten years of age."
+
+It was not all smooth sailing in that Home after Tim Lumpy entered it!
+Being utterly untamed, Tim had many a sore struggle ere the temper was
+brought under control.  One day he was so bad that the governess was
+obliged to punish him by leaving him behind, while the other boys went
+out for a walk.  When left alone, the lady-superintendent tried to
+converse with him about obedience, but he became frightfully violent,
+and demanded his rags that he might return again to the streets.
+Finally he escaped, rushed to his old home in a paroxysm of rage, and
+then, getting on the roof, declared to the assembled neighbours that he
+would throw himself down and dash out his brains.  In this state a
+Bible-woman found him.  After offering the mental prayer, "Lord, help
+me," she entreated him to come down and join her in a cup of tea with
+his old mother.  The invitation perhaps struck the little rebel as
+having a touch of humour in it.  At all events he accepted it and
+forthwith descended.
+
+Over the tea, the Bible-woman prayed aloud for him, and the poor boy
+broke down, burst into tears, and begged forgiveness.  Soon afterwards
+he was heard tapping at the door of the Home--gentle and subdued.
+
+Thus was this waif rescued, and he now discussed with his former comrade
+the prospect of transferring themselves and their powers, mental and
+physical, to Canada.  Diverging from this subject to Bobby's father, and
+his dark designs, Tim asked if Ned Frog had absolutely decided to break
+into Sir Richard Brandon's house, and Bobby replied that he had; that
+his father had wormed out of the butler, who was a soft stupid sort of
+cove, where the plate and valuables were kept, and that he and another
+man had arranged to do it.
+
+"Is the partikler night fixed?" asked Tim.
+
+"Yes; it's to be the last night o' this month."
+
+"Why not give notice?" asked Tim.
+
+"'Cause I won't peach on daddy," said Bob Frog stoutly.
+
+Little Tim received this with a "quite right, old dosser," and then
+proposed that the meeting should adjourn, as he was expected back at the
+Home by that time.
+
+Two weeks or so after that, Police-Constable Number 666 was walking
+quietly along one of the streets of his particular beat in the West-end,
+with that stateliness of step which seems to be inseparable from place,
+power, and six feet two.
+
+It was a quiet street, such as Wealth loves to inhabit.  There were few
+carriages passing along it, and fewer passengers.  Number 666 had
+nothing particular to do--the inhabitants being painfully well-behaved,
+and the sun high.  His mind, therefore, roamed about aimlessly,
+sometimes bringing playfully before him a small abode, not very far
+distant, where a pretty woman was busy with household operations, and a
+ferocious policeman, about three feet high, was taking into custody an
+incorrigible criminal of still smaller size.
+
+A little boy, with very long arms and legs, might have been seen
+following our friend Giles Scott, until the latter entered upon one of
+those narrow paths made by builders on the pavements of streets when
+houses are undergoing repairs.  Watching until Giles was half way along
+it, the boy ran nimbly up and accosted him with a familiar--
+
+"Well, old man, 'ow are you?"
+
+"Pretty bobbish, thank you," returned the constable, for he was a
+good-natured man, and rather liked a little quiet chaff with street-boys
+when not too much engaged with duty.
+
+"Well, now, are you aweer that there's a-goin' to be a burglairy
+committed in this 'ere quarter?" asked the boy, thrusting both hands
+deep into his pockets, and bending his body a little back, so as to look
+more easily up at his tall friend.
+
+"Ah! indeed, well no, I didn't know it, for I forgot to examine the
+books at Scotland Yard this morning, but I've no doubt it's entered
+there by your friend who's goin' to commit it."
+
+"No, it ain't entered there," said the boy, with a manner and tone that
+rather surprised Number 666; "and I'd advise you to git out your
+note-book, an' clap down wot I'm a-goin' to tell ye.  You know the 'ouse
+of Sir Richard Brandon?"
+
+"Yes, I know it."
+
+"Well, that 'ouse is to be cracked on the 31st night o' this month."
+
+"How d'you know that, lad?" asked Giles, moving towards the end of the
+barricade, so as to get nearer to his informant.
+
+"No use, bobby," said Tim, "big as you are, you can't nab me.  Believe
+me or not as you like, but I advise you to look arter that there 'ouse
+on the 31st if you valley your repitation."
+
+Tim went off like a congreve rocket, dashed down a side street, sloped
+into an alley, and melted into a wilderness of bricks and mortar.
+
+Of course Giles did not attempt to follow, but some mysterious
+communications passed between him and his superintendent that night
+before he went to bed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+SIR RICHARD AND MR. BRISBANE DISCUSS, AND DI LISTENS.
+
+"My dear sir," said Sir Richard Brandon, over a glass of sherry one
+evening after dinner, to George Brisbane, Esquire of Lively Hall, "the
+management of the poor is a difficult, a very difficult subject to deal
+with."
+
+"It is, unquestionably," assented Brisbane, "so difficult, that I am
+afraid some of our legislators are unwilling to face it; but it ought to
+be faced, for there is much to be done in the way of improving the
+poor-laws, which at present tend to foster pauperism in the young, and
+bear heavily on the aged.  Meanwhile, philanthropists find it necessary
+to take up the case of the poor as a private enterprise."
+
+"Pardon me, Brisbane, there I think you are in error.  Everything
+requisite to afford relief to the poor is provided by the state.  If the
+poor will not take advantage of the provision, or the machinery is not
+well oiled and worked by the officials, the remedy lies in greater
+wisdom on the part of the poor, and supervision of officials--not in
+further legislation.  But what do you mean by our poor-laws bearing
+heavily on the aged?"
+
+"I mean that the old people should be better cared for, simply because
+of their age.  Great age is a sufficient argument of itself, I think,
+for throwing a veil of oblivion over the past, and extending charity
+with a liberal, pitying hand, because of present distress, and
+irremediable infirmities.  Whatever may be the truth with regard to
+paupers and workhouses in general, there ought to be a distinct refuge
+for the aged, which should be attractive--not repulsive, as at present--
+and age, without reference to character or antecedents, should
+constitute the title to enter it.  `God pity the aged poor,' is often my
+prayer, `and enable us to feel more for them in the dreary, pitiful
+termination of their career.'"
+
+"But, my dear sir," returned Sir Richard, "you would have old paupers
+crowding into such workhouses, or refuges as you call them, by the
+thousand."
+
+"Well, better that they should do so than that they should die miserably
+by thousands in filthy and empty rooms--sometimes without fire, or food,
+or physic, or a single word of kindness to ease their sad descent into
+the grave."
+
+"But, then, Brisbane, as I said, it is their own fault--they have the
+workhouse to go to."
+
+"But, then, as _I_ said, Sir Richard, the workhouse is rendered so
+repulsive to them that they keep out of it as long as they can, and too
+often keep out so long that it is too late, and their end is as I have
+described.  However, until things are better arranged, we must do what
+we can for them in a private way.  Indeed Scripture teaches distinctly
+the necessity for private charity, by such words as--`the poor ye have
+always with you,' and, `blessed are they who consider the poor.'  Don't
+you agree with me, Mr Welland?"
+
+Stephen Welland--who, since the day of his accident, had become intimate
+with Mr Brisbane and Sir Richard--replied that although deeply
+interested in the discussion going on, his knowledge of the subject was
+too slight to justify his holding any decided opinion.
+
+"Take another glass of sherry," said Sir Richard, pushing the decanter
+towards the young man; "it will stir your brain and enable you to see
+your way more clearly through this knotty point."
+
+"No more, thank you, Sir Richard."
+
+"Come, come--fill your glass," said the knight; "you and I must set an
+example of moderate drinking to Brisbane, as a counter-blast to his
+Blue-Ribbonism."
+
+Welland smiled and re-filled his glass.
+
+"Nay, I never thrust my opinions on that point on people," said
+Brisbane, with a laugh, "but if you _will_ draw the sword and challenge
+me, I won't refuse the combat!"
+
+"No, no, Brisbane.  Please spare us!  I re-sheath the sword, and need
+not that you should go all over it again.  I quite understand that you
+are no bigot, that you think the Bible clearly permits and encourages
+total abstinence in certain circumstances, though it does not teach it;
+that, although a total abstainer yourself, you do not refuse to give
+drink to your friends if they desire it--and all that sort of thing; but
+pray let it pass, and I won't offend again."
+
+"Ah, Sir Richard, you are an unfair foe.  You draw your sword to give me
+a wound through our young friend, and then sheath it before I can return
+on you.  However, you have stated my position so well that I forgive you
+and shake hands.  But, to return to the matter of private charity, are
+you aware how little suffices to support the poor--how very far the mere
+crumbs that fall from a rich man's table will go to sustain them I Now,
+just take the glass of wine which Welland has swallowed--against his
+expressed wish, observe, and merely to oblige you, Sir Richard.  Its
+value is, say, sixpence.  Excuse me, I do not of course refer to its
+real value, but to its recognised restaurant-value!  Well, I happened
+the other day to be at a meeting of old women at the `Beehive' in
+Spitalfields; there were some eighty or a hundred of them.  With dim
+eyes and trembling fingers they were sewing garments for the boys who
+are to be sent out to Canada.  Such feeble workers could not find
+employment elsewhere, but by liberal hearts a plan has been devised
+whereby many an aged one, past work, can earn a few pence.  Twopence an
+hour is the pay.  They are in the habit of meeting once a week for three
+hours, and thus earn sixpence.  Many of these women, I may remark, are
+true Christians.  I wondered how far such a sum would go, and how the
+poor old things spent it.  One woman sixty-three years of age
+enlightened me.  She was a feeble old creature, suffering from chronic
+rheumatism and a dislocated hip.  When I questioned her she said--`I
+have difficulties indeed, but I tell my Father all.  Sometimes, when I'm
+very hungry and have nothing to eat, I tell Him, and I know He hears me,
+for He takes the feeling away, and it only leaves me a little faint.'
+
+"`But how do you spend the sixpence that you earn here?'  I asked.
+
+"`Well, sir,' she said, `sometimes, when very hard-up, I spend part of
+it this way:--I buy a hap'orth o' tea, a hap'orth o' sugar, a hap'orth
+o' drippin', a hap'orth o' wood and a penn'orth o' bread.  Sometimes
+when better off than usual I get a heap of coals at a time, perhaps
+quarter of a hundredweight, because I save a farthing by getting the
+whole quarter, an' that lasts me a long time, and wi' the farthing I
+mayhap treat myself to a drop o' milk.  Sometimes, too, I buy my
+penn'orth o' wood from the coopers and chop it myself, for I can make it
+go further that way.'
+
+"So, you see, Welland," continued Brisbane, "your glass of sherry would
+have gone a long way in the domestic calculations of a poor old woman,
+who very likely once had sons who were as fond of her and as proud of
+her, as you now are of your own mother."
+
+"It is very sad that any class of human beings should be reduced to so
+low an ebb," returned the young man seriously.
+
+"Yes, and it is very difficult," said Sir Richard, "to reduce one's
+mental action so as to fully understand the exact bearing of such minute
+monetary arrangements, especially for one who is accustomed to regard
+the subject of finance from a different standpoint."
+
+"But the saddest thing of all to me, and the most difficult to
+understand," resumed Brisbane, "is the state of mind and feeling of
+those professing Christians, who, with ample means, give exceedingly
+little towards the alleviation of such distress, take little or no
+interest in the condition of the poor, and allow as much waste in their
+establishments as would, if turned to account, become streamlets of
+absolute wealth to many of the destitute."
+
+This latter remark was a thrust which told pretty severely on the host--
+all the more so, perhaps, that he knew Brisbane did not intend it as a
+thrust at all, for he was utterly ignorant of the fact that his friend
+seldom gave anything away in charity, and even found it difficult to pay
+his way and make the two ends meet with his poor little five thousand a
+year--for, you see, if a man has to keep up a fairly large
+establishment, with a town and country house, and have his yacht, and a
+good stable, and indulge in betting, and give frequent dinners, and take
+shootings in Scotland, and amuse himself with jewellery, etcetera, why,
+he must pay for it, you know!
+
+"The greatest trouble of these poor women, I found," continued Brisbane,
+"is their rent, which varies from 2 shillings to 3 shillings a week for
+their little rooms, and it is a constant struggle with them to keep out
+of `the House,' so greatly dreaded by the respectable poor.  One of them
+told me she had lately saved up a shilling with which she bought a pair
+of `specs,' and was greatly comforted thereby, for they helped her
+fading eyesight.  I thought at the time what a deal of good might be
+done and comfort given if people whose sight is changing would send
+their disused spectacles to the home of Industry in Commercial Street,
+Spitalfields, for the poor.  By the way, your sight must have changed
+more than once, Sir Richard!  Have you not a pair or two of disused
+spectacles to spare?"
+
+"Well, yes, I have a pair or two, but they have gold rims, which would
+be rather incongruous on the noses of poor people, don't you think?"
+
+"Oh! by no means.  We could manage to convert the rims into blue steel,
+and leave something over for sugar and tea."
+
+"Well, I'll send them," said Sir Richard with a laugh.  "By the way, you
+mentioned a plan whereby those poor women were enabled to do useful
+work, although too old for much.  What plan might that be?"
+
+"It is a very simple plan," answered Brisbane, "and consists chiefly in
+the work being apportioned according to ability.  Worn garments and odds
+and ends of stuff are sent to the Beehive from all parts of the country
+by sympathising friends.  These are heaped together in one corner of the
+room where the poor old things work.  Down before this mass of stuff are
+set certain of the company who have large constructive powers.  These
+skilfully contrive, cut out, alter, and piece together all kinds of
+clothing, including the house slippers and Glengarry caps worn by the
+little rescued boys.  Even handkerchiefs and babies' long frocks are
+conjured out of a petticoat or muslin lining!  The work, thus selected
+and arranged, is put into the hands of those who, though not skilful in
+originating, have the plodding patience to carry out the designs of the
+more ingenious, and so garments are produced to cover the shivering
+limbs of any destitute child that may enter the Refuge as well as to
+complete the outfits of the little emigrants."
+
+"Well, Brisbane, I freely confess," said Sir Richard, "that you have
+roused a degree of interest in poor old women which I never felt before,
+and it does seem to me that we might do a good deal more for them with
+our mere superfluities and cast-off clothing.  Do the old women receive
+any food on these working nights besides the pence they earn?"
+
+"No, I am sorry to say they do not--at least not usually.  You see it
+takes a hundred or more sixpences every Monday merely to keep that
+sewing-class going, and more than once there has been a talk of closing
+it for want of funds, but the poor creatures have pleaded so pitifully
+that they might still be allowed to attend, even though they should work
+at _half-price_, that it has been hitherto continued.  You see it is a
+matter of no small moment for those women merely to spend three hours in
+a room with a good fire, besides which they delight in the hymns and
+prayers and the loving counsel and comfort they receive.  It enables
+them to go out into the cold, even though hungry, with more heart and
+trust in God as they limp slowly back again to their fireless grates and
+bare cupboards.
+
+"The day on which I visited the place I could not bear the thought of
+this, so I gave a sovereign to let them have a good meal.  This
+sufficed.  Large kettles are always kept in readiness for such
+occasions.  These were put on immediately by the matron.  The elder
+girls in training on the floor above set to work to cut thick slices of
+bread and butter, the tea urns were soon brought down, and in twenty
+minutes I had the satisfaction of seeing the whole hundred eating
+heartily and enjoying a hot meal.  My own soul was fed, too--for the
+words came to me, `I was an hungered and ye gave me meat,' and one old
+woman, sitting near me, said, `I have a long walk home, and have been
+casting over in my mind all the afternoon whether I could spare a penny
+for a cup of tea on the way.  How good the Lord is to send this!'"
+
+With large, round, glittering eyes and parted lips, and heightened
+colour and varying expression, sat little Di Brandon at her father's
+elbow, almost motionless, her little hands clasped tight, and uttering
+never a word, but gazing intently at the speakers and drinking it all
+in, while sorrow, surprise, sympathy, indignation, and intense pity
+stirred her little heart to its very centre.
+
+In the nursery she retailed it all over, with an eager face and rapid
+commentary, to the sympathetic Mrs Screwbury, and finally, in bed,
+presided over millions of old women who made up mountains of old
+garments, devoured fields of buttered bread, and drank oceans of
+steaming tea!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+SAMMY TWITTER'S FALL.
+
+We must turn now to Samuel Twitter, senior.  That genial old man was
+busy one morning in the nursery, amusing little Mita, who had by that
+time attained to what we may style the dawn-of-intelligence period of
+life, and was what Mrs Loper, Mr Crackaby, and Mr Stickler called
+"engaging."
+
+"Mariar!" shouted Mr Twitter to his amiable spouse, who was finishing
+her toilet in the adjoining room.  "She's makin' faces at me--yes, she's
+actually attempting to laugh!"
+
+"The darling!" came from the next room, in emphatic tones.
+
+"Mariar!"
+
+"Well, dear."
+
+"Is Sammy down in the parlour?"
+
+"I don't know.  Why?"
+
+"Because he's not in his room--tumti-iddidy-too-too--you charming
+thing!"
+
+It must be understood that the latter part of this sentence had
+reference to the baby, not to Mrs Twitter.
+
+Having expended his affections and all his spare time on Mita,--who, to
+do her justice, made faces enough at him to repay his attentions in
+full,--Mr Twitter descended to the breakfast parlour and asked the
+domestic if she had seen Sammy yet.
+
+"No, sir, I hain't."
+
+"Are you sure he's not in his room?"
+
+"Well, no, sir, but I knocked twice and got no answer."
+
+"Very odd; Sammy didn't use to be late, nor to sleep so soundly," said
+Mr Twitter, ascending to the attic of his eldest son.
+
+Obtaining no reply to his knock, he opened the door and found that the
+room was empty.  More than that, he discovered, to his surprise and
+alarm, that Sammy's bed was unruffled, so that Sammy himself must have
+slept elsewhere!
+
+In silent consternation the father descended to his bedroom and said,
+"Mariar, Sammy's gone!"
+
+"Dead!" exclaimed Mrs Twitter with a look of horror.
+
+"No, no; not dead, but gone--gone out of the house.  Did not sleep in it
+last night, apparently."
+
+Poor Mrs Twitter sank into a chair and gazed at her husband with a
+stricken face.
+
+Up to that date the family had prospered steadily, and, may we not add,
+deservedly; their children having been trained in the knowledge of God,
+their duties having been conscientiously discharged, their sympathies
+with suffering humanity encouraged, and their general principles carried
+into practical effect.  The consequence was that they were a
+well-ordered and loving family.  There are many such in our land--
+families which are guided by the Spirit and the Word of God.  The sudden
+disappearance, therefore, of the eldest son of the Twitter family was
+not an event to be taken lightly for he had never slept out of his own
+particular bed without the distinct knowledge of his father and mother
+since he was born, and his appearance at the breakfast-table had been
+hitherto as certain as the rising of the sun or the winding of the
+eight-day clock by his father every Saturday night.
+
+In addition to all this, Sammy was of an amiable disposition, and had
+been trustworthy, so that when he came to the years of discretion--which
+his father had fixed at fifteen--he was allowed a latch-key, as he had
+frequently to work at his employer's books till a lateish hour,--
+sometimes eleven o'clock--after the family, including the domestic, had
+gone to rest.
+
+"Now, Samuel," said Mrs Twitter, with a slight return of her wonted
+energy, "there can be only two explanations of this.  Either the dear
+boy has met with an accident, or--"
+
+"Well, Mariar, why do you pause?"
+
+"Because it seems so absurd to think of, much more to talk of, his going
+wrong or running away!  The first thing I've got to do, Samuel, is to go
+to the police-office, report the case, and hear what they have to
+advise."
+
+"The very thing I was thinking of, Mariar; but don't it strike you it
+might be better that _I_ should go to the station?"
+
+"No, Samuel, the station is near.  I can do that, while you take a cab,
+go straight away to his office and find out at what hour he left.  Now,
+go; we have not a moment to lose.  Mary," (this was the next in order to
+Sammy), "will look after the children's breakfast.  Make haste!"
+
+Mr Twitter made haste--made it so fast that he made too much of it,
+over-shot the mark, and went down-stairs head foremost, saluting the
+front door with a rap that threw that of the postman entirely into the
+shade.  But Twitter was a springy as well as an athletic man.  He arose
+undamaged, made no remark to his more than astonished children, and went
+his way.
+
+Mrs Twitter immediately followed her husband's example in a less
+violent and eccentric manner.  The superintendent of police received her
+with that affable display of grave good-will which is a characteristic
+of the force.  He listened with patient attention to the rather
+incoherent tale which she told with much agitation--unbosoming herself
+to this officer to a quite unnecessary extent as to private feelings and
+opinions, and, somehow, feeling as if he were a trusted and confidential
+friend though he was an absolute stranger--such is the wonderful
+influence of Power in self-possessed repose, over Weakness in
+distressful uncertainty!
+
+Having heard all that the good lady had to say, with scarcely a word of
+interruption; having put a few pertinent and relevant questions and
+noted the replies, the superintendent advised Mrs Twitter to calm
+herself, for that it would soon be "all right;" to return home, and
+abide the issue of his exertions; to make herself as easy in the
+circumstances as possible, and, finally, sent her away with the first
+ray of comfort that had entered her heart since the news of Sammy's
+disappearance had burst upon her like a thunderclap.
+
+"What a thing it is," she muttered to herself on her way home, "to put
+things into the hands of a _man_--one you can feel sure will do
+everything sensibly and well, and without fuss."  The good lady meant no
+disparagement to her sex by this--far from it; she referred to a manly
+man as compared with an unmanly one, and she thought, for one moment,
+rather disparagingly about the salute which her Samuel's bald pate had
+given to the door that morning.  Probably she failed to think of the
+fussy manner in which she herself had assaulted the superintendent of
+police, for it is said that people seldom see themselves!
+
+But Mrs Twitter was by no means bitter in her thoughts, and her
+conscience twitted her a little for having perhaps done Samuel a slight
+injustice.
+
+Indeed she _had_ done him injustice, for that estimable little man went
+about his inquiries after the lost Sammy with a lump as big as a walnut
+on the top of his head, and with a degree of persistent energy that
+might have made the superintendent himself envious.
+
+"Not been at the office for two days, sir!" exclaimed Mr Twitter,
+repeating--in surprised indignation, for he could not believe it--the
+words of Sammy's employer, who was a merchant in the hardware line.
+
+"No, sir," said the hardware man, whose face seemed as hard as his ware.
+
+"Do--you--mean--to--tell--me," said Twitter, with deliberate solemnity,
+"that my son Samuel has not been in this office for _two days_?"
+
+"That is precisely what I mean to tell you," returned the hardware man,
+"and I mean to tell you, moreover, that your son has been very irregular
+of late in his attendance, and that on more than one occasion he has
+come here drunk."
+
+"Drunk!" repeated Twitter, almost in a shout.
+
+"Yes, sir, drunk--intoxicated."
+
+The hardware man seemed at that moment to Mr Twitter the hardest-ware
+man that ever confronted him.  He stood for some moments aghast and
+speechless.
+
+"Are you aware, sir," he said at last, in impressive tones, "that my son
+Samuel wears the blue ribbon?"
+
+The hardware man inquired, with an expression of affected surprise, what
+that had to do with the question; and further, gave it as his opinion
+that a bit of blue ribbon was no better than a bit of red or green
+ribbon if it had not something better behind it.
+
+This latter remark, although by no means meant to soothe, had the effect
+of reducing Mr Twitter to a condition of sudden humility.
+
+"There, sir," said he, "I entirely agree with you, but I had believed--
+indeed it seems to me almost impossible to believe otherwise--that my
+poor boy had religious principle behind his blue ribbon."
+
+This was said in such a meek tone, and with such a woe-begone look as
+the conviction began to dawn that Sammy was not immaculate--that the
+hardware man began visibly to soften, and at last a confidential talk
+was established, in which was revealed such a series of irregularities
+on the part of the erring son, that the poor father's heart was crushed
+for the time, and, as it were, trodden in the dust.  In his extremity,
+he looked up to God and found relief in rolling his care upon Him.
+
+As he slowly recovered from the shock, Twitter's brain resumed its
+wonted activity.
+
+"You have a number of clerks, I believe?" he suddenly asked the hardware
+man.
+
+"Yes, I have--four of them."
+
+"Would you object to taking me through your warehouse, as if to show it
+to me, and allow me to look at your clerks?"
+
+"Certainly not.  Come along."
+
+On entering, they found one tying up a parcel, one writing busily, one
+reading a book, and one balancing a ruler on his nose.  The latter, on
+being thus caught in the act, gave a short laugh, returned the ruler to
+its place, and quietly went on with his work.  The reader of the book
+started, endeavoured to conceal the volume, in which effort he was
+unsuccessful, and became very red in the face as he resumed his pen.
+
+The employer took no notice, and Mr Twitter looked very hard at the
+hardware in the distant end of the warehouse, just over the desk at
+which the clerks sat.  He made a few undertoned remarks to the master,
+and then, crossing over to the desk, said:--
+
+"Mr Dobbs, may I have the pleasure of a few minutes' conversation with
+you outside?"
+
+"C-certainly, sir," replied Dobbs, rising with a redder face than ever,
+and putting on his hat.
+
+"Will you be so good as to tell me, Mr Dobbs," said Twitter, in a quiet
+but very decided way when outside, "where my son Samuel Twitter spent
+last night?"
+
+Twitter looked steadily in the clerk's eyes as he put this question.  He
+was making a bold stroke for success as an amateur detective, and, as is
+frequently the result of bold strokes, he succeeded.
+
+"Eh! your--your--son S-Samuel," stammered Dobbs, looking at Twitter's
+breast-pin, and then at the ground, while varying expressions of guilty
+shame and defiance flitted across his face.
+
+He had a heavy, somewhat sulky face, with indecision of character
+stamped on it.  Mr Twitter saw that and took advantage of the latter
+quality.
+
+"My poor boy," he said, "don't attempt to deceive me.  You are guilty,
+and you know it.  Stay, don't speak yet.  I have no wish to injure you.
+On the contrary, I pray God to bless and save you; but what I want with
+you at this moment is to learn where my dear boy is.  If you tell me, no
+further notice shall be taken of this matter, I assure you."
+
+"Does--does--he know anything about this?" asked Dobbs, glancing in the
+direction of the warehouse of the hardware man.
+
+"No, nothing of your having led Sammy astray, if that's what you mean,--
+at least, not from me, and you may depend on it he shall hear nothing,
+if you only confide in me.  Of course he may have his suspicions."
+
+"Well, sir," said Dobbs, with a sigh of relief, "he's in my lodgings."
+
+Having ascertained the address of the lodgings, the poor father called a
+cab and soon stood by the side of a bed on which his son Sammy lay
+sprawling in the helpless attitude in which he had fallen down the night
+before, after a season of drunken riot.  He was in a heavy sleep, with
+his still innocent-looking features tinged with the first blight of
+dissipation.
+
+"Sammy," said the father, in a husky voice, as he shook him gently by
+the arm; but the poor boy made no answer--even a roughish shake failed
+to draw from him more than the grumbled desire, "let me alone."
+
+"Oh!  God spare and save him!" murmured the father, in a still husky
+voice, as he fell on his knees by the bedside and prayed--prayed as
+though his heart were breaking, while the object of his prayer lay
+apparently unconscious through it all.
+
+He rose, and was standing by the bedside, uncertain how to act, when a
+heavy tread was heard on the landing, the door was thrown open, and the
+landlady, announcing "a gentleman, sir," ushered in the superintendent
+of police, who looked at Mr Twitter with a slight expression of
+surprise.
+
+"You are here before me, I see, sir," he said.
+
+"Yes, but how did you come to find out that he was here?"
+
+"Well, I had not much difficulty.  You see it is part of our duty to
+keep our eyes open," replied the superintendent, with a peculiar smile,
+"and I have on several occasions observed your son entering this house
+with a companion in a condition which did not quite harmonise with his
+blue ribbon, so, after your good lady explained the matter to me this
+morning I came straight here."
+
+"Thank you--thank you.  It is _very_ kind.  I--you--it could not have
+been better managed."
+
+Mr Twitter stopped and looked helplessly at the figure on the bed.
+
+"Perhaps," said the superintendent, with much delicacy of feeling, "you
+would prefer to be alone with your boy when he awakes.  If I can be of
+any further use to you, you know where to find me.  Good-day, sir."
+
+Without waiting for a reply the considerate superintendent left the
+room.
+
+"Oh!  Sammy, Sammy, speak to me, my dear boy--speak to your old father!"
+he cried, turning again to the bed and kneeling beside it; but the
+drunken sleeper did not move.
+
+Rising hastily he went to the door and called the landlady.
+
+"I'll go home, missis," he said, "and send the poor lad's mother to
+him."
+
+"Very well, sir, I'll look well after 'im till she comes."
+
+Twitter was gone in a moment, and the old landlady returned to her
+lodger's room.  There, to her surprise, she found Sammy up and hastily
+pulling on his boots.
+
+In truth he had been only shamming sleep, and, although still very
+drunk, was quite capable of looking after himself.  He had indeed been
+asleep when his father's entrance awoke him, but a feeling of intense
+shame had induced him to remain quite still, and then, having commenced
+with this unspoken lie, he felt constrained to carry it out.  But the
+thought of facing his mother he could not bear, for the boy had a
+sensitive spirit and was keenly alive to the terrible fall he had made.
+At the same time he was too cowardly to face the consequences.  Dressing
+himself as well as he could, he rushed from the house in spite of the
+earnest entreaties of the old landlady, so that when the distracted
+mother came to embrace and forgive her erring child she found that he
+had fled.
+
+Plunging into the crowded thoroughfares of the great city, and walking
+swiftly along without aim or desire, eaten up with shame, and rendered
+desperate by remorse, the now reckless youth sought refuge in a low
+grog-shop, and called for a glass of beer.
+
+"Well, I say, you're com--comin' it raither strong, ain't you, young
+feller?" said a voice at his elbow.
+
+He looked up hastily, and saw a blear-eyed youth in a state of
+drivelling intoxication, staring at him with the expression of an idiot.
+
+"That's no business of yours," replied Sam Twitter, sharply.
+
+"Well, thash true, 'tain't no b-busnish o' mine.  I--I'm pretty far gone
+m'self, I allow; but I ain't quite got the l-length o' drinkin' in a
+p-public 'ouse wi' th' bl-blue ribb'n on."
+
+The fallen lad glanced at his breast.  There it was,--forgotten,
+desecrated!  He tore it fiercely from his button-hole, amid the laughter
+of the bystanders--most of whom were women of the lowest grade--and
+dashed it on the floor.
+
+"Thash right.--You're a berrer feller than I took you for," said the sot
+at his elbow.
+
+To avoid further attention Sammy took his beer into a dark corner and
+was quickly forgotten.
+
+He had not been seated more than a few minutes when the door opened, and
+a man with a mild, gentle, yet manly face entered.
+
+"Have a glass, ol' feller?" said the sot, the instant he caught sight of
+him.
+
+"Thank you, no--not to-day," replied John Seaward, for it was our city
+missionary on what he sometimes called a fishing excursion--fishing for
+men!  "I have come to give you a glass to-day, friends."
+
+"Well, that's friendly," said a gruff voice in a secluded box, out of
+which next minute staggered Ned Frog.  "Come, what is't to be, old man?"
+
+"A looking-glass," replied the missionary, picking out a tract from the
+bundle he held in his hand and offering it to the ex-prize-fighter.
+"But the tract is not the glass I speak of, friend: here it is, in the
+Word of that God who made us all--made the throats that swallow the
+drink, and the brains that reel under it."
+
+Here he read from a small Bible, "`But they also have erred through
+wine, and through strong drink are out of the way.'"
+
+"Bah!" said Ned, flinging the tract on the floor and exclaiming as he
+left the place with a swing; "I don't drink wine, old man; can't afford
+anything better than beer, though sometimes, when I'm in luck, I have a
+drop of Old Tom."
+
+There was a great burst of ribald laughter at this, and numerous were
+the witticisms perpetrated at the expense of the missionary, but he took
+no notice of these for a time, occupying himself merely in turning over
+the leaves of his Bible.  When there was a lull he said:--
+
+"Now, dear sisters," (turning to the women who, with a more or less
+drunken aspect and slatternly air, were staring at him), "for sisters of
+mine you are, having been made by the same Heavenly Father; I won't
+offer you another glass,--not even a looking-glass,--for the one I have
+already held up to you will do, if God's Holy Spirit opens your eyes to
+see yourselves in it; but I'll give you a better object to look at.  It
+is a Saviour--one who is able to save you from the drink, and from sin
+in every form.  You know His name well, most of you; it is Jesus, and
+that name means Saviour, for He came to save His people from their
+sins."
+
+At this point he was interrupted by one of the women, who seemed bent on
+keeping up the spirit of banter with which they had begun.  She asked
+him with a leer if he had got a wife.
+
+"No," he said, "but I have got a great respect and love for women,
+because I've got a mother, and if ever there was a woman on the face of
+this earth that deserves the love of a son, that woman is my mother.
+Sister," he added, turning to one of those who sat on a bench near him
+with a thin, puny, curly-haired boy wrapped up in her ragged shawl, "the
+best prayer that I could offer up for you--and I _do_ offer it--is, that
+the little chap in your arms may grow up to bless his mother as heartily
+as I bless mine, but that can never be, so long as you love the strong
+drink and refuse the Saviour."
+
+At that moment a loud cry was heard outside.  They all rose and ran to
+the door, where a woman, in the lowest depths of depravity, with her
+eyes bloodshot, her hair tumbling about her half-naked shoulders, and
+her ragged garments draggled and wet, had fallen in her efforts to enter
+the public-house to obtain more of the poison which had already almost
+destroyed her.  She had cut her forehead, and the blood flowed freely
+over her face as the missionary lifted her.  He was a powerful man, and
+could take her up tenderly and with ease.  She was not much hurt,
+however.  After Seaward had bandaged the cut with his own handkerchief
+she professed to be much better.
+
+This little incident completed the good influence which the missionary's
+words and manner had previously commenced.  Most of the women began to
+weep as they listened to the words of love, encouragement, and hope
+addressed to them.  A few of course remained obdurate, though not
+unimpressed.
+
+All this time young Sam Twitter remained in his dark corner, with his
+head resting on his arms to prevent his being recognised.  Well did he
+know John Seaward, and well did Seaward know him, for the missionary had
+long been a fellow-worker with Mrs Twitter in George Yard and at the
+Home of Industry.  The boy was very anxious to escape Seaward's
+observation.  This was not a difficult matter.  When the missionary
+left, after distributing his tracts, Sammy rose up and sought to hide
+himself--from himself, had that been possible--in the lowest slums of
+London.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+TELLS OF SOME CURIOUS AND VIGOROUS PECULIARITIES OF THE LOWER ORDERS.
+
+Now it must not be supposed that Mrs Frog, having provided for her baby
+and got rid of it, remained thereafter quite indifferent to it.  On the
+contrary, she felt the blank more than she had expected, and her
+motherly heart began to yearn for it powerfully.
+
+To gratify this yearning to some extent, she got into the habit of
+paying frequent visits, sometimes by night and sometimes by day, to the
+street in which Samuel Twitter lived, and tried to see her baby through
+the stone walls of the house!  Her eyes being weak, as well as her
+imagination, she failed in this effort, but the mere sight of the house
+where little Matty was, sufficed to calm her maternal yearnings in some
+slight degree.
+
+By the way, that name reminds us of our having omitted to mention that
+baby Frog's real name was Matilda, and her pet name Matty, so that the
+name of Mita, fixed on by the Twitters, was not so wide of the mark as
+it might have been.
+
+One night Mrs Frog, feeling the yearning strong upon her, put on her
+bonnet and shawl--that is to say, the bundle of dirty silk, pasteboard,
+and flowers which represented the one, and the soiled tartan rag that
+did duty for the other.
+
+"Where are ye off to, old woman?" asked Ned, who, having been recently
+successful in some little "job," was in high good humour.
+
+"I'm goin' round to see Mrs Tibbs, Ned.  D'you want me?"
+
+"No, on'y I'm goin' that way too, so we'll walk together."
+
+Mrs Frog, we regret to say, was not particular as to the matter of
+truth.  She had no intention of going near Mrs Tibbs, but, having
+committed herself, made a virtue of necessity, and resolved to pay that
+lady a visit.
+
+The conversation by the way was not sufficiently interesting to be
+worthy of record.  Arrived at Twitter's street an idea struck Mrs Frog.
+
+"Ned," said she, "I'm tired."
+
+"Well, old girl, you'd better cut home."
+
+"I think I will, Ned, but first I'll sit down on this step to rest a
+bit."
+
+"All right, old girl," said Ned, who would have said the same words if
+she had proposed to stand on her head on the step--so easy was he in his
+mind as to how his wife spent her time; "if you sit for half-an-hour or
+so I'll be back to see you 'ome again.  I'm on'y goin' to Bundle's shop
+for a bit o' baccy.  Ain't I purlite now?  Don't it mind you of the
+courtin' days?"
+
+"Ah!  Ned," exclaimed the wife, while a sudden gush of memory brought
+back the days when he was handsome and kind,--but Ned was gone, and the
+slightly thawed spring froze up again.
+
+She sat down on the cold step of a door which happened to be somewhat in
+the shade, and gazed at the opposite windows.  There was a light in one
+of them.  She knew it well.  She had often watched the shadows that
+crossed the blind after the gas was lighted, and once she had seen some
+one carrying something which looked like a baby!  It might have been a
+bundle of soiled linen, or undarned socks, but it might have been Matty,
+and the thought sent a thrill to the forlorn creature's heart.
+
+On the present occasion she was highly favoured, for, soon after Ned had
+left, the shadows came again on the blind, and came so near it as to be
+distinctly visible.  Yes, there could be no doubt now, it _was_ a baby,
+and as there was only one baby in that house it followed that the baby
+was _her_ baby--little Matty!  Here was something to carry home with
+her, and think over and dream about.  But there was more in store for
+her.  The baby, to judge from the shadowy action of its fat limbs on the
+blind, became what she called obstropolous.  More than that, it yelled,
+and its mother heard the yell--faintly, it is true, but sufficiently to
+send a thrill of joy to her longing heart.
+
+Then a sudden fear came over her.  What if it was ill, and they were
+trying to soothe it to rest!  How much better _she_ could do that if she
+only had the baby!
+
+"Oh! fool that I was to part with her!" she murmured, "but no.  It was
+best.  She would surely have bin dead by this time."
+
+The sound of the little voice, however, had roused such a tempest of
+longing in Mrs Frog's heart, that, under an irresistible impulse, she
+ran across the road and rang the bell.  The door was promptly opened by
+Mrs Twitter's domestic.
+
+"Is--is the baby well?" stammered Mrs Frog, scarce knowing what she
+said.
+
+"_You've_ nothink to do wi' the baby that I knows on," returned Mrs
+Twitter's domestic, who was not quite so polite as her mistress.
+
+"No, honey," said Mrs Frog in a wheedling tone, rendered almost
+desperate by the sudden necessity for instant invention, "but the doctor
+said I was to ask if baby had got over it, or if 'e was to send round
+the--the--I forget its name--at once."
+
+"What doctor sent you?" asked Mrs Twitter, who had come out of the
+parlour on hearing the voices through the doorway, and with her came a
+clear and distinct yell which Mrs Frog treasured up in her thinly clad
+but warm bosom, as though it had been a strain from Paradise.  "There
+must surely be some mistake, my good woman, for my baby is quite well."
+
+"Oh! thank you, thank you--yes, there must have been some mistake," said
+Mrs Frog, scarce able to restrain a laugh of joy at the success of her
+scheme, as she retired precipitately from the door and hurried away.
+
+She did not go far, however, but, on hearing the door shut, turned back
+and took up her position again on the door-step.
+
+Poor Mrs Frog had been hardened and saddened by sorrow, and suffering,
+and poverty, and bad treatment; nevertheless she was probably one of the
+happiest women in London just then.
+
+"_My_ baby," she said, quoting part of Mrs Twitter's remarks with a
+sarcastic laugh, "no, madam, she's not _your_ baby _yet_!"
+
+As she sat reflecting on this agreeable fact, a heavy step was heard
+approaching.  It was too slow for that of Ned.  She knew it well--a
+policeman!
+
+There are hard-hearted policemen in the force--not many, indeed, but
+nothing is perfect in this world, and there are a _few_ hard-hearted
+policemen.  He who approached was one of these.
+
+"Move on," he said in a stern voice.
+
+"Please, sir, I'm tired.  On'y restin' a bit while I wait for my
+'usband," pleaded Mrs Frog.
+
+"Come, move on," repeated the unyielding constable in a tone that there
+was no disputing.  Indeed it was so strong that it reached the ears of
+Ned Frog himself, who chanced to come round the corner at the moment and
+saw the policeman, as he imagined, maltreating his wife.
+
+Ned was a man who, while he claimed and exercised the right to treat his
+own wife as he pleased, was exceedingly jealous of the interference of
+others with his privileges.  He advanced, therefore, at once, and
+planted his practised knuckles on the policeman's forehead with such
+power that the unfortunate limb of the law rolled over in one direction
+and his helmet in another.
+
+As every one knows, the police sometimes suffer severely at the hands of
+roughs, and on this occasion that truth was verified, but the policeman
+who had been knocked down by this prize-fighter was by no means a feeble
+member of the force.  Recovering from his astonishment in a moment, he
+sprang up and grappled with Ned Frog in such a manner as to convince
+that worthy he had "his work cut out for him."  The tussle that ensued
+was tremendous, and Mrs Frog retired into a doorway to enjoy it in
+safety.  But it was brief.  Before either wrestler could claim the
+victory, a brother constable came up, and Ned was secured and borne away
+to a not unfamiliar cell before he could enjoy even one pipe of the
+"baccy" which he had purchased.
+
+Thus it came to pass, that when a certain comrade expected to find Ned
+Frog at a certain mansion in the West-end, prepared with a set of
+peculiar tools for a certain purpose, Ned was in the enjoyment of board
+and lodging at Her Majesty's expense.
+
+The comrade, however, not being aware of Ned's incarceration, and
+believing, no doubt, that there was honour among thieves, was true to
+his day and hour.  He had been engaged down somewhere in the country on
+business, and came up by express train for this particular job; hence
+his ignorance as to his partner's fate.
+
+But this burglar was not a man to be easily balked in his purpose.
+
+"Ned must be ill, or got a haccident o' some sort," he said to a very
+little but sharp boy who was to assist in the job.  "Howsever, you an'
+me'll go at it alone, Sniveller."
+
+"Wery good, Bunky," replied Sniveller, "'ow is it to be?  By the winder,
+through the door, down the chimbly, up the spout--or wot?"
+
+"The larder windy, my boy."
+
+"Sorry for that," said Sniveller.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"'Cause it _is_ so 'ard to go past the nice things an' smell 'em all
+without darin' to touch 'em till I lets you in.  Couldn't you let me
+'ave a feed first?"
+
+"Unpossible," said the burglar.
+
+"Wery good," returned the boy, with a sigh of resignation.
+
+Now, while these two were whispering to each other in a box of an
+adjoining tavern, three police-constables were making themselves at home
+in the premises of Sir Richard Brandon.  One of these was Number 666.
+
+It is not quite certain, even to this day, how and where these men were
+stationed, for their proceedings--though not deeds of evil--were done in
+the dark, at least in darkness which was rendered visible only now and
+then by bull's-eye lanterns.  The only thing that was absolutely clear
+to the butler, Mr Thomas Balls, was, that the mansion was given over
+entirely to the triumvirate to be dealt with as they thought fit.
+
+Of course they did not know when the burglars would come, nor the
+particular point of the mansion where the assault would be delivered;
+therefore Number 666 laid his plans like a wise general, posted his
+troops where there was most likelihood of their being required, and kept
+himself in reserve for contingencies.
+
+About that "wee short hour" of which the poet Burns writes, a small boy
+was lifted by a large man to the sill of the small window which lighted
+Sir Richard Brandon's pantry.  To the surprise of the small boy, he
+found the window unfastened.
+
+"They've bin an' forgot it!" he whispered.
+
+"Git in," was the curt reply.
+
+Sniveller got in, dropped to his extreme length from the sill, let go
+his hold, and came down lightly on the floor--not so lightly, however,
+but that a wooden stool placed there was overturned, and, falling
+against a blue plate, broke it with a crash.
+
+Sniveller became as one petrified, and remained so for a considerable
+time, till he imagined all danger from sleepers having been awakened was
+over.  He also thought of thieving cats, and thanked them mentally.  He
+likewise became aware of the near presence of pastry.  The smell was
+delicious, but a sense of duty restrained him.
+
+Number 666 smiled to himself to think how well his trap had acted, but
+the smile was lost in darkness.
+
+Meanwhile, the chief operator, Bunky, went round to the back door.
+Sniveller, who had been taught the geography of the mansion from a
+well-executed plan, proceeded to the same door inside.  Giles could have
+patted his little head as he carefully drew back the bolts and turned
+the key.  Another moment, and Bunky, on his stocking soles, stood within
+the mansion.
+
+Yet another moment, and Bunky was enjoying an embrace that squeezed most
+of the wind out of his body, strong though he was, for Number 666 was
+apt to forget his excessive power when duty constrained him to act with
+promptitude.
+
+"Now, then, show a light," said Giles, quietly.
+
+Two bull's-eyes flashed out their rich beams at the word, and lit up a
+tableau of three, in attitudes faintly resembling those of the Laocoon,
+without the serpents.
+
+"Fetch the bracelets," said Giles.
+
+At these words the bull's-eyes converged, and Sniveller, bolting through
+the open door, vanished--he was never heard of more!
+
+Then followed two sharp _clicks_, succeeded by a sigh of relief as
+Number 666 relaxed his arms.
+
+"You needn't rouse the household unless you feel inclined, my man," said
+Giles to Bunky in a low voice.
+
+Bunky did _not_ feel inclined.  He thought it better, on the whole, to
+let the sleeping dogs lie, and wisely submitted to inevitable fate.  He
+was marched off to jail, while one of the constables remained behind to
+see the house made safe, and acquaint Sir Richard of his deliverance
+from the threatened danger.
+
+Referring to this matter on the following day in the servants' hall,
+Thomas Balls filled a foaming tankard of ginger-beer--for, strange to
+say, he was an abstainer, though a butler--and proposed, in a highly
+eulogistic speech, the health and prosperity of that admirable body of
+men, the Metropolitan Police, with which toast he begged to couple the
+name of Number 666!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
+
+NUMBER 666 OFF DUTY.
+
+Some time after the attempt made upon Sir Richard Brandon's house, Giles
+Scott was seated at his own fireside, helmet and truncheon laid aside,
+uniform taken off, and a free and easy suit of plain clothes put on.
+
+His pretty wife sat beside him darning a pair of very large socks.  The
+juvenile policeman, and the incorrigible criminal were sound asleep in
+their respective cribs, the one under the print of the Queen, the other
+under that of Sir Robert Peel.  Giles was studying a small book of
+instructions as to the duties of police-constables, and pretty Molly was
+commenting on the same, for she possessed that charming quality of mind
+and heart which induces the possessor to take a sympathetic and lively
+interest in whatever may happen to be going on.
+
+"They expect pretty hard work of you, Giles," remarked Molly with a
+sigh, as she thought of the prolonged hours of absence from home, and
+the frequent night duty.
+
+"Why, Moll, you wouldn't have me wish for easy work at my time of life,
+would you?" replied the policeman, looking up from his little book with
+an amused smile.  "Somebody must always be taking a heavy lift of the
+hard work of this world, and if a big hulking fellow like me in the
+prime o' life don't do it, who will?"
+
+"True, Giles, but surely you won't deny me the small privilege of
+wishing that you had a _little_ less to do, and a _little_ more time
+with your family.  You men,--especially you Scotchmen--are such an
+argumentative set, that a poor woman can't open her lips to say a word,
+but you pounce upon it and make an argument of it."
+
+"Now Molly, there you go again, assuming my duties!  Why do you take me
+so sharp?  Isn't taking-up the special privilege of the police?"
+
+"Am I not entitled," said Molly, ignoring her husband's question, "to
+express regret that your work should include coming home now and then
+with scratched cheeks, and swelled noses, and black eyes?"
+
+"Come now," returned Giles, "you must admit that I have fewer of these
+discomforts than most men of the force, owing, no doubt, to little men
+being unable to reach so high--and, d'you know, it's the little men who
+do most damage in life; they're such a pugnacious and perverse
+generation!  As to swelled noses, these are the fortune of war, at least
+of civil war like ours--and black eyes, why, my eyes are black by
+nature.  If they were of a heavenly blue like yours, Molly, you might
+have some ground for complaint when they are blackened."
+
+"And then there is such dreadful tear and wear of clothes," continued
+Molly; "just look at that, now!"  She held up to view a sock with a hole
+in its heel large enough to let an orange through.
+
+"Why, Molly, do you expect that I can walk the streets of London from
+early morning till late at night, protect life and property, and
+preserve public tranquillity, as this little book puts it, besides
+engaging in numerous scuffles and street rows without making a hole or
+two in my socks?"
+
+"Ah!  Giles, if you had only brain enough to take in a simple idea! it's
+not the making of holes that I complain of.  It is the making of such
+awfully big ones before changing your socks!  There now, don't let us
+get on domestic matters.  You have no head for these, but tell me
+something about your little book.  I am specially interested in it, you
+see, because the small policeman in the crib over there puts endless
+questions about his duties which I am quite unable to answer, and, you
+know, it is a good thing for a child to grow up with the idea that
+father and mother know everything."
+
+"Just so, Molly.  I hope you'll tell your little recruit that the first
+and foremost duty of a good policeman is to obey orders.  Let me see,
+then, if I can enlighten you a bit."
+
+"But tell me first, Giles--for I really want to know--how many are there
+of you altogether, and when was the force established on its present
+footing, and who began it, and, in short, all about it.  It's _so_ nice
+to have you for once in a way for a quiet chat like this."
+
+"You have laid down enough of heads, Molly, to serve for the foundation
+of a small volume.  However, I'll give it you hot, since you wish it,
+and I'll begin at the end instead of the beginning.  What would you say,
+now, to an army of eleven thousand men?"
+
+"I would say it was a very large one, though I don't pretend to much
+knowledge about the size of armies," said Molly, commencing to mend
+another hole about the size of a turnip.
+
+"Well, that, in round numbers, is the strength of the Metropolitan
+Police force at the present time--and not a man too much, let me tell
+you, for what with occasional illnesses and accidents, men employed on
+special duty, and men off duty--as I am just now--the actual available
+strength of the force at any moment is considerably below that number.
+Yes, it is a goodly army of picked and stalwart men, (no self-praise
+intended), but, then, consider what we have to do."
+
+"We have to guard and keep in order the population of the biggest city
+in the world; a population greater than that of the whole of Scotland."
+
+"Oh! of course, you are sure to go to Scotland for your illustrations,
+as if there was no such place as England in the world," quietly remarked
+Molly, with a curl of her pretty lip.
+
+"Ah!  Molly, dear, you are unjust.  It is true I go to Scotland for an
+illustration, but didn't I come to England for a wife?  Now, don't go
+frowning at that hole as if it couldn't be bridged over."
+
+"It is the worst hole you ever made," said the despairing wife, holding
+it up to view.
+
+"You make a worsted hole of it then, Moll, and it'll be all right.
+Besides, you don't speak truth, for I once made a worse hole in your
+heart."
+
+"You never did, sir.  Go on with your stupid illustrations," said Molly.
+
+"Well, then, let me see--where was I?"
+
+"In Scotland, of course!"
+
+"Ah, yes.  The population of all Scotland is under four millions, and
+that of London--that is, of the area embraced in the Metropolitan Police
+District, is estimated at above four million seven hundred thousand--in
+round numbers.  Of course I give it you all in round numbers."
+
+"I don't mind how round the numbers are, Giles, so long as they're all
+square," remarked the little wife with much simplicity.
+
+"Well, just think of that number for our army to watch over; and that
+population--not all of it, you know, but part of it--succeeds--in spite
+of us in committing, during one year, no fewer than 25,000 `Principal'
+offences such as murders, burglaries, robberies, thefts, and such-like.
+What they would accomplish if we were not ever on the watch I leave you
+to guess.
+
+"Last year, for instance, 470 burglaries, as we style house-breaking by
+night, were committed in London.  The wonder is that there are not more,
+when you consider the fact that the number of doors and windows found
+open by us at night during the twelve months was nearly 26,000.  The
+total loss of property by theft during the year is estimated at about
+100,000 pounds.  Besides endeavouring to check crime of such magnitude,
+we had to search after above 15,000 persons who were reported lost and
+missing during the year, about 12,000 of whom were children."
+
+"Oh! the _poor_ darlings," said Molly, twisting her sympathetic
+eyebrows.
+
+"Ay, and we found 7523 of these darlings," continued the practical
+Giles, "and 720 of the adults.  Of the rest some returned home or were
+found by their friends, but 154 adults and 23 children have been lost
+altogether.  Then, we found within the twelve months 54 dead bodies
+which we had to take care of and have photographed for identification.
+During the same period, (and remember that the record of every twelve
+months is much the same), we seized over 17,000 stray dogs and returned
+them to their owners or sent them to the Dogs' Home.  We arrested over
+18,000 persons for being drunk and disorderly.  We inspected all the
+public vehicles and horses in London.  We attended to 3527 accidents
+which occurred in the streets, 127 of which were fatal.  We looked after
+more than 17,000 articles varying in value from 0 pence to 1500 pounds
+which were lost by a heedless public during the year, about 10,000 of
+which articles were restored to the owners.  We had to regulate the
+street traffic; inspect common lodging-houses; attend the police and
+other courts to give evidence, and many other things which it would take
+me much too long to enumerate, and puzzle your pretty little head to
+take in."
+
+"No, it wouldn't," said Molly, looking up with a bright expression; "I
+have a wonderful head for figures--especially for handsome manly
+figures!  Go on, Giles."
+
+"Then, look at what is expected of us," continued Number 666, not
+noticing the last remark.  "We are told to exercise the greatest
+civility and affability towards every one--high and low, rich and poor.
+We are expected to show the utmost forbearance under all circumstances;
+to take as much abuse and as many blows as we can stand, without
+inflicting any in return; to be capable of answering almost every
+question that an ignorant--not to say arrogant--public may choose to put
+to us; to be ready, single-handed and armed only with our truncheons and
+the majesty of the law, to encounter burglars furnished with knives and
+revolvers; to plunge into the midst of drunken maddened crowds and make
+arrests in the teeth of tremendous odds; to keep an eye upon strangers
+whose presence may seem to be less desirable than their absence; to
+stand any amount of unjust and ungenerous criticism without a word of
+reply; to submit quietly to the abhorrence and chaff of boys, labourers,
+cabmen, omnibus drivers, tramps, and fast young men; to have a fair
+knowledge of the `three Rs' and a smattering of law, so as to conduct
+ourselves with propriety at fires, fairs, fights, and races, besides
+acting wisely as to mad dogs, German bands, (which are apt to produce
+mad _men_), organ-grinders, furious drivers, and all other nuisances.
+In addition to all which we must be men of good character, good
+standing--as to inches--good proportions, physically, and good sense.
+In short, we are expected to be--and blamed if we are not--as near to a
+state of perfection as it is possible for mortal man to attain on this
+side the grave, and all for the modest sum which you are but too well
+aware is the extent of our income."
+
+"Is one of the things expected of you," asked Molly, "to have an
+exceedingly high estimate of yourselves?"
+
+"Nay, Molly, don't you join the ranks of those who are against us.  It
+will be more than criminal if you do.  You are aware that I am giving
+the opinion expressed by men of position who ought to know everything
+about the force.  That we fulfil the conditions required of us not so
+badly is proved by the fact that last year, out of the whole 12,000
+there were 215 officers and 1225 men who obtained rewards for zeal and
+activity, while only one man was discharged, and four men were fined or
+imprisoned.  I speak not of number one--or, I should say Number 666.
+For myself I am ready to admit that I am the most insignificant of the
+force."
+
+"O Giles! what a barefaced display of mock modesty!"
+
+"Nay, Molly, I can prove it.  Everything in this world goes by contrast,
+doesn't it? then, is there a man in the whole force except myself, I
+ask, whose wife is so bright and beautiful and good and sweet that she
+reduces him to mere insignificance by contrast?"
+
+"There's something in that, Giles," replied Molly with gravity, "but go
+on with your lecture."
+
+"I've nothing more to say about the force," returned Giles; "if I have
+not said enough to convince you of our importance, and of the debt of
+gratitude that you and the public of London owe to us, you are past
+conviction, and--"
+
+"You are wrong, Giles, as usual; I am never past conviction; you have
+only to take me before the police court in the morning, and any
+magistrate will at once convict me of stupidity for having married a
+Scotchman and a policeman!"
+
+"I think it must be time to go on my beat, for you beat me hollow," said
+Number 666, consulting his watch.
+
+"No, no, Giles, please sit still.  It is not every day that I have such
+a chance of a chat with you."
+
+"Such a chance of pitching into me, you mean," returned Giles.
+"However, before I go I would like to tell you just one or two facts
+regarding this great London itself, which needs so much guarding and
+such an army of guardians.  You know that the Metropolitan District
+comprises all the parishes any portion of which are within 15 miles of
+Charing Cross--this area being 688 square miles.  The rateable value of
+it is over twenty-six million eight hundred thousand pounds sterling.
+See, as you say you've a good head for _figures_, there's the sum on a
+bit of paper for you--26,800,000 pounds.  During last year 26,170 new
+houses were built, forming 556 new streets and four new squares--the
+whole covering a length of 86 miles.  The total number of new houses
+built during the last _ten_ years within this area has been 162,525,
+extending over 500 miles of streets and squares!"
+
+"Stay, I can't stand it!" cried Molly, dropping her sock and putting her
+fingers in her ears.
+
+"Why not, old girl?"
+
+"Because it is too much for me; why, even _your_ figure is a mere
+nothing to such sums!"
+
+"Then," returned Giles, "you've only got to stick me on to the end of
+them to make my information ten times more valuable."
+
+"But are you quite sure that what you tell me is true, Giles?"
+
+"Quite sure, my girl--at least as sure as I am of the veracity of
+Colonel Henderson, who wrote the last Police Report."
+
+At this point the chat was interrupted by the juvenile policeman in the
+crib under Sir Robert Peel.  Whether it was the astounding information
+uttered in his sleepy presence, or the arduous nature of the duty
+required of him in dreams, we cannot tell, but certain it is that when
+Number 666 uttered the word "Report" there came a crash like the report
+of a great gun, and Number 2 of the A Division, having fallen overboard,
+was seen on the floor pommelling some imaginary criminal who stoutly
+refused to be captured.
+
+Giles ran forward to the assistance of Number 2, as was his duty, and
+took him up in his arms.  But Number 2 had awakened to the fact that he
+had hurt himself, and, notwithstanding the blandishments of his father,
+who swayed him about and put him on his broad shoulders, and raised his
+curly head to the ceiling, he refused for a long time to be comforted.
+At last he was subdued, and returned to the crib and the land of dreams.
+
+"Now, Molly, I must really go," said Giles, putting on his uniform.  "I
+hope Number 2 won't disturb you again.  Good-bye, lass, for a few
+hours," he added, buckling his belt.  "Here, look, do you see that
+little spot on the ceiling?"
+
+"Yes,--well?" said Molly, looking up.
+
+Giles took unfair advantage of her, stooped, and kissed the pretty
+little face, received a resounding slap on the back, and went out, to
+attend to his professional duties, with the profound gravity of an
+incapable magistrate.
+
+There was a bright intelligent little street-Arab on the opposite side
+of the way, who observed Giles with mingled feelings of admiration,
+envy, and hatred, as he strode sedately along the street like an
+imperturbable pillar.  He knew Number 666 personally; had seen him under
+many and varied circumstance, and had imagined him under many others--
+not unfrequently as hanging by the neck from a lamp-post--but never,
+even in the most daring flights of his juvenile fancy, had he seen him
+as he has been seen by the reader in the bosom of his poor but happy
+home.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
+
+MRS. FROG SINKS DEEPER AND DEEPER.
+
+"Nobody cares," said poor Mrs Frog, one raw afternoon in November, as
+she entered her miserable dwelling, where the main pieces of furniture
+were a rickety table, a broken chair, and a heap of straw, while the
+minor pieces were so insignificant as to be unworthy of mention.  There
+was no fire in the grate, no bread in the cupboard, little fresh air in
+the room and less light, though there was a broken unlighted candle
+stuck in the mouth of a quart bottle which gave promise of light in the
+future--light enough at least to penetrate the November fog which had
+filled the room as if it had been endued with a pitying desire to throw
+a veil over such degradation and misery.
+
+We say degradation, for Mrs Frog had of late taken to "the bottle" as a
+last solace in her extreme misery, and the expression of her face, as
+she cowered on a low stool beside the empty grate and drew the shred of
+tartan shawl round her shivering form, showed all too clearly that she
+was at that time under its influence.  She had been down to the river
+again, more than once, and had gazed into its dark waters until she had
+very nearly made up her mind to take the desperate leap, but God in
+mercy had hitherto interposed.  At one time a policeman had passed with
+his weary "move on"--though sometimes he had not the heart to enforce
+his order.  More frequently a little baby-face had looked up from the
+river with a smile, and sent her away to the well-known street where she
+would sit in the familiar door-step watching the shadows on the
+window-blind until cold and sorrow drove her to the gin-palace to seek
+for the miserable comfort to be found there.
+
+Whatever that comfort might amount to, it did not last long, for, on the
+night of which we write, she had been to the palace, had got all the
+comfort that was to be had out of it, and returned to her desolate home
+more wretched than ever, to sit down, as we have seen, and murmur,
+almost fiercely, "Nobody cares."
+
+For a time she sat silent and motionless, while the deepening shadows
+gathered round her, as if they had united with all the rest to intensify
+the poor creature's woe.
+
+Presently she began to mutter to herself aloud--
+
+"What's the use o' your religion when it comes to this?  What sort of
+religion is in the hearts of these," (she pursed her lips, and paused
+for an expressive word, but found none), "these rich folk in their silks
+and satins and broadcloth, with more than they can use, an' feedin'
+their pampered cats and dogs on what would be wealth to the likes o' me!
+Religion! bah!"
+
+She stopped, for a Voice within her said as plainly as if it had spoken
+out: "Who gave you the sixpence the other day, and looked after you with
+a tender, pitying glance as you hurried away to the gin-shop without so
+much as stopping to say `Thank you'?  She wore silks, didn't she?"
+
+"Ah, but there's not many like that," replied the poor woman, mentally,
+for the powers of good and evil were fighting fiercely within her just
+then.
+
+"How do you know there are not many like that?" demanded the Voice.
+
+"Well, but _all_ the rich are not like that," said Mrs Frog.
+
+The Voice made no reply to that!
+
+Again she sat silent for some time, save that a low moan escaped her
+occasionally, for she was very cold and very hungry, having spent the
+last few pence, which might have given her a meal, in drink; and the
+re-action of the poison helped to depress her.  The evil spirit seemed
+to gain the mastery at this point, to judge from her muttered words.
+
+"Nothing to eat, nothing to drink, no work to be got, Hetty laid up in
+hospital, Ned in prison, Bobby gone to the bad again instead of goin' to
+Canada, and--nobody cares--"
+
+"What about baby?" asked the Voice.
+
+This time it was Mrs Frog's turn to make no reply! in a few minutes she
+seemed to become desperate, for, rising hastily, she went out, shut the
+door with a bang, locked it, and set out on the familiar journey to the
+gin-shop.
+
+She had not far to go.  It was at the corner.  If it had not been at
+that corner, there was one to be found at the next--and the next--and
+the next again, and so on all round; so that, rushing past, as people
+sometimes do when endeavouring to avoid a danger, would have been of
+little or no avail in this case.  But there was a very potent influence
+of a negative kind in her favour.  She had no money!  Recollecting this
+when she had nearly reached the door, she turned aside, and ran swiftly
+to the old door-step, where she sat down and hid her face in her hands.
+
+A heavy footstep sounded at her side the next moment.  She looked
+quickly up.  It was a policeman.  He did not apply the expected
+words--"move on."  He was a man under whose blue uniform beat a tender
+and sympathetic heart.  In fact, he was Number 666--changed from some
+cause that we cannot explain, and do not understand--from the
+Metropolitan to the City Police Force.  His number also had been
+changed, but we refuse to be trammelled by police regulations.  Number
+666 he was and shall remain in this tale to the end of the chapter!
+
+Instead of ordering the poor woman to go away, Giles was searching his
+pockets for a penny, when to his intense surprise he received a blow on
+the chest, and then a slap on the face!
+
+Poor Mrs Frog, misjudging his intentions, and roused to a fit of
+temporary insanity by her wrongs and sorrows, sprang at her supposed foe
+like a wildcat.  She was naturally a strong woman, and violent passion
+lent her unusual strength.
+
+Oh! it was pitiful to witness the struggle that ensued!--to see a woman,
+forgetful of sex and everything else, striving with all her might to
+bite, scratch, and kick, while her hair tumbled down, and her bonnet and
+shawl falling off made more apparent the insufficiency of the rags with
+which she was covered.
+
+Strong as he was, Giles received several ugly scratches and bites before
+he could effectually restrain her.  Fortunately, there were no
+passers-by in the quiet street, and, therefore, no crowd assembled.
+
+"My poor woman," said Giles, when he had her fast, "do keep quiet.  I'm
+going to do you no harm.  God help you, I was goin' to give you a copper
+when you flew at me so.  Come, you'd better go with me to the station,
+for you're not fit to take care of yourself."
+
+Whether it was the tender tone of Giles's voice, or the words that he
+uttered, or the strength of his grasp that subdued Mrs Frog, we cannot
+tell, but she gave in suddenly, hung down her head, and allowed her
+captor to do as he pleased.  Seeing this, he carefully replaced her
+bonnet on her head, drew the old shawl quite tenderly over her
+shoulders, and led her gently away.
+
+Before they had got the length of the main thoroughfare, however, a
+female of a quiet, respectable appearance met them.
+
+"Mrs Frog!" she exclaimed, in amazement, stopping suddenly before them.
+
+"If you know her, ma'am, perhaps you may direct me to her home."
+
+"I know her well," said the female, who was none other than the
+Bible-nurse who visited the sick of that district; "if you have not
+arrested her for--for--"
+
+"Oh no, madam," interrupted Giles, "I have not arrested her at all, but
+she seems to be unwell, and I was merely assisting her."
+
+"Oh! then give her over to me, please.  I know where she lives, and will
+take care of her."
+
+Giles politely handed his charge over, and went on his way, sincerely
+hoping that the next to demand his care would be a man.
+
+The Bible-woman drew the arm of poor Mrs Frog through her own, and in a
+few minutes stood beside her in the desolate home.
+
+"Nobody cares," muttered the wretched woman as she sank in apathy on her
+stool and leaned her head against the wall.
+
+"You are wrong, dear Mrs Frog.  _I_ care, for one, else I should not be
+here.  Many other Christian people would care, too, if they knew of your
+sufferings; but, above all, God cares.  Have you carried your troubles
+to Him?"
+
+"Why should I?  He has long ago forsaken me."
+
+"Is it not, dear friend, that you have forsaken Him?  Jesus says, as
+plain as words can put it, `Come unto me, all ye that labour and are
+heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'  You tell me it is of no use to
+go to Him, and you don't go, and then you complain that He has forsaken
+you!  Where is my friend Hetty?"
+
+"In hospital."
+
+"Indeed!  I have been here several times lately to inquire, but have
+always found your door locked.  Your husband--"
+
+"He's in prison, and Bobby's gone to the bad," said Mrs Frog, still in
+a tone of sulky defiance.
+
+"I see no sign of food," said the Bible-nurse, glancing quickly round;
+"are you hungry?"
+
+"Hungry!" exclaimed the woman fiercely, "I've tasted nothin' at all
+since yesterday."
+
+"Poor thing!" said the Bible-nurse in a low tone; "come--come with me.
+I don't say more.  You cannot speak while you are famishing.  Stay,
+first one word--" She paused and looked up.  She did not kneel; she did
+not clasp her hands or shut her eyes, but, with one hand on the
+door-latch, and the other grasping the poor woman's wrist, she prayed--
+
+"God bless and comfort poor Mrs Frog, for Jesus' sake."
+
+Then she hurried, without uttering a word, to the Institution in George
+Yard.  The door happened to be open, and the figure of a man with white
+hair and a kind face was seen within.
+
+Entering, the Bible-nurse whispered to this man.  Another moment and
+Mrs Frog was seated at a long deal table with a comfortable fire at her
+back, a basin of warm soup, and a lump of loaf bread before her.  The
+Bible-nurse sat by and looked on.
+
+"Somebody cares a little, don't _you_ think?" she whispered, when the
+starving woman made a brief pause for breath.
+
+"Yes, thank God," answered Mrs Frog, returning to the meal as though
+she feared that some one might still snatch it from her thin lips before
+she got it all down.
+
+When it was finished the Bible-nurse led Mrs Frog into another room.
+
+"You feel better--stronger?" she asked.
+
+"Yes, much better--thank you, and quite able to go home."
+
+"There is no occasion for you to go home to-night; you may sleep there,"
+(pointing to a corner), "but I would like to pray with you now, and read
+a verse or two."
+
+Mrs Frog submitted, while her friend read to her words of comfort;
+pleaded that pardon and deliverance might be extended, and gave her
+loving words of counsel.  Then the poor creature lay down in her corner,
+drew a warm blanket over her, and slept with a degree of comfort that
+she had not enjoyed for many a day.
+
+When it was said by Mrs Frog that her son Bobby had gone to the bad, it
+must not be supposed that any very serious change had come over him.  As
+that little waif had once said of himself, when in a penitent mood, he
+was about as bad as he could be, so couldn't grow much badder.  But when
+his sister lost her situation in the firm that paid her such splendid
+wages, and fell ill, and went into hospital in consequence, he lost
+heart, and had a relapse of wickedness.  He grew savage with regard to
+life in general, and committed a petty theft, which, although not
+discovered, necessitated his absence from home for a time.  It was while
+he was away that the scene which we have just described took place.
+
+On the very next day he returned, and it so happened that on the same
+day Hetty was discharged from hospital "cured."  That is to say, she
+left the place a thin, tottering, pallid shadow, but with no particular
+form of organic disease about her.
+
+She and her mother had received some food from one who cared for them,
+through the Bible-nurse.
+
+"Mother, you've been drinkin' again," said Hetty, looking earnestly at
+her parent's eyes.
+
+"Well, dear," pleaded Mrs Frog, "what could I do?  You had all forsaken
+me, and I had nothin' else to comfort me."
+
+"Oh! mother, darling mother," cried Hetty, "do promise me that you will
+give it up.  I won't get ill or leave you again--God helping me; but it
+will kill me if you go on.  _Do_ promise."
+
+"It's of no use, Hetty.  Of course I can easily promise, but I can't
+keep my promise.  I _know_ I can't."
+
+Hetty knew this to be too true.  Without the grace of God in the heart,
+she was well aware that human efforts _must_ fail, sooner or later.  She
+was thinking what to reply, and praying in her heart for guidance, when
+the door opened and her brother Bobby swaggered in with an air that did
+not quite accord with his filthy fluttering rags, unwashed face and
+hands, bare feet and unkempt hair.
+
+"Vell, mother, 'ow are ye?  Hallo!  Hetty! w'y, wot a shadder you've
+become!  Oh!  I say, them nusses at the hospital must 'ave stole all
+your flesh an' blood from you, for they've left nothin' but the bones
+and skin."
+
+He went up to his sister, put an arm round her neck, and kissed her.
+This was a very unusual display of affection.  It was the first time
+Bobby had volunteered an embrace, though he had often submitted to one
+with dignified complacency, and Hetty, being weak, burst into tears.
+
+"Hallo!  I say, stop that now, young gal," he said, with a look of
+alarm, "I'm always took bad ven I see that sort o' thing, I can't stand
+it."
+
+By way of mending matters the poor girl, endeavouring to be agreeable,
+gave a hysterical laugh.
+
+"Come, that's better, though it ain't much to boast of,"--and he kissed
+her again.
+
+Finding that, although for the present they were supplied with a small
+amount of food, Hetty had no employment and his mother no money, our
+city Arab said that he would undertake to sustain the family.
+
+"But oh!  Bobby, dear, don't steal again."
+
+"No, Hetty, I won't, I'll vork.  I didn't go for to do it a-purpose, but
+I was overtook some'ow--I seed the umbrellar standin' handy, you know,
+and--etceterer.  But I'm sorry I did it, an' I won't do it again."
+
+Swelling with great intentions, Robert Frog thrust his dirty little
+hands into his trouser pockets--at least into the holes that once
+contained them--and went out whistling.
+
+Soon he came to a large warehouse, where a portly gentleman stood at the
+door.  Planting himself in front of this man, and ceasing to whistle in
+order that he might speak, he said:--
+
+"Was you in want of a 'and, sir?"
+
+"No, I wasn't," replied the man, with a glance of contempt.
+
+"Sorry for that," returned Bobby, "'cause I'm in want of a sitivation."
+
+"What can you do?" asked the man.
+
+"Oh! hanythink."
+
+"Ah, I thought so; I don't want hands who can do anything, I prefer
+those who can do something."
+
+Bobby Frog resumed his whistling, at the exact bar where he had left
+off, and went on his way.  He was used to rebuffs, and didn't mind them.
+But when he had spent all the forenoon in receiving rebuffs, had made
+no progress whatever in his efforts, and began to feel hungry, he ceased
+the whistling and became grave.
+
+"This looks serious," he said, pausing in front of a pastry-cook's shop
+window.  "But for that there plate glass _wot_ a blow hout I might 'ave!
+Beggin' might be tried with advantage.  It's agin the law, no doubt,
+but it ain't a _sin_.  Yes, I'll try beggin'."
+
+But our Arab was not a natural beggar, if we may say so.  He scorned to
+whine, and did not even like to ask.  His spirit was much more like that
+of a highwayman than a beggar.
+
+Proceeding to a quiet neighbourhood which seemed to have been forgotten
+by the police, he turned down a narrow lane and looked out for a
+subject, as a privateer might search among "narrows" for a prize.  He
+did not search long.  An old lady soon hove in sight.  She seemed a
+suitable old lady, well-dressed, little, gentle, white-haired, a
+tottering gait, and a benign aspect.
+
+Bobby went straight up and planted himself in front of her.
+
+"Please, ma'am, will you oblige me with a copper?"
+
+The poor old lady grew pale.  Without a word she tremblingly, yet
+quickly, pulled out her purse, took therefrom a shilling, and offered it
+to the boy.
+
+"Oh! marm," said Bobby, who was alarmed and conscience-smitten at the
+result of his scheme, "I didn't mean for to frighten you.  Indeed I
+didn't, an' I won't 'ave your money at no price."
+
+Saying which he turned abruptly round and walked away.
+
+"Boy, boy, _boy_!" called the old lady in a voice so entreating, though
+tremulous, that Bobby felt constrained to return.
+
+"You're a most remarkable boy," she said, putting the shilling back into
+her purse.
+
+"I'm sorry to say, marm, that you're not the on'y indiwidooal as 'olds
+that opinion."
+
+"What do you mean by your conduct, boy?"
+
+"I mean, marm, that I'm wery 'ard up.  _Uncommon_ 'ard up; that I've
+tried to git vork an' can't git it, so that I'm redooced to beggary.
+But, I ain't a 'ighway robber, marm, by no means, an' don't want to
+frighten you hout o' your money if you ain't willin' to give it."
+
+The little tremulous old lady was so pleased with this reply that she
+took half-a-crown out of her purse and put it into the boy's hand.  He
+looked at her in silent surprise.
+
+"It ain't a _copper_, marm!"
+
+"I know that.  It is half-a-crown, and I willingly give it you because
+you are an honest boy."
+
+"But, marm," said Bobby, still holding out the piece of silver on his
+palm, "I _ain't_ a honest boy.  I'm a thief!"
+
+"Tut, tut, don't talk nonsense; I don't believe you."
+
+"Vel now, this beats all that I ever did come across.  'Ere's a old
+'ooman as I tells as plain as mud that I'm a thief, an' nobody's better
+able to give a opinion on that pint than myself, yet she _won't_ believe
+it!"
+
+"No, I won't," said the old lady with a little nod and a smile, "so, put
+the money in your pocket, for you're an honest boy."
+
+"Vell, it's pleasant to 'ear that, any'ow," returned Bobby, placing the
+silver coin in a vest pocket which was always kept in repair for coins
+of smaller value.
+
+"Where do you live, boy?  I should like to come and see you."
+
+"My residence, marm, ain't a mansion in the vest-end.  No, nor yet a
+willa in the subarbs.  I'm afear'd, marm, that I live in a district that
+ain't quite suitable for the likes of you to wisit.  But--"
+
+Here Bobby paused, for at the moment his little friend Tim Lumpy
+recurred to his memory, and a bright thought struck him.
+
+"Well, boy, why do you pause?"
+
+"I was on'y thinkin', marm, that if you wants to befriend us poor boys--
+they calls us waifs an' strays an' all sorts of unpurlite names--you've
+on'y got to send a sov, or two to Miss Annie Macpherson, 'Ome of
+Hindustry, Commercial Street, Spitalfields, an' you'll be the means o'
+doin' a world o' good--as I 'eard a old gen'l'm with a white choker on
+say the wery last time I was down there 'avin' a blow out o' bread an'
+soup."
+
+"I know the lady and the Institution well, my boy," said the old lady,
+"and will act on your advice, but--"
+
+Ere she finished the sentence Bobby Frog had turned and fled at the very
+top of his speed.
+
+"Stop! stop! stop!" exclaimed the old lady in a weakly shout.
+
+But the "remarkable boy" would neither stop nor stay.  He had suddenly
+caught sight of a policeman turning into the lane, and forthwith took to
+his heels, under a vague and not unnatural impression that if that limb
+of the law found him in possession of a half-crown he would refuse to
+believe his innocence with as much obstinacy as the little old lady had
+refused to believe his guilt.
+
+On reaching home he found his mother alone in a state of amused
+agitation which suggested to his mind the idea of Old Tom.
+
+"Wot, bin at it again, mother?"
+
+"No, no, Bobby, but somethin's happened which amuses me much, an' I
+can't keep it to myself no longer, so I'll tell it to you, Bobby."
+
+"Fire away, then, mother, an' remember that the law don't compel no one
+to criminate hisself."
+
+"You know, Bob, that a good while ago our Matty disappeared.  I saw that
+the dear child was dyin' for want o' food an' warmth an' fresh air, so I
+thinks to myself, `why shouldn't I put 'er out to board wi' rich people
+for nothink?'"
+
+"A wery correct notion, an' cleverer than I gave you credit for.  I'm
+glad to ear it too, for I feared sometimes that you'd bin an' done it."
+
+"Oh!  Bobby, how could you ever think that!  Well, I put the baby out to
+board with a family of the name of Twitter.  Now it seems, all unbeknown
+to me, Mrs Twitter is a great helper at the George Yard Ragged Schools,
+where our Hetty has often seen her; but as we've bin used never to speak
+about the work there, as your father didn't like it, of course I know'd
+nothin' about Mrs Twitter bein' given to goin' there.  Well, it seems
+she's very free with her money and gives a good deal away to poor
+people."  (She's not the only one, thought the boy.) "So what does the
+Bible-nurse do when she hears about poor Hetty's illness but goes off
+and asks Mrs Twitter to try an' git her a situation."
+
+"`Oh!  I know Hetty,' says Mrs Twitter at once, `That nice girl that
+teaches one o' the Sunday-school classes.  Send her to me.  I want a
+nurse for our baby,' that's for Matty, Bob--"
+
+"What! _our_ baby!" exclaimed the boy with a sudden blaze of excitement.
+
+"Yes--our baby.  She calls it _hers_!"
+
+"Well, now," said Bobby, after recovering from the fit of laughter and
+thigh-slapping into which this news had thrown him, "if this don't beat
+cockfightin' all to nuffin'! why, mother, Hetty'll know baby the moment
+she claps eyes on it."
+
+"Of course she will," said Mrs Frog; "it is really very awkward, an' I
+can't think what to do.  I'm half afraid to tell Hetty."
+
+"Oh! don't tell her--don't tell her," cried the boy, whose eyes sparkled
+with mischievous glee.  "It'll be sich fun!  If I 'ad on'y the chance to
+stand be'ind a door an' see the meetin' I wouldn't exchange it--no not
+for a feed of pork sassengers an' suet pud'n.  I must go an' tell this
+to Tim Lumpy.  It'll bust 'im--that's my on'y fear, but I must tell 'im
+wotever be the consikences."
+
+With this stern resolve, to act regardless of results, Bob Frog went off
+in search of his little friend, whose departure for Canada had been
+delayed, from some unknown cause, much to Bob's satisfaction.  He found
+Tim on his way to the Beehive, and was induced not only to go with him,
+but to decide, finally, to enter the Institution as a candidate for
+Canada.  Being well-known, both as to person and circumstances, he was
+accepted at once; taken in, washed, cropped, and transformed as if by
+magic.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
+
+SIR RICHARD VISITS THE BEEHIVE, AND SEES MANY SURPRISING THINGS.
+
+"My dear Mrs Loper," said Mrs Twitter over a cup of tea, "it is very
+kind of you to say so, and I really do think you are right, we have done
+full justice to our dear wee Mita.  Who would ever have thought,
+remembering the thin starved sickly child she was the night that Sam
+brought her in, that she would come to be such a plump, rosy, lovely
+child?  I declare to you that I feel as if she were one of my own."
+
+"She is indeed a very lovely infant," returned Mrs Loper.  "Don't you
+think so, Mrs Larrabel?"
+
+The smiling lady expanded her mouth, and said, "very."
+
+"But," continued Mrs Twitter, "I really find that the entire care of
+her is too much for me, for, although dear Mary assists me, her studies
+require to be attended to, and, do you know, babies interfere with
+studies dreadfully.  Not that I have time to do much in that way at
+present.  I think the Bible is the only book I really study now, so, you
+see, I've been thinking of adding to our establishment by getting a new
+servant;--a sort of nursery governess, you know,--a cheap one, of
+course.  Sam quite agrees with me, and, as it happens, I know a very
+nice little girl just now--a very very poor girl--who helps us so nicely
+on Sundays in George Yard, and has been recommended to me as a most
+deserving creature.  I expect her to call to-night."
+
+"Be cautious, Mrs Twitter," said Mrs Loper.  "These _very_ poor girls
+from the slums of Whitechapel are sometimes dangerous, and, excuse me,
+rather dirty.  Of course, if you know her, that is some security, but I
+would advise you to be very cautious."
+
+"Thank you, my dear," said Mrs Twitter, "I usually am very cautious,
+and will try to be so on this occasion.  I mean her to be rather a sort
+of nursery governess than a servant.--That is probably the girl."
+
+She referred to a rather timid knock at the front door.  In another
+second the domestic announced Hetty Frog, who entered with a somewhat
+shy air, and seemed fluttered at meeting with unexpected company.
+
+"Come in, Hetty, my dear; I'm glad to see you.  My friends here know
+that you are a helper in our Sunday-schools.  Sit down, and have a cup
+of tea.  You know why I have sent for you?"
+
+"Yes, Mrs Twitter.  It--it is very kind.  Our Bible-nurse told me, and
+I shall be so happy to come, because--but I fear I have interrupted you.
+I--I can easily come back--"
+
+"No interruption at all, my dear.  Here, take this cup of tea--"
+
+"And a crumpet," added Mrs Larrabel, who sympathised with the spirit of
+hospitality.
+
+"Yes, take a crumpet, and let me hear about your last place."
+
+Poor Hetty, who was still very weak from her recent illness, and would
+gladly have been excused sitting down with two strangers, felt
+constrained to comply, and was soon put at her ease by the kindly tone
+and manner of the hostess.  She ran quickly over the chief points of her
+late engagements, and roused, without meaning to do so, the indignation
+of the ladies by the bare mention of the wages she had received for the
+amount of work done.
+
+"Well, my dear," said the homely Mrs Twitter, "we won't be so hard on
+you here.  I want you to assist me with my sewing and darning--of which
+I have a very great deal--and help to take care of baby."
+
+"Very well, ma'am," said Hetty, "when do you wish me to begin my
+duties?"
+
+"Oh! to-morrow--after breakfast will do.  It is too late to-night.  But
+before you go, I may as well let you see the little one you are to have
+charge of.  I hear she is awake."
+
+There could be no doubt upon that point, for the very rafters of the
+house were ringing at the moment with the yells which issued from an
+adjoining room.
+
+"Come this way, Hetty."
+
+Mrs Loper and Mrs Larrabel, having formed a good opinion of the girl,
+looked on with approving smiles.  The smiles changed to glances of
+surprise, however, when Hetty, having looked on the baby, uttered a most
+startling scream, while her eyes glared as though she saw a ghostly
+apparition.
+
+Seizing the baby with unceremonious familiarity, Hetty struck Mrs
+Twitter dumb by turning it on its face, pulling open its dress, glancing
+at a bright red spot on its back, and uttering a shriek of delight as
+she turned it round again, and hugged it with violent affection,
+exclaiming, "Oh! my blessed Matty!"
+
+"The child's name is not Matty; it is Mita," said Mrs Twitter, on
+recovering her breath.  "What _do_ you mean, girl?"
+
+"Her name is _not_ Mita, it is Matty," returned Hetty, with a flatness
+of contradiction that seemed impossible in one so naturally gentle.
+
+Mrs Twitter stood, aghast--bereft of the power of speech or motion.
+Mrs Loper and Mrs Larrabel were similarly affected.  They soon
+recovered, however, and exclaimed in chorus, "What _can_ she mean?"
+
+"Forgive me, ma'am," said Hetty, still holding on to baby, who seemed to
+have an idea that she was creating a sensation of some sort, without
+requiring to yell, "forgive my rudeness, ma'am, but I really couldn't
+help it, for this is my long-lost sister Matilda."
+
+"Sister Matilda!" echoed Mrs Loper.
+
+"Long-lost sister Matilda!" repeated Mrs Larrabel.
+
+"This--is--your--long-lost sister Matilda," rehearsed Mrs Twitter, like
+one in a dream.
+
+The situation was rendered still more complex by the sudden entrance of
+Mr Twitter and his friend Crackaby.
+
+"What--what--what's to do _now_, Mariar?"
+
+"Sister Matilda!" shouted all three with a gasp.
+
+"Lunatics, every one of 'em," murmured Crackaby.
+
+It is, perhaps, scarcely necessary to add that a full explanation ensued
+when the party became calmer; that Mrs Twitter could not doubt the
+veracity of Hetty Frog, but suspected her sanity; that Mrs Frog was
+sent for, and was recognised at once by Mr Twitter as the poor woman
+who had asked him such wild and unmeaning questions the night on which
+he had found the baby; and that Mr and Mrs Twitter, Mrs Loper, Mrs
+Larrabel, and Crackaby came to the unanimous conclusion that they had
+never heard of such a thing before in the whole course of their united
+lives--which lives, when united, as some statisticians would take a
+pride in recording, formed two hundred and forty-three years!  Poor Mrs
+Twitter was as inconsolable at the loss of her baby as Mrs Frog was
+overjoyed at the recovery of hers.  She therefore besought the latter to
+leave little Mita, _alias_ Matty, with her just for one night longer--
+only one night--and then she might come for her in the morning, for, you
+know, it would have been cruel to remove the child from her warm crib at
+that hour to a cold and comfortless lodging.
+
+Of course Mrs Frog readily consented.  If Mrs Frog had known the
+events that lay in the womb of the next few hours, she would sooner have
+consented to have had her right-hand cut off than have agreed to that
+most reasonable request.
+
+But we must not anticipate.  A few of our _dramatis personae_ took both
+an active and an inactive part in the events of these hours.  It is
+therefore imperative that we should indicate how some of them came to be
+in that region.
+
+About five of the clock in the afternoon of the day in question, Sir
+Richard Brandon, his daughter and idol Diana, and his young friend
+Stephen Welland, sat in the dining-room of the West-end mansion
+concluding an early and rather hasty dinner.  That something was pending
+was indicated by the fact that little Di sat accoutred in her hat and
+cloak.
+
+"We shall have to make haste," said Sir Richard, rising, "for I should
+not like to be late, and it is a long drive to Whitechapel."
+
+"When do they begin?" asked Welland.
+
+"They have tea at six, I believe, and then the meeting commences at
+seven, but I wish to be early that I may have a short conversation with
+one of the ladies of the Home."
+
+"Oh! it will be so nice, and such fun to see the dear little boys.  How
+many are going to start for Canada, to-night, papa?"
+
+"About fifty or sixty, I believe, but I'm not sure.  They are sent off
+in batches of varying size from time to time."
+
+"Is the demand for them so great?" asked Welland, "I should have thought
+that Canadian farmers and others would be afraid to receive into their
+dwellings what is often described as the scum of the London streets."
+
+"They were afraid at first, I am told, but soon discovered that the
+little fellows who came from Miss Macpherson's Home had been subjected
+to such good training and influences before leaving that they almost
+invariably turned out valuable and trustworthy workmen.  No doubt there
+are exceptions in this as in every other case, but the demand is, it
+seems, greater than the supply.  It is, however, a false idea that
+little waifs and strays, however dirty or neglected, are in any sense
+the scum of London.  Youth, in all circumstances, is cream, and only
+turns into scum when allowed to stagnate or run to waste.  Come, now,
+let us be off.  Mr Seaward, the city missionary, is to meet us after
+the meeting, and show you and me something of those who have fallen very
+low in the social scale.  Brisbane, who is also to be at the meeting,
+will bring Di home.  By the way, have you heard anything yet about that
+poor comrade and fellow-clerk of yours--Twitter, I think, was his name--
+who disappeared so suddenly?"
+
+"Nothing whatever.  I have made inquiries in all directions--for I had a
+great liking for the poor fellow.  I went also to see his parents, but
+they seemed too much cut up to talk on the subject at all, and knew
+nothing of his whereabouts."
+
+"Ah! it is a very sad case--very," said Sir Richard, as they all
+descended to the street.  "We might, perhaps, call at their house
+to-night in passing."  Entering a cab, they drove away.
+
+From the foregoing conversation the reader will have gathered that the
+party were about to visit the Beehive, or Home of Industry, and that Sir
+Richard, through the instrumentality of little Di and the city
+missionary, had actually begun to think about the poor!
+
+It was a special night at the Beehive.  A number of diamonds with some
+of their dust rubbed off--namely, a band of little boys, rescued from
+the streets and from a probable life of crime, were to be assembled
+there to say farewell to such friends as took an interest in them.
+
+The Hive had been a huge warehouse.  It was now converted, with but
+slight structural alteration, into a great centre of Light in that
+morally dark region, from which emanated gospel truth and Christian
+influence, and in which was a refuge for the poor, the destitute, the
+sin-smitten, and the sorrowful.  Not only poverty, but sin-in-rags, was
+sure of help in the Beehive.  It had been set agoing to bring, not the
+righteous, but sinners, to repentance.
+
+When Sir Richard arrived he found a large though low-roofed room crowded
+with people, many of whom, to judge from their appearance, were, like
+himself, diamond-seekers from the "west-end," while others were
+obviously from the "east-end," and had the appearance of men and women
+who had been but recently unearthed.  There were also city missionaries
+and other workers for God in that humble-looking hall.  Among them sat
+Mr John Seaward and George Brisbane, Esquire.
+
+Placing Di and Welland near the latter, Sir Richard retired to a corner
+where one of the ladies of the establishment was distributing tea to all
+comers.
+
+"Where are your boys, may I ask?" said the knight, accepting a cup of
+tea.
+
+"Over in the left corner," answered the lady.  "You can hardly see them
+for the crowd, but they will stand presently."
+
+At that moment, as if to justify her words, a large body of boys rose
+up, at a sign from the superintending genius of the place, and began to
+sing a beautiful hymn in soft, tuneful voices.  It was a goodly array of
+dusty diamonds, and a few of them had already begun to shine.
+
+"Surely," said Sir Richard, in a low voice, "these cannot be the ragged,
+dirty little fellows you pick up in the streets?"
+
+"Indeed they are," returned the lady.
+
+"But--but they seem to me quite respectable and cleanly fellows, not at
+all like--why, how has the change been accomplished?"
+
+"By the united action, sir, of soap and water, needles and thread,
+scissors, cast-off garments, and Love."
+
+Sir Richard smiled.  Perchance the reader may also smile; nevertheless,
+this statement embodied probably the whole truth.
+
+When an unkempt, dirty, ragged little savage presents himself, or is
+presented, at the Refuge, or is "picked up" in the streets, his case is
+promptly and carefully inquired into.  If he seems a suitable
+character--that is, one who is _utterly_ friendless and parentless, or
+whose parents are worse than dead to him--he is received into the Home,
+and the work of transformation--both of body and soul--commences.  First
+he is taken to the lavatory and scrubbed outwardly clean.  His elfin
+locks are cropped close and cleansed.  His rags are burned, and a new
+suit, made by the old women workers, is put upon him, after which,
+perhaps, he is fed.  Then he is sent to a doctor to see that he is
+internally sound in wind and limb.  If passed by the doctor, he receives
+a brief but important training in the rudiments of knowledge.  In all of
+these various processes Love is the guiding principle of the operator--
+love to God and love to the boy.  He is made to understand, and to
+_feel_, that it is in the name of Jesus, for the love of Jesus, and in
+the spirit of Jesus--not of mere philanthropy--that all this is done,
+and that his body is cared for _chiefly_ in order that the soul may be
+won.
+
+Little wonder, then, that a boy or girl, whose past experience has been
+the tender mercies of the world--and that the roughest part of the
+world--should become somewhat "respectable," as Sir Richard put it,
+under such new and blessed influences.
+
+Suddenly a tiny shriek was heard in the midst of the crowd, and a sweet
+little voice exclaimed, as if its owner were in great surprise--
+
+"Oh! oh! there is _my_ boy!"
+
+A hearty laugh from the audience greeted this outburst, and poor Di,
+shrinking down, tried to hide her pretty face on Welland's ready arm.
+Her remark was quickly forgotten in the proceedings that followed--but
+it was true.
+
+There stood, in the midst of the group of boys, little Bobby Frog, with
+his face washed, his hair cropped and shining, his garments untattered,
+and himself looking as meek and "respectable" as the best of them.
+Beside him stood his fast friend Tim Lumpy.  Bobby was not, however, one
+of the emigrant band.  Having joined only that very evening, and been
+cropped, washed, and clothed for the first time, he was there merely as
+a privileged guest.  Tim, also, was only a guest, not having quite
+attained to the dignity of a full-fledged emigrant at that time.
+
+At the sound of the sweet little voice, Bobby Frog's meek look was
+replaced by one of bright intelligence, not unmingled with anxiety, as
+he tried unavailingly to see the child who had spoken.
+
+We do not propose to give the proceedings of this meeting in detail,
+interesting though they were.  Other matters of importance claim our
+attention.  It will be sufficient to say that mingled with the
+semi-conversational, pleasantly free-and-easy, intercourse that
+ensued, there were most interesting short addresses from the
+lady-superintendents of "The Sailors' Welcome Home" and of the
+"Strangers' Rest," both of Ratcliff Highway, also from the chief of the
+Ragged schools in George Yard, and several city missionaries, as well as
+from city merchants who found time and inclination to traffic in the
+good things of the life to come as well as in those of the life that now
+is.
+
+Before the proceedings had drawn to a close a voice whispered:
+
+"It is time to go, Sir Richard."  It was the voice of John Seaward.
+
+Following him, Sir Richard and Welland went out.  It had grown dark by
+that time, and as there were no brilliantly lighted shops near, the
+place seemed gloomy, but the gloom was nothing to that of the filthy
+labyrinths into which Seaward quickly conducted his followers.
+
+"You have no occasion to fear, sir," said the missionary, observing that
+Sir Richard hesitated at the mouth of one very dark alley.  "It would,
+indeed, hardly be safe were you to come down here alone, but most of 'em
+know me.  I remember being told by one of the greatest roughs I ever
+knew that at the very corner where we now stand he had _many_ and many a
+time knocked down and robbed people.  That man is now an earnest
+Christian, and, like Paul, goes about preaching the Name which he once
+despised."
+
+At the moment a dark shadow seemed to pass them, and a gruff voice said,
+"Good-night, sir."
+
+"Was that the man you were speaking of?" asked Sir Richard, quickly.
+
+"Oh no, sir," replied Seaward with a laugh; "that's what he was once
+like, indeed, but not what he is like now.  His voice is no longer
+gruff.  Take care of the step, gentlemen, as you pass here; so, now we
+will go into this lodging.  It is one of the common lodging-houses of
+London, which are regulated by law and under the supervision of the
+police.  Each man pays fourpence a night here, for which he is entitled
+to a bed and the use of the kitchen and its fire to warm himself and
+cook his food.  If he goes to the same lodging every night for a week he
+becomes entitled to a free night on Sundays."
+
+The room into which they now entered was a long low chamber, which
+evidently traversed the whole width of the building, for it turned at a
+right angle at the inner end, and extended along the back to some
+extent.  It was divided along one side into boxes or squares, after the
+fashion of some eating-houses, with a small table in the centre of each
+box, but, the partitions being little higher than those of a church-pew,
+the view of the whole room was unobstructed.  At the inner angle of the
+room blazed a coal-fire so large that a sheep might have been easily
+roasted whole at it.  Gas jets, fixed along the walls at intervals, gave
+a sufficient light to the place.
+
+This was the kitchen of the lodging-house, and formed the sitting-room
+of the place; and here was assembled perhaps the most degraded and
+miserable set of men that the world can produce.  They were not all of
+one class, by any means; nor were they all criminal, though certainly
+many of them were.  The place was the last refuge of the destitute; the
+social sink into which all that is improvident, foolish, reckless,
+thriftless, or criminal finally descends.
+
+Sir Richard and Welland had put on their oldest great-coats and
+shabbiest wideawakes; they had also put off their gloves and rings and
+breastpins in order to attract as little attention as possible, but
+nothing that they could have done could have reduced their habiliments
+to anything like the garments of the poor creatures with whom they now
+mingled.  If they had worn the same garments for months or years without
+washing them, and had often slept in them out of doors in dirty places,
+they might perhaps have brought them to the same level, but not
+otherwise.
+
+Some of the people, however, were noisy enough.  Many of them were
+smoking, and the coarser sort swore and talked loud.  Those who had once
+been in better circumstances sat and moped, or spoke in lower tones, or
+cooked their victuals with indifference to all else around, or ate them
+in abstracted silence; while not a few laid their heads and arms on the
+tables, and apparently slept.  For sleeping in earnest there were rooms
+overhead containing many narrow beds with scant and coarse covering,
+which, however, the law compelled to be clean.  One of the rooms
+contained seventy such beds.
+
+Little notice was taken of the west-end visitors as they passed up the
+room, though some dark scowls of hatred were cast after them, and a few
+glanced at them with indifference.  It was otherwise in regard to
+Seaward.  He received many a "good-night, sir," as he passed, and a
+kindly nod greeted him here and there from men who at first looked as if
+kindness had been utterly eradicated from their systems.
+
+One of those whom we have described as resting their heads and arms on
+the tables, looked hastily up, on hearing the visitors' voices, with an
+expression of mingled surprise and alarm.  It was Sammy Twitter, with
+hands and visage filthy, hair dishevelled, eyes bloodshot, cheeks
+hollow, and garments beyond description disreputable.  He seemed the
+very embodiment of woe and degradation.  On seeing his old friend
+Welland he quickly laid his head down again and remained motionless.
+
+Welland had not observed him.
+
+"You would scarcely believe it, sir," said the missionary, in a low
+tone; "nearly all classes of society are occasionally represented here.
+You will sometimes find merchants, lawyers, doctors, military men, and
+even clergymen, who have fallen step by step, chiefly in consequence of
+that subtle demon drink, until the common lodging-house is their only
+home."
+
+"Heaven help me!" said Sir Richard; "my friend Brisbane has often told
+me of this, but I have never quite believed it--certainly never realised
+it--until to-night.  And even now I can hardly believe it.  I see no one
+here who seems as if he ever had belonged to the classes you name."
+
+"Do you see the old man in the last box in the room, on the left-hand
+side, sitting alone?" asked Seaward, turning his back to the spot
+indicated.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, that is a clergyman.  I know him well.  You would never guess it
+from his wretched clothing, but you might readily believe it if you were
+to speak to him."
+
+"That I will not do," returned the other firmly.
+
+"You are right, sir," said Seaward, "I would not advise that you
+should--at least not here, or now.  I have been in the habit of reading
+a verse or two of the Word and giving them a short address sometimes
+about this hour.  Have you any objection to my doing so now?  It won't
+detain us long."
+
+"None in the world; pray, my good sir, don't let me disarrange your
+plans."
+
+"Perhaps," added the missionary, "you would say a few words to--"
+
+"No, no," interrupted the other, quickly; "no, they are preaching to
+_me_ just now, Mr Seaward, a very powerful sermon, I assure you."
+
+During the foregoing conversation young Welland's thoughts had been very
+busy; ay, and his conscience had not been idle, for when mention was
+made of that great curse strong drink, he vividly recalled the day when
+he had laughed at Sam Twitter's blue ribbon, and felt uneasy as to how
+far his conduct on that occasion had helped Sam in his downward career.
+
+"My friends," said the missionary aloud, "we will sing a hymn."
+
+Some of those whom he addressed turned towards the speaker; others paid
+no attention whatever, but went on with their cooking and smoking.  They
+were used to it, as ordinary church-goers are to the "service."  The
+missionary understood that well, but was not discouraged, because he
+knew that his "labour in the Lord" should not be in vain.  He pulled out
+two small hymn-books and handed one to Sir Richard, the other to
+Welland.
+
+Sir Richard suddenly found himself in what was to him a strange and
+uncomfortable position, called on to take a somewhat prominent part in a
+religious service in a low lodging-house!
+
+The worst of it was that the poor knight could not sing a note.
+However, his deficiency in this respect was more than compensated by
+John Seaward, who possessed a telling tuneful voice, with a grateful
+heart to work it.  Young Welland also could sing well, and joined
+heartily in that beautiful hymn which tells of "The wonderful words of
+life."
+
+After a brief prayer the missionary preached the comforting gospel, and
+tried, with all the fervour of a sympathetic heart, to impress on his
+hearers that there really was Hope for the hopeless, and Rest for the
+weary in Jesus Christ.
+
+When he had finished, Stephen Welland surprised him, as well as his
+friend Sir Richard and the audience generally, by suddenly exclaiming,
+in a subdued but impressive voice, which drew general attention:
+
+"Friends, I had no intention of saying a word when I came here, but, God
+forgive me, I have committed a sin, which seems to force me to speak and
+warn you against giving way to strong drink.  I had--nay, I _have_--a
+dear friend who once put on the Blue Ribbon."
+
+Here he related the episode at the road-side tavern, and his friend's
+terrible fall, and wound up with the warning:
+
+"Fellow-men, fellow-sinners, beware of being laughed out of good
+resolves--beware of strong drink.  I know not where my comrade is now.
+He may be dead, but I think not, for he has a mother and father who pray
+for him without ceasing.  Still better, as you have just been told, he
+has an Advocate with God, who is able and willing to save him to the
+uttermost.  Forgive me, Mr Seaward, for speaking without being asked.
+I could not help it."
+
+"No need to ask forgiveness of me, Mr Welland.  You have spoken on the
+Lord's side, and I have reason to thank you heartily."
+
+While this was being said, those who sat near the door observed that a
+young man rose softly, and slunk away like a criminal, with a face ashy
+pale and his head bowed down.  On reaching the door, he rushed out like
+one who expected to be pursued.  It was young Sam Twitter.  Few of the
+inmates of the place observed him, none cared a straw for him, and the
+incident was, no doubt, quickly forgotten.
+
+"We must hasten now, if we are to visit another lodging-house," said
+Seaward, as they emerged into the comparatively fresh air of the street,
+"for it grows late, and riotous drunken characters are apt to be met
+with as they stagger home."
+
+"No; I have had enough for one night," said Sir Richard.  "I shall not
+be able to digest it all in a hurry.  I'll go home by the Metropolitan,
+if you will conduct me to the nearest station."
+
+"Come along, then.  This way."
+
+They had not gone far, and were passing through a quiet side street,
+when they observed a poor woman sitting on a door-step.  It was Mrs
+Frog, who had returned to sit on the old familiar spot, and watch the
+shadows on the blind, either from the mere force of habit, or because
+this would probably be the last occasion on which she could expect to
+enjoy that treat.
+
+A feeling of pity entered Sir Richard's soul as he looked on the poorly
+clothed forlorn creature.  He little knew what rejoicing there was in
+her heart just then--so deceptive are appearances at times!  He went
+towards her with an intention of some sort, when a very tall policeman
+turned the corner, and approached.
+
+"Why, Giles Scott!" exclaimed the knight, holding out his hand, which
+Giles shook respectfully, "you seem to be very far away from your beat
+to-night."
+
+"No, sir, not very far, for this is my beat, now.  I have exchanged into
+the city, for reasons that I need not mention."
+
+At this point a belated and half-tipsy man passed with his donkey-cart
+full of unsold vegetables and rubbish.
+
+"Hallo! you big blue-coat-boy," he cried politely to Giles, "wot d'ye
+call _that_?"
+
+Giles had caught sight of "_that_" at the same moment, and darted across
+the street.
+
+"Why, it's fire!" he shouted.  "Run, young fellow, you know the
+fire-station!"
+
+"_I_ know it," shouted the donkey-man, sobered in an instant, as he
+jumped off his cart, left it standing, dashed round the corner, and
+disappeared, while Number 666 beat a thundering tattoo on Samuel
+Twitter's front door.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
+
+THINGS BECOME TOO HOT FOR THE TWITTER FAMILY.
+
+Before the thunder of Giles Scott's first rap had ceased, a pane of
+glass in one of the lower windows burst, and out came dense volumes of
+smoke, with a red tongue or two piercing them here and there, showing
+that the fire had been smouldering long, and had got well alight.
+
+It was followed by an appalling shriek from Mrs Frog, who rushed
+forward shouting, "Oh! baby! baby!"
+
+"Hold her, sir," said Giles to young Welland, who sprang forward at the
+same moment.
+
+Welland was aware of the immense value of prompt obedience, and saw that
+Giles was well fitted to command.  He seized Mrs Frog and held her
+fast, while Giles, knowing that there was no time to stand on ceremony,
+stepped a few paces back, ran at the door with all his might, and
+applied his foot with his great weight and momentum to it.  As the oak
+is shattered by the thunderbolt, so was Samuel Twitter's door by the
+foot of Number 666.  But the bold constable was met by a volume of black
+smoke which was too much even for him.  It drove him back half
+suffocated, while, at the same time, it drove the domestic out of the
+house into his arms.  She had rushed from the lower regions just in time
+to escape death.
+
+A single minute had not yet elapsed, and only half-a-dozen persons had
+assembled, with two or three policemen, who instantly sought to obtain
+an entrance by a back door.
+
+"Hold her, Sir Richard," said Welland, handing the struggling Mrs Frog
+over.  The knight accepted the charge, while Welland ran to the burning
+house, which seemed to be made of tinder, it blazed up so quickly.
+
+Giles was making desperate efforts to enter by a window which vomited
+fire and smoke that defied him.  An upper window was thrown open, and
+Samuel Twitter appeared in his night-dress, shouting frantically.
+
+Stephen Welland saw that entrance or egress by lower window or staircase
+was impossible.  He had been a noted athlete at school.  There was an
+iron spout which ran from the street to the roof.  He rushed to that,
+and sprang up more like a monkey than a man.
+
+"Pitch over blankets!" roared Giles, as the youth gained a window of the
+first floor, and dashed it in.
+
+"The donkey-cart!" shouted Welland, in reply, and disappeared.
+
+Giles was quick to understand.  He dragged--almost lifted--the donkey
+and cart on to the pavement under the window where Mr Twitter stood
+waving his hands and yelling.  The poor man had evidently lost his
+reason for the time, and was fit for nothing.  A hand was seen to grasp
+his neck behind, and he disappeared.  At the same moment a blanket came
+fluttering down, and Welland stood on the window-sill with Mrs Twitter
+in his arms, and a sheet of flame following.  The height was about
+thirty feet.  The youth steadied himself for one moment, as if to take
+aim, and dropped Mrs Twitter, as he might have dropped a bundle.  She
+not only went into the vegetable cart, with a bursting shriek, but right
+through it, and reached the pavement unhurt--though terribly shaken!
+
+Four minutes had not yet elapsed.  The crowd had thickened, and a dull
+rumbling which had been audible for half a minute increased into a
+mighty roar as the fiery-red engine with its brass-helmeted heroes
+dashed round the corner, and pulled up with a crash, seeming to shoot
+the men off.  These swarmed, for a few seconds, about the hose, water
+plug, and nozzles.  At the same instant the great fire-escape came
+rushing on the scene, like some antediluvian monster, but by that time
+Giles had swept away the debris of the donkey-cart, with Mrs Twitter
+imbedded therein, and had stretched the blanket with five powerful
+volunteers to hold it.  "Jump, sir, jump!" he cried.  Samuel Twitter
+jumped--unavoidably, for Welland pushed him--just as the hiss and
+crackle of the water-spouts began.
+
+He came down in a heap, rebounded like india-rubber, and was hurled to
+one side in time to make way for one of his young flock.
+
+"The children! the children!" screamed Mrs Twitter, disengaging herself
+from the vegetables.
+
+"Where are they?" asked a brass-helmeted man, quietly, as the head of
+the Escape went crashing through an upper window.
+
+"The top floor! all of 'em there!--top flo-o-o-r!"
+
+"No--no-o-o! some on the second fl-o-o-or!" yelled Mr Twitter.
+
+"I say _top--floo-o-o-r_," repeated the wife.
+
+"You forget--baby--ba-i-by!" roared the husband.
+
+A wild shriek was Mrs Twitter's reply.
+
+The quiet man with the brass helmet had run up the Escape quite
+regardless of these explanations.  At the same time top windows were
+opened up, and little night-dressed figures appeared at them all,
+apparently making faces, for their cries were drowned in the shouts
+below.
+
+From these upper windows smoke was issuing, but not yet in dense,
+suffocating volumes.  The quiet man of the Escape entered a second floor
+window through smoke and flames as though he were a salamander.
+
+The crowd below gave him a lusty cheer, for it was a great surging crowd
+by that time; nevertheless it surged within bounds, for a powerful body
+of police kept it back, leaving free space for the firemen to work.
+
+A moment or two after the quiet fireman had entered, the night-dressed
+little ones disappeared from the other windows and congregated, as if by
+magic, at the window just above the head of the Escape.  Almost
+simultaneously the fly-ladder of the Escape--used for upper windows--was
+swung out, and when the quiet fireman had got out on the window-sill
+with little Lucy in his arms and little Alice held by her dress in his
+teeth, its upper rounds touched his knees, as if with a kiss of
+recognition!
+
+He descended the fly-ladder, and shoved the two terrified little ones
+somewhat promptly into the canvas shoot, where a brother fireman was
+ready to pilot them together xxx to the ground.  Molly being big had to
+be carried by herself, but Willie and Fred went together.
+
+During all this time poor Mrs Frog had given herself over to the one
+idea of screaming "baby! bai-e-by!" and struggling to get free from the
+two policemen, who had come to the relief of Sir Richard, and who
+tenderly restrained her.
+
+In like manner Mr and Mrs Twitter, although not absolutely in need of
+restraint, went about wringing their hands and making such confused and
+contradictory statements that no one could understand what they meant,
+and the firemen quietly went on with their work quite regardless of
+their existence.
+
+"Policeman!" said Sam Twitter, looking up in the face of Number 666,
+with a piteous expression, and almost weeping with vexation, "_nobody_
+will listen to me.  I would go up myself, but the firemen won't let me,
+and my dear wife has such an idea of sticking to truth that when they
+ask her, `Is your baby up there?' she yells `No, not _our_ baby,' and
+before she can explain she gasps, and then I try to explain, and that so
+bamboozles--"
+
+"_Is_ your baby there?" demanded Number 666 vehemently.
+
+"Yes, it is!" cried Twitter, without the slightest twinge of conscience.
+
+"What room?"
+
+"That one," pointing to the left side of the house on the first floor.
+
+Just then part of the roof gave way and fell into the furnace of flame
+below, leaving visible the door of the very room to which Twitter had
+pointed.
+
+A despairing groan escaped him as he saw it, for now all communication
+seemed cut off, and the men were about to pull the Escape away to
+prevent its being burned, while, more engines having arrived, something
+like a mountain torrent of water was descending on the devoted house.
+
+"Stop, lads, a moment," said Giles, springing upon the Escape.  He might
+have explained to the firemen what he had learned, but that would have
+taken time, and every second just then was of the utmost value.  He was
+up on the window-sill before they well understood what he meant to do.
+
+The heat was intolerable.  A very lake of fire rolled beneath him.  The
+door of the room pointed out by Twitter was opposite--fortunately on the
+side furthest from the centre of fire, but the floor was gone.  Only two
+great beams remained, and the one Giles had to cross was more than half
+burned through.  It was a fragile bridge on which to pass over an abyss
+so terrible.  But heroes do not pause to calculate.  Giles walked
+straight across it with the steadiness of a rope-dancer, and burst in
+the scarred and splitting door.
+
+The smoke here was not too dense to prevent his seeing.  One glance
+revealed baby Frog lying calmly in her crib as if asleep.  To seize her,
+wrap her in the blankets, and carry her to the door of the room, was the
+work of a moment, but the awful abyss now lay before him, and it seemed
+to have been heated seven times.  The beam, too, was by that time
+re-kindling with the increased heat, and the burden he carried prevented
+Giles from seeing, and balancing himself so well.  He did not hesitate,
+but he advanced slowly and with caution.
+
+A dead silence fell on the awe-stricken crowd, whose gaze was
+concentrated now on the one figure.  The throbbing of the engines was
+heard distinctly when the roar of excitement was thus temporarily
+checked.
+
+As Giles moved along, the beam cracked under his great weight.  The heat
+became almost insupportable.  His boots seemed to shrivel up and tighten
+round his feet.
+
+"He's gone!  No, he's not!" gasped some of the crowd, as the tall smoke
+and flame encompassed him, and he was seen for a moment to waver.
+
+It was a touch of giddiness, but by a violent impulse of the will he
+threw it off, and at the same time bounded to the window, sending the
+beam, which was broken off by the shock, hissing down into the lake of
+fire.
+
+The danger was past, and a loud, continuous, enthusiastic cheer greeted
+gallant Number 666 as he descended the chute with the baby in his arms,
+and delivered it alive and well, and more solemn than ever, to its
+mother--its _own_ mother!
+
+When Sir Richard Brandon returned home that night, he found it
+uncommonly difficult to sleep.  When, after many unsuccessful efforts,
+he did manage to slumber, his dreams re-produced the visions of his
+waking hours, with many surprising distortions and mixings--one of which
+distortions was, that all the paupers in the common lodging-houses had
+suddenly become rich, while he, Sir Richard, had as suddenly become
+poor, and a beggar in filthy rags, with nobody to care for him, and that
+these enriched beggars came round him and asked him, in quite a
+facetious way, "how he liked it!"
+
+Next morning, when the worthy knight arose, he found his unrested brain
+still busy with the same theme.  He also found that he had got food for
+meditation, and for discussion with little Di, not only for some time to
+come, but, for the remainder of his hours.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
+
+THE OCEAN AND THE NEW WORLD.
+
+Doctors tell us that change of air is usually beneficial, often
+necessary, nearly always agreeable.  Relying on the wisdom of this
+opinion, we propose now to give the reader who has followed us thus far
+a change of air--by shifting the scene to the bosom of the broad
+Atlantic--and thus blow away the cobwebs and dust of the city.
+
+Those who have not yet been out upon the great ocean cannot conceive--
+and those who have been out on it may not have seen--the splendours of a
+luminous fog on a glorious summer morning.  The prevailing ideas in such
+circumstances are peace and liquidity! the only solid object visible
+above, below, or around, being the ship on which you stand.
+
+Everything else is impalpable, floating, soft, and of a light, bright,
+silvery grey.  The air is warm, the sea is glass; it is circular, too,
+like a disc, and the line where it meets with the sky is imperceptible.
+Your little bark is the centre of a great crystal ball, the limit of
+which is Immensity!
+
+As we have said, peace, liquidity, luminosity, softness, and warmth
+prevail everywhere, and the fog, or rather, the silvery haze--for it is
+dry and warm as well as bright--has the peculiar effect of deadening
+sound, so that the quiet little noises of ship-board rather help than
+destroy the idea of that profound tranquillity which suggests
+irresistibly to the religious mind the higher and sweeter idea of "the
+peace of God."
+
+But, although intensely still, there is no suggestion of death in such a
+scene.  It is only that of slumber! for the ocean undulates even when at
+rest, and sails flap gently even when there is no wind.  Besides this,
+on the particular morning to which we call attention, a species of what
+we may call "still life" was presented by a mighty iceberg--a peaked and
+towering mountain of snowy white and emerald blue--which floated on the
+sea not a quarter of a mile off on the starboard bow.  Real life also
+was presented to the passengers of the noble bark which formed the
+centre of this scene, in the form of gulls floating like great
+snowflakes in the air, and flocks of active little divers rejoicing
+unspeakably on the water.  The distant cries of these added to the
+harmony of nature, and tended to draw the mind from mere abstract
+contemplation to positive sympathy with the joys of other animals
+besides one's-self.
+
+The only discordant sounds that met the ears of those who voyaged in the
+bark _Ocean Queen_ were the cacklings of a creature in the hen-coops
+which had laid an egg, or thought it had done so, or wished to do so,
+or, having been sea-sick up to that time, perhaps, endeavoured to revive
+its spirits by recalling the fact that it once did so, and might perhaps
+do so again!  By the way there was also one other discord, in the form
+of a pugnacious baby, which whimpered continuously, and, from some
+unaccountable cause, refused to be comforted.  But that was a discord
+which, as in some musical chords, seemed rather to improve the harmony--
+at least in its mother's ears.
+
+The _Ocean Queen_ was an emigrant ship.  In her capacious hull, besides
+other emigrants, there were upwards of seventy diamonds from the Beehive
+in Spitalfields on their way to seek their fortunes in the lands that
+are watered by such grand fresh-water seas as Lakes Superior and Huron
+and Michigan and Ontario, and such rivers as the Ottawa and the Saint
+Lawrence.
+
+Robert Frog and Tim Lumpy were among those boys, so changed for the
+better in a few months that, as the former remarked, "their own mothers
+wouldn't know 'em," and not only improved in appearance, but in spirit,
+ay, and even to some small extent in language--so great had been the
+influence for good brought to bear on them by Christian women working
+out of love to God and souls.
+
+"Ain't it lovely?" said Tim.
+
+"Splendacious!" replied Bob.
+
+The reader will observe that we did not say the language had, at that
+time, been _much_ improved! only to some small extent.
+
+"I've seen pictur's of 'em, Bob," said Tim, leaning his arms on the
+vessel's bulwarks as he gazed on the sleeping sea, "w'en a gen'l'man
+came to George Yard with a magic lantern, but I never thought they was
+so big, or that the holes in 'em was so blue."
+
+"Nor I neither," said Bob.
+
+They referred, of course, to the iceberg, the seams and especially the
+caverns in which graduated from the lightest azure to the deepest
+indigo.
+
+"Why, I do believe," continued Bobby, as the haze grew a little thinner,
+"that there's rivers of water runnin' down its sides, just like as if it
+was a mountain o' loaf-sugar wi' the fire-brigade a-pumpin' on it.  An'
+see, there's waterfalls too, bigger I do b'lieve than the one I once saw
+at a pantomime."
+
+"Ay, an' far prettier too," said Tim.
+
+Bobby Frog did not quite see his way to assent to that.  The waterfalls
+on the iceberg were bigger, he admitted, than those in the pantomime,
+but then, there was not so much glare and glitter around them.
+
+"An' I'm fond of glare an' glitter," he remarked, with a glance at his
+friend.
+
+"So am I, Bob, but--"
+
+At that instant the dinner-bell rang, and the eyes of both glittered--
+they almost glared--as they turned and made for the companion-hatch, Bob
+exclaiming, "Ah, that's the thing that _I'm_ fond of; glare an'
+glitter's all wery well in its way, but it can't 'old a candle to grub!"
+
+Timothy Lumpy seemed to have no difference of opinion with his friend on
+that point.  Indeed the other sixty-eight boys seemed to be marvellously
+united in sentiment about it, for, without an exception, they responded
+to that dinner-bell with a promptitude quite equal to that secured by
+military discipline!  There was a rattling of feet on decks and
+ladderways for a few seconds, and then all was quiet while a blessing
+was asked on the meal.
+
+For many years Miss Annie Macpherson has herself conducted parties of
+such boys to Canada, but the party of which we write happened to be in
+charge of a gentleman whom we will name the Guardian; he was there to
+keep order, of course, but in truth this was not a difficult matter, for
+the affections of the boys had been enlisted, and they had already
+learned to practise self-restraint.
+
+That same day a whale was seen.  It produced a sensation among the boys
+that is not easily described.  Considerately, and as if on purpose, it
+swam round the ship and displayed its gigantic proportions; then it
+spouted as though to show what it could do in that line, and then, as if
+to make the performance complete and reduce the Westminster Aquarium to
+insignificance, it tossed its mighty tail on high, brought it down with
+a clap like thunder, and finally dived into its native ocean followed by
+a yell of joyful surprise from the rescued waifs and strays.
+
+There were little boys, perhaps even big ones, in that band, who that
+day received a lesson of faith from the whale.  It taught them that
+pictures, even extravagant ones, represent great realities.  The whale
+also taught them a lesson of error, as was proved by the remark of one
+waif to a brother stray:--
+
+"I say, Piggie, it ain't 'ard _now_, to b'lieve that the whale swallered
+Jonah."
+
+"You're right, Konky."
+
+Strange interlacing of error with error traversed by truth in this
+sublunary sphere!  Piggie was wrong in admitting that.  Konky was right,
+for, as every one knows, or ought to know, it was not a whale at all
+that swallowed Jonah, but a "great fish" which was "prepared" for the
+purpose.
+
+But the voyage of the _Ocean Queen_ was not entirely made up of calms,
+and luminous fogs, and bergs, and whales, and food.  A volume would be
+required to describe it all.  There was much foul weather as well as
+fair, during which periods a certain proportion of the little flock,
+being not very good sailors, sank to depths of misery which they had
+never before experienced--not even in their tattered days--and even
+those of them who had got their "sea-legs on," were not absolutely
+happy.
+
+"I say, Piggie," asked the waif before mentioned of his chum, (or
+dosser), Konky, "'ow long d'ee think little Mouse will go on at his
+present rate o' heavin'?"
+
+"I can't say," answered the stray, with a serious air; "I ain't studied
+the 'uman frame wery much, but I should say, 'e'll bust by to-morrow if
+'e goes on like 'e's bin doin'."
+
+A tremendous sound from little Mouse, who lay in a neighbouring bunk,
+seemed to justify the prophecy.
+
+But little Mouse did not "bust."  He survived that storm, and got his
+sea-legs on before the next one.
+
+The voyage, however, was on the whole propitious, and, what with
+school-lessons and Bible-lessons and hymn-singing, and romping, and
+games of various kinds instituted and engaged in by the Guardian, the
+time passed profitably as well as pleasantly, so that there were,
+perhaps, some feelings of regret when the voyage drew to an end, and
+they came in sight of that Great Land which the Norsemen of old
+discovered; which Columbus, re-discovering, introduced to the civilised
+world, and which, we think, ought in justice to have been named
+Columbia.
+
+And now a new era of life began for those rescued waifs and strays--
+those east-end diamonds from the great London fields.  Canada--with its
+mighty lakes and splendid rivers, its great forests and rich lands, its
+interesting past, prosperous present, and hopeful future--opened up to
+view.  But there was a shadow on the prospect, not very extensive, it is
+true, but dark enough to some of them just then, for here the hitherto
+united band was to be gradually disunited and dispersed, and friendships
+that had begun to ripen under the sunshine of Christian influence were
+to be broken up, perhaps for ever.  The Guardian, too, had to be left
+behind by each member as he was severed from his fellows and sent to a
+new home among total strangers.
+
+Still there were to set off against these things several points of
+importance.  One of these was that the Guardian would not part with a
+single boy until the character of his would-be employer was inquired
+into, and his intention to deal kindly and fairly ascertained.  Another
+point was, that each boy, when handed over to an employer, was not to be
+left thereafter to care for himself, but his interests were to be
+watched over and himself visited at intervals by an emissary from the
+Beehive, so that he would not feel friendless or forsaken even though he
+should have the misfortune to fall into bad hands.  The Guardian also
+took care to point out that, amid all these leave-takings and partings,
+there was One who would "never leave nor forsake" them, and to whom they
+were indebted for the first helping hand, when they were in their rags
+and misery, and forsaken of man.
+
+At last the great gulf of Saint Lawrence was entered, and here the
+vessel was beset with ice, so that she could not advance at a greater
+rate than two or three miles an hour for a considerable distance.
+
+Soon, however, those fields of frozen sea were passed, and the end of
+the voyage drew near.  Then was there a marvellous outbreak of pens,
+ink, and paper, for the juvenile flock was smitten with a sudden desire
+to write home before going to the interior of the new land.
+
+It was a sad truth that many of the poor boys had neither parent nor
+relative to correspond with, but these were none the less eager in their
+literary work, for had they not Miss Macpherson and the ladies of the
+Home to write to?
+
+Soon after that, the party landed at the far-famed city of Quebec, each
+boy with his bag containing change of linen, and garments, a rug,
+etcetera; and there, under a shed, thanks were rendered to God for a
+happy voyage, and prayer offered for future guidance.
+
+Then the Guardian commenced business.  He had momentous work to do.  The
+Home of Industry and its work are well-known in Canada.  Dusty diamonds
+sent out from the Beehive were by that time appreciated, and therefore
+coveted; for the western land is vast, and the labourers are
+comparatively few.  People were eager to get the boys, but the character
+of intending employers had to be inquired into, and this involved care.
+Then the suitability of boys to situations had to be considered.
+However, this was finally got over, and a few of the reclaimed waifs
+were left at Quebec.  This was the beginning of the dispersion.
+
+"I don't like it at all," said Bobby Frog to his friend Tim Lumpy, that
+evening in the sleeping car of the railway train that bore them onward
+to Montreal; "they'll soon be partin' you an' me, an' that'll be worse
+than wallerin' in the mud of Vitechapel."
+
+Bobby said this with such an expression of serious anxiety that his
+little friend was quite touched.
+
+"I hope not, Bob," he replied.  "What d'ee say to axin' our Guardian to
+put us both into the same sitivation?"
+
+Bobby thought that this was not a bad idea, and as they rolled along
+these two little waifs gravely discussed their future prospects.  It was
+the same with many others of the band, though not a few were content to
+gaze out of the carriage windows, pass a running commentary on the new
+country, and leave their future entirely to their Guardian.  Soon,
+however, the busy little tongues and brains ceased to work, and ere long
+were steeped in slumber.
+
+At midnight the train stopped, and great was the sighing and groaning,
+and earnest were the requests to be let alone, for a batch of the boys
+had to be dropped at a town by the way.  At last they were aroused, and
+with their bags on their shoulders prepared to set off under a guide to
+their various homes.  Soon the sleepiness wore off, and, when the train
+was about to start, the reality of the parting seemed to strike home,
+and the final handshakings and good wishes were earnest and hearty.
+
+Thus, little by little, the band grew less and less.
+
+Montreal swallowed up a good many.  While there the whole band went out
+for a walk on the heights above the reservoir with their Guardian,
+guided by a young Scotsman.
+
+"That's a jolly-lookin' 'ouse, Tim," said Bob Frog to his friend.
+
+The Scotsman overheard the remark.
+
+"Yes," said he, "it is a nice house, and a good jolly man owns it.  He
+began life as a poor boy.  And do you see that other villa--the white
+one with the green veranda among the trees?  That was built by a man who
+came out from England just as you have done, only without anybody to
+take care of him; God however cared for him, and now you see his house.
+He began life without a penny, but he had three qualities which will
+make a man of any boy, no matter what circumstances he may be placed in.
+He was truthful, thorough, and trustworthy.  Men knew that they might
+believe what he said, be sure of the quality of what he did, and could
+rely upon his promises.  There was another thing much in his favour, he
+was a total abstainer.  Drink in this country ruins hundreds of men and
+women, just as in England.  Shun drink, boys, as you would a serpent."
+
+"I wouldn't shun a drink o' water just now if I could get it," whispered
+Bobby to his friend, "for I'm uncommon thirsty."
+
+At this point the whole band were permitted to disperse in the woods,
+where they went about climbing and skipping like wild squirrels, for
+these novel sights, and scents, and circumstances were overwhelmingly
+delightful after the dirt and smoke of London.
+
+When pretty well breathed--our waifs were grown too hardy by that time
+to be easily exhausted--the Guardian got them to sit round him and sing
+that sweet hymn:
+
+"Shall we gather at the river?"
+
+And tears bedewed many eyes, for they were reminded that there were yet
+many partings in store before that gathering should take place.
+
+And now the remnant of the band--still a goodly number--proceeded in the
+direction of the far west.  All night they travelled, and reached
+Belleville, where they were received joyfully in the large house
+presented as a free gift to Miss Macpherson by the Council of the County
+of Hastings.  It served as a "Distributing Home" and centre in Canada
+for the little ones till they could be placed in suitable situations,
+and to it they might be returned if necessary, or a change of employer
+required it.  This Belleville Home was afterwards burned to the ground,
+and rebuilt by sympathising Canadian friends.
+
+But we may not pause long here.  The far west still lies before us.  Our
+gradually diminishing band must push on.
+
+"It's the sea!" exclaimed the boy who had been named little Mouse,
+_alias_ Robbie Dell.
+
+"No, it ain't," said Konky, who was a good deal older; "it's a lake."
+
+"Ontario," said the Guardian, "one of the noble fresh-water seas of
+Canada."
+
+Onward, ever onward, is the watchword just now--dropping boys like
+seed-corn as they go!  Woods and fields, and villas, and farms, and
+waste-lands, and forests, and water, fly past in endless variety and
+loveliness.
+
+"A panoramy without no end!" exclaimed Tim Lumpy after one of his long
+gazes of silent admiration.
+
+"_Wot_ a diff'rence!" murmured Bobby Frog.  "Wouldn't mother an' daddy
+an' Hetty like it, just!"
+
+The city of Toronto came in sight.  The wise arrangements for washing in
+Canadian railway-cars had been well used by the boys, and pocket-combs
+also.  They looked clean and neat and wonderfully solemn as they landed
+at the station.
+
+But their fame had preceded them.  An earnest crowd came to see the
+boys, among whom were some eager to appropriate.
+
+"I'll take that lad," said one bluff farmer, stepping forward, and
+pointing to a boy whose face had taken his fancy.
+
+"And I want six boys for our village," said another.
+
+"I want one to learn my business," said a third, "and I'll learn him as
+my own son.  Here are my certificates of character from my clergyman and
+the mayor of the place I belong to."
+
+"I like the looks of that little fellow," said another, pointing to Bob
+Frog, "and should like to have him."
+
+"Does you, my tulip?" said Bobby, whose natural tendency to insolence
+had not yet been subdued; "an' don't you vish you may get 'im!"
+
+It is but justice to Bobby, however, to add, that this remark was made
+entirely to himself.
+
+To all these flattering offers the Guardian turned a deaf ear, until he
+had passed through the crowd and marshalled his boys in an empty room of
+the depot.  Then inquiries were made; the boys' characters and
+capacities explained; suitability on both sides considered; the needs of
+the soul as well as the body referred to and pressed; and, finally, the
+party went on its way greatly reduced in numbers.
+
+Thus they dwindled and travelled westward until only our friend Bobby,
+Tim, Konky, and little Mouse remained with the Guardian, whose
+affections seemed to intensify as fewer numbers were left on which they
+might concentrate.
+
+Soon the little Mouse was caught.  A huge backwoods farmer, who could
+have almost put him in his coat-pocket, took a fancy to him.  The fancy
+seemed to be mutual, for, after a tearful farewell to the Guardian, the
+Mouse went off with the backwoodsman quite contentedly.
+
+Then Konky was disposed of.  A hearty old lady with a pretty daughter
+and a slim son went away with him in triumph, and the band was reduced
+to two.
+
+"I do believe," whispered Bob to Tim, "that he's goin' to let us stick
+together after all."
+
+"You are right, my dear boy," said the Guardian, who overheard the
+remark.  "A family living a considerable distance off wishes to have two
+boys.  I have reason to believe that they love the Lord Jesus, and will
+treat you well.  So, as I knew you wished to be together, I have
+arranged for your going to live with them."
+
+As the journey drew to a close, the Guardian seemed to concentrate his
+whole heart on the little waifs whom he had conducted so far, and he
+gave them many words of counsel, besides praying with and for them.
+
+At last, towards evening, the train rushed into a grand pine-wood.  It
+soon rushed out of it again and entered a beautiful piece of country
+which was diversified by lakelet and rivulet, hill and vale, with rich
+meadow lands in the hollows, where cattle browsed or lay in the evening
+sunshine.
+
+The train drew up sharply at a small road-side station.  There was no
+one to get into the cars there, and no one to get out except our two
+waifs.  On the road beyond stood a wagon with a couple of spanking bays
+in it.  On the platform stood a broad-shouldered, deep-chested,
+short-legged farmer with a face like the sun, and a wide-awake on the
+back of his bald head.
+
+"Mr Merryboy, I presume?" said the Guardian, descending from the car.
+
+"The same.  Glad to see you.  Are these my boys?"
+
+He spoke in a quick, hearty, off-hand manner, but Bobby and Tim hated
+him at once, for were they not on the point of leaving their last and
+best friend, and was not this man the cause?
+
+They turned to their Guardian to say farewell, and, even to their own
+surprise, burst into tears.
+
+"God bless you, dear boys," he said, while the guard held open the door
+of the car as if to suggest haste; "good-bye.  It won't be _very_ long I
+think before I see you again.  Farewell."
+
+He sprang into the car, the train glided away, and the two waifs stood
+looking wistfully after it with the first feelings of desolation that
+had entered their hearts since landing in Canada.
+
+"My poor lads," said Mr Merryboy, laying a hand on the shoulder of
+each, "come along with me.  Home is only six miles off, and I've got a
+pair of spanking horses that will trundle us over in no time."
+
+The tone of voice, to say nothing of "home" and "spanking horses,"
+improved matters greatly.  Both boys thought, as they entered the wagon,
+that they did not hate him quite so much as at first.
+
+The bays proved worthy of their master's praise.  They went over the
+road through the forest in grand style, and in little more than half an
+hour landed Bobby and Tim at the door of their Canadian home.
+
+It was dark by that time, and the ruddy light that shone in the windows
+and that streamed through the door as it opened to receive them seemed
+to our waifs like a gleam of celestial light.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN.
+
+AT HOME IN CANADA.
+
+The family of Mr Merryboy was a small one.  Besides those who assisted
+him on the farm--and who were in some cases temporary servants--his
+household consisted of his wife, his aged mother, a female servant, and
+a small girl.  The latter was a diamond from the London diggings, who
+had been imported the year before.  She was undergoing the process of
+being polished, and gave promise of soon becoming a very valuable gem.
+It was this that induced her employer to secure our two masculine gems
+from the same diggings.
+
+Mrs Merryboy was a vigorous, hearty, able-bodied lady, who loved work
+very much for the mere exercise it afforded her; who, like her husband,
+was constitutionally kind, and whose mind was of that serious type which
+takes concern with the souls of the people with whom it has to do as
+well as with their bodies.  Hence she gave her waif a daily lesson in
+religious and secular knowledge; she reduced work on the Sabbath-days to
+the lowest possible point in the establishment, and induced her husband,
+who was a little shy as well as bluff and off-hand, to institute family
+worship, besides hanging on her walls here and there sweet and striking
+texts from the Word of God.
+
+Old Mrs Merryboy, the mother, must have been a merry girl in her youth;
+for, even though at the age of eighty and partially deaf, she was
+extremely fond of a joke, practical or otherwise, and had her face so
+seamed with the lines of appreciative humour, and her nutcracker mouth
+so set in a smile of amiable fun, and her coal-black eyes so lit up with
+the fires of unutterable wit, that a mere glance at her stirred up your
+sources of comicality to their depths, while a steady gaze usually
+resulted in a laugh, in which she was sure to join with an apparent
+belief that, whatever the joke might be, it was uncommonly good.  She
+did not speak much.  Her looks and smiles rendered speech almost
+unnecessary.  Her figure was unusually diminutive.
+
+Little Martha, the waif, was one of those mild, reticent, tiny things
+that one feels a desire to fondle without knowing why.  Her very small
+face was always, and, as Bobby remarked, awfully grave, yet a ready
+smile must have lurked close at hand somewhere, for it could be evoked
+by the smallest provocation at any time, but fled the instant the
+provoking cause ceased.  She seldom laughed, but when she did the burst
+was a hearty one, and over immediately.  Her brown hair was smooth, her
+brown eyes were gentle, her red mouth was small and round.  Obedience
+was ingrained in her nature.  Original action seemed never to have
+entered her imagination.  She appeared to have been born with the idea
+that her sphere in life was to do as she was directed.  To resist and
+fight were to her impossibilities.  To be defended and kissed seemed to
+be her natural perquisites.  Yet her early life had been calculated to
+foster other and far different qualities, as we shall learn ere long.
+
+Tim Lumpy took to this little creature amazingly.  She was so little
+that by contrast he became quite big, and felt so!  When in Martha's
+presence he absolutely felt big and like a lion, a roaring lion capable
+of defending her against all comers!  Bobby was also attracted by her,
+but in a comparatively mild degree.
+
+On the morning after their arrival the two boys awoke to find that the
+windows of their separate little rooms opened upon a magnificent
+prospect of wood and water, and that, the partition of their apartment
+consisting of a single plank-wall, with sundry knots knocked out, they
+were not only able to converse freely, but to peep at each other
+awkwardly--facts which they had not observed the night before, owing to
+sleepiness.
+
+"I say, Tim," said Bob, "you seem to have a jolly place in there."
+
+"First-rate," replied Tim, "an' much the same as your own.  I had a good
+squint at you before you awoke.  Isn't the place splendacious?"
+
+"Yes, Tim, it is.  I've been lookin' about all the mornin' for Adam an'
+Eve, but can't see 'em nowhere."
+
+"What d'ee mean?"
+
+"Why, that we've got into the garden of Eden, to be sure."
+
+"Oh! stoopid," returned Tim, "don't you know that they was both banished
+from Eden?"
+
+"So they was.  I forgot that.  Well, it don't much matter, for there's a
+prettier girl than Eve here.  Don't you see her?  Martha, I think they
+called her--down there by the summer-'ouse, feedin' the hanimals, or
+givin' 'em their names."
+
+"There you go again, you ignorant booby," said Tim; "it wasn't Eve as
+gave the beasts their names.  It was Adam."
+
+"An' wot's the difference, I should like to know? wasn't they both made
+_one_ flesh?  However, I think little Martha would have named 'em better
+if she'd bin there.  What a funny little thing she is!"
+
+"Funny!" returned Tim, contemptuously; "she's a _trump_!"
+
+During the conversation both boys had washed and rubbed their faces till
+they absolutely shone like rosy apples.  They also combed and brushed
+their hair to such an extent that each mass lay quite flat on its little
+head, and bade fair to become solid, for the Guardian's loving counsels
+had not been forgotten, and they had a sensation of wishing to please
+him even although absent.
+
+Presently the house, which had hitherto been very quiet, began suddenly
+to resound with the barking of a little dog and the noisy voice of a
+huge man.  The former rushed about, saying "Good-morning" as well as it
+could with tail and tongue to every one, including the household cat,
+which resented the familiarity with arched back and demoniacal glare.
+The latter stamped about on the wooden floors, and addressed similar
+salutations right and left in tones that would have suited the commander
+of an army.  There was a sudden stoppage of the hurricane, and a
+pleasant female voice was heard.
+
+"I say, Bob, that's the missus," whispered Tim through a knot-hole.
+
+Then there came another squall, which seemed to drive madly about all
+the echoes in the corridors above and in the cellars below.  Again the
+noise ceased, and there came up a sound like a wheezy squeak.
+
+"I say, Tim, that's the old 'un," whispered Bob through the knot-hole.
+
+Bob was right, for immediately on the wheezy squeak ceasing, the
+hurricane burst forth in reply:
+
+"Yes, mother, that's just what I shall do.  You're always right.  I
+never knew such an old thing for wise suggestions!  I'll set both boys
+to milk the cows after breakfast.  The sooner they learn the better, for
+our new girl has too much to do in the house to attend to that; besides,
+she's either clumsy or nervous, for she has twice overturned the
+milk-pail.  But after all, I don't wonder, for that red cow has several
+times showed a desire to fling a hind-leg into the girl's face, and
+stick a horn in her gizzard.  The boys won't mind that, you know.  Pity
+that Martha's too small for the work; but she'll grow--she'll grow."
+
+"Yes, she'll grow, Franky," replied the old lady, with as knowing a look
+as if the richest of jokes had been cracked.  The look was, of course,
+lost on the boys above, and so was the reply, because it reached them in
+the form of a wheezy squeak.
+
+"Oh!  I say!  Did you ever!  Milk the keows!  On'y think!" whispered
+Bob.
+
+"Ay, an' won't I do it with my mouth open too, an' learn 'ow to send the
+stream up'ards!" said Tim.
+
+Their comments were cut short by the breakfast-bell; at the same time
+the hurricane again burst forth:
+
+"Hallo! lads--boys!  Youngsters!  Are you up?--ah! here you are.
+Good-morning, and as tidy as two pins.  That's the way to get along in
+life.  Come now, sit down.  Where's Martha?  Oh! here we are.  Sit
+beside me, little one."
+
+The hurricane suddenly fell to a gentle breeze, while part of a chapter
+of the Bible and a short prayer were read.  Then it burst forth again
+with redoubled fury, checked only now and then by the unavoidable
+stuffing of the vent-hole.
+
+"You've slept well, dears, I hope?" said Mrs Merryboy, helping each of
+our waifs to a splendid fried fish.
+
+Sitting there, partially awe-stricken by the novelty of their
+surroundings, they admitted that they had slept well.
+
+"Get ready for work then," said Mr Merryboy, through a rather large
+mouthful.  "No time to lose.  Eat--eat well--for there's lots to do.  No
+idlers on Brankly Farm, I can tell you.  And we don't let young folk lie
+abed till breakfast-time every day.  We let you rest this morning, Bob
+and Tim, just by way of an extra refresher before beginning.  Here, tuck
+into the bread and butter, little man, it'll make you grow.  More tea,
+Susy," (to his wife).  "Why, mother, you're eating nothing--nothing at
+all.  I declare you'll come to live on air at last."
+
+The old lady smiled benignly, as though rather tickled with that joke,
+and was understood by the boys to protest that she had eaten more than
+enough, though her squeak had not yet become intelligible to them.
+
+"If you do take to living on air, mother," said her daughter-in-law, "we
+shall have to boil it up with a bit of beef and butter to make it
+strong."
+
+Mrs Merryboy, senior, smiled again at this, though she had not heard a
+word of it.  Obviously she made no pretence of hearing, but took it as
+good on credit, for she immediately turned to her son, put her hand to
+her right ear, and asked what Susy said.
+
+In thunderous tones the joke was repeated, and the old lady almost went
+into fits over it, insomuch that Bob and Tim regarded her with a spice
+of anxiety mingled with their amusement, while little Martha looked at
+her in solemn wonder.
+
+Twelve months' experience had done much to increase Martha's love for
+the old lady, but it had done nothing to reduce her surprise; for
+Martha, as yet, did not understand a joke.  This, of itself, formed a
+subject of intense amusement to old Mrs Merryboy, who certainly made
+the most of circumstances, if ever woman did.
+
+"Have some more fish, Bob," said Mrs Merryboy, junior.
+
+Bob accepted more, gratefully.  So did Tim, with alacrity.
+
+"What sort of a home had you in London, Tim?" asked Mrs Merryboy.
+
+"Well, ma'am, I hadn't no home at all."
+
+"No home at all, boy; what do you mean?  You must have lived somewhere."
+
+"Oh yes, ma'am, I always lived somewheres, but it wasn't nowheres in
+partikler.  You see I'd neither father nor mother, an' though a good old
+'ooman did take me in, she couldn't purvide a bed or blankets, an' her
+'ome was stuffy, so I preferred to live in the streets, an' sleep of a
+night w'en I couldn't pay for a lodgin', in empty casks and under
+wegitable carts in Covent Garden Market, or in empty sugar 'ogsheads.  I
+liked the 'ogsheads best w'en I was 'ungry, an' that was most always,
+'cause I could sometimes pick a little sugar that was left in the cracks
+an' 'oles, w'en they 'adn't bin cleaned out a'ready.  Also I slep' under
+railway-arches, and on door-steps.  But sometimes I 'ad raither
+disturbed nights, 'cause the coppers wouldn't let a feller sleep in
+sitch places if they could 'elp it."
+
+"Who are the `coppers?'" asked the good lady of the house, who listened
+in wonder to Tim's narration.
+
+"The coppers, ma'am, the--the--pl'eece."
+
+"Oh! the police?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am."
+
+"Where in the world did they expect you to sleep?" asked Mrs Merryboy
+with some indignation.
+
+"That's best known to themselves, ma'am," returned Tim; "p'raps we might
+'ave bin allowed to sleep on the Thames, if we'd 'ad a mind to, or on
+the hatmosphere, but never 'avin' tried it on, I can't say."
+
+"Did you lead the same sort of life, Bob?" asked the farmer, who had by
+that time appeased his appetite.
+
+"Pretty much so, sir," replied Bobby, "though I wasn't quite so 'ard up
+as Tim, havin' both a father and mother as well as a 'ome.  But they was
+costly possessions, so I was forced to give 'em up."
+
+"What! you don't mean that you forsook them?" said Mr Merryboy with a
+touch of severity.
+
+"No, sir, but father forsook me and the rest of us, by gettin' into the
+Stone Jug--wery much agin' my earnest advice,--an' mother an' sister
+both thought it was best for me to come out here."
+
+The two waifs, being thus encouraged, came out with their experiences
+pretty freely, and made such a number of surprising revelations, that
+the worthy backwoodsman and his wife were lost in astonishment, to the
+obvious advantage of old Mrs Merryboy, who, regarding the varying
+expressions of face around her as the result of a series of excellent
+jokes, went into a state of chronic laughter of a mild type.
+
+"Have some more bread and butter, and tea, Bob and some more sausage,"
+said Mrs Merryboy, under a sudden impulse.
+
+Bob declined.  Yes, that London street-arab absolutely declined food!
+So did Tim Lumpy!
+
+"Now, my lads, are you quite sure," said Mr Merryboy, "that you've had
+enough to eat?"
+
+They both protested, with some regret, that they had.
+
+"You couldn't eat another bite if you was to try, could you?"
+
+"Vell, sir," said Bob, with a spice of the `old country' insolence
+strong upon him, "there's no sayin' what might be accomplished with a
+heffort, but the consikences, you know, might be serious."
+
+The farmer received this with a thunderous guffaw, and, bidding the boys
+follow him, went out.
+
+He took them round the farm buildings, commenting on and explaining
+everything, showed them cattle and horses, pigs and poultry, barns and
+stables, and then asked them how they thought they'd like to work there.
+
+"Uncommon!" was Bobby Frog's prompt reply, delivered with emphasis.
+
+"Fust rate!" was Tim Lumpy's sympathetic sentiment.
+
+"Well, then, the sooner we begin the better.  D'you see that lot of
+cord-wood lying tumbled about in the yard, Bob?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"You go to work on it, then, and pile it up against that fence, same as
+you see this one done.  An' let's see how neatly you'll do it.  Don't
+hurry.  What we want in Canada is not so much to see work done quickly
+as done well."
+
+Taking Tim to another part of the farm, he set him to remove a huge heap
+of stones with a barrow and shovel, and, leaving them, returned to the
+house.
+
+Both boys set to work with a will.  It was to them the beginning of
+life; they felt that, and were the more anxious to do well in
+consequence.  Remembering the farmer's caution, they did not hurry, but
+Tim built a cone of stones with the care and artistic exactitude of an
+architect, while Bobby piled his billets of wood with as much regard to
+symmetrical proportion as was possible in the circumstances.
+
+About noon they became hungry, but hunger was an old foe whom they had
+been well trained to defy, so they worked on utterly regardless of him.
+
+Thereafter a welcome sound was heard--the dinner-bell!
+
+Having been told to come in on hearing it, they left work at once, ran
+to the pump, washed themselves, and appeared in the dining-room looking
+hot, but bright and jovial, for nothing brightens the human countenance
+so much, (by gladdening the heart), as the consciousness of having
+performed duty well.
+
+From the first this worthy couple, who were childless, received the boys
+into their home as sons, and on all occasions treated them as such.
+Martha Mild, (her surname was derived from her character), had been
+similarly received and treated.
+
+"Well, lads," said the farmer as they commenced the meal--which was a
+second edition of breakfast, tea included, but with more meat and
+vegetables--"how did you find the work? pretty hard--eh?"
+
+"Oh! no, sir, nothink of the kind," said Bobby, who was resolved to show
+a disposition to work like a man and think nothing of it.
+
+"Ah, good.  I'll find you some harder work after dinner."
+
+Bobby blamed himself for having been so prompt in reply.
+
+"The end of this month, too, I'll have you both sent to school,"
+continued the farmer with a look of hearty good-will, that Tim thought
+would have harmonised better with a promise to give them jam-tart and
+cream.  "It's vacation time just now, and the schoolmaster's away for a
+holiday.  When he comes back you'll have to cultivate mind as well as
+soil, my boys, for I've come under an obligation to look after your
+education, and even if I hadn't, I'd do it to satisfy my own
+conscience."
+
+The _couleur-de-rose_ with which Bob and Tim had begun to invest their
+future faded perceptibly on hearing this.  The viands, however, were so
+good that it did not disturb them very much.  They ate away heartily,
+and in silence.  Little Martha was not less diligent, for she had been
+busy all the morning in the dairy and kitchen, playing, rather than
+working, at domestic concerns, yet in her play doing much real work, and
+acquiring useful knowledge, as well as an appetite.
+
+After dinner the farmer rose at once.  He was one of those who find it
+unnecessary either to drink or smoke after meals.  Indeed, strong drink
+and tobacco were unknown in his house, and, curiously enough, nobody
+seemed to be a whit the worse for their absence.  There were some
+people, indeed, who even went the length of asserting that they were all
+the better for their absence!
+
+"Now for the hard work I promised you, boys; come along."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY.
+
+OCCUPATIONS AT BRANKLY FARM.
+
+The farmer led our two boys through a deliciously scented pine-wood at
+the rear of his house, to a valley which seemed to extend and widen out
+into a multitude of lesser valleys and clumps of woodland, where
+lakelets and rivulets and waterfalls glittered in the afternoon sun like
+shields and bands of burnished silver.
+
+Taking a ball of twine from one of his capacious pockets, he gave it to
+Bobby along with a small pocket-book.
+
+"Have you got clasp-knives?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, sir," said both boys, at once producing instruments which were
+very much the worse for wear.
+
+"Very well, now, here is the work I want you to do for me this
+afternoon.  D'you see the creek down in the hollow yonder--about half a
+mile off?"
+
+"Yes, yes, sir."
+
+"Well, go down there and cut two sticks about ten feet long each; tie
+strings to the small ends of them; fix hooks that you'll find in that
+pocket-book to the lines.  The creek below the fall is swarming with
+fish; you'll find grasshoppers and worms enough for bait if you choose
+to look for 'em.  Go, and see what you can do."
+
+A reminiscence of ancient times induced Bobby Frog to say "Walke-e-r!"
+to himself, but he had too much wisdom to say it aloud.  He did,
+however, venture modestly to remark--
+
+"I knows nothink about fishin', sir.  Never cotched so much as a eel
+in--"
+
+"When I give you orders, _obey_ them!" interrupted the farmer, in a tone
+and with a look that sent Bobby and Tim to the right-about double-quick.
+They did not even venture to look back until they reached the pool
+pointed out, and when they did look back Mr Merryboy had disappeared.
+
+"Vell, I say," began Bobby, but Tim interrupted him with, "Now, Bob, you
+_must_ git off that 'abit you've got o' puttin' v's for double-u's.
+Wasn't we told by the genl'm'n that gave us a partin' had-dress that
+we'd never git on in the noo world if we didn't mind our p's and q's?
+An' here you are as regardless of your v's as if they'd no connection
+wi' the alphabet."
+
+"Pretty cove _you_ are, to find fault wi' _me_," retorted Bob, "w'en
+you're far wuss wi' your haitches--a-droppin' of 'em w'en you shouldn't
+ought to, an' stickin' of 'em in where you oughtn't should to.  Go along
+an' cut your stick, as master told you."
+
+The sticks were cut, pieces of string were measured off, and hooks
+attached thereto.  Then grasshoppers were caught, impaled, and dropped
+into a pool.  The immediate result was almost electrifying to lads who
+had never caught even a minnow before.  Bobby's hook had barely sunk
+when it was seized and run away with so forcibly as to draw a tremendous
+"Hi! hallo!! ho!!!  I've got 'im!!!" from the fisher.
+
+"Hoy! hurroo!!" responded Tim, "so've I!!!"
+
+Both boys, blazing with excitement, held on.
+
+The fish, bursting, apparently, with even greater excitement, rushed
+off.
+
+"He'll smash my stick!" cried Bob.
+
+"The twine's sure to go!" cried Tim.  "Hold o-o-on!"
+
+This command was addressed to his fish, which leaped high out of the
+pool and went wriggling back with a heavy splash.  It did not obey the
+order, but the hook did, which came to the same thing.
+
+"A ten-pounder if he's a' ounce," said Tim.
+
+"You tell that to the horse--hi ho! stop that, will you?"
+
+But Bobby's fish was what himself used to be--troublesome to deal with.
+It would not "stop that."
+
+It kept darting from side to side and leaping out of the water until, in
+one of its bursts, it got entangled with Tim's fish, and the boys were
+obliged to haul them both ashore together.
+
+"Splendid!" exclaimed Bobby, as they unhooked two fine trout and laid
+them on a place of safety; "At 'em again!"
+
+At them they went, and soon had two more fish, but the disturbance
+created by these had the effect of frightening the others.  At all
+events, at their third effort their patience was severely tried, for
+nothing came to their hooks to reward the intense gaze and the nervous
+readiness to act which marked each boy during the next half-hour or so.
+
+At the end of that time there came a change in their favour, for little
+Martha Mild appeared on the scene.  She had been sent, she said, to work
+with them.
+
+"To play with us, you mean," suggested Tim.
+
+"No, father said work," the child returned simply.
+
+"It's jolly work, then!  But I say, old 'ooman, d'you call Mr Merryboy
+father?" asked Bob in surprise.
+
+"Yes, I've called him father ever since I came."
+
+"An' who's your real father?"
+
+"I have none.  Never had one."
+
+"An' your mother?"
+
+"Never had a mother either."
+
+"Well, you air a curiosity."
+
+"Hallo!  Bob, don't forget your purliteness," said Tim.  "Come, Mumpy;
+father calls you Mumpy, doesn't he?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then so will I.  Well, Mumpy, as I was goin' to say, you may come an'
+_work_ with my rod if you like, an' we'll make a game of it.  We'll play
+at work.  Let me see where shall we be?"
+
+"In the garden of Eden," suggested Bob.
+
+"The very thing," said Tim; "I'll be Adam an' you'll be Eve, Mumpy."
+
+"Very well," said Martha with ready assent.
+
+She would have assented quite as readily to have personated Jezebel or
+the Witch of Endor.
+
+"And I'll be Cain," said Bobby, moving his line in a manner that was
+meant to be persuasive.
+
+"Oh!" said Martha, with much diffidence, "Cain was wicked, wasn't he?"
+
+"Well, my dear Eve," said Tim, "Bobby Frog is wicked enough for
+half-a-dozen Cains.  In fact, you can't cane him enough to pay him off
+for all his wickedness."
+
+"Bah! go to bed," said Cain, still intent on his line, which seemed to
+quiver as if with a nibble.
+
+As for Eve, being as innocent of pun-appreciation as her great original
+probably was, she looked at the two boys in pleased gravity.
+
+"Hi!  Cain's got another bite," cried Adam, while Eve went into a state
+of gentle excitement, and fluttered near with an evidently strong desire
+to help in some way.
+
+"Hallo! got 'im again!" shouted Tim, as his rod bent to the water with
+jerky violence; "out o' the way, Eve, else you'll get shoved into
+Gihon."
+
+"Euphrates, you stoopid!" said Cain, turning his Beehive training to
+account.  Having lost his fish, you see, he could afford to be critical
+while he fixed on another bait.
+
+But Tim cared not for rivers or names just then, having hooked a "real
+wopper," which gave him some trouble to land.  When landed, it proved to
+be the finest fish of the lot, much to Eve's satisfaction, who sat down
+to watch the process when Adam renewed the bait.
+
+Now, Bobby Frog, not having as yet been quite reformed, and, perhaps,
+having imbibed some of the spirit of his celebrated prototype with his
+name, felt a strong impulse to give Tim a gentle push behind.  For Tim
+sat in an irresistibly tempting position on the bank, with his little
+boots overhanging the dark pool from which the fish had been dragged.
+
+"Tim," said Bob.
+
+"Adam, if you please--or call me father, if you prefer it!"
+
+"Well, then, father, since I haven't got an Abel to kill, I'm only too
+'appy to have a Adam to souse."
+
+Saying which, he gave him a sufficient impulse to send him off!
+
+Eve gave vent to a treble shriek, on beholding her husband struggling in
+the water, and Cain himself felt somewhat alarmed at what he had done.
+He quickly extended the butt of his rod to his father, and dragged him
+safe to land, to poor Eve's inexpressible relief.
+
+"What d'ee mean by that, Bob?" demanded Tim fiercely, as he sprang
+towards his companion.
+
+"Cain, if you please--or call me son, if you prefers it," cried Bob, as
+he ran out of his friend's way; "but don't be waxy, father Adam, with
+your own darlin' boy.  I couldn't 'elp it.  You'd ha' done just the same
+to me if you'd had the chance.  Come, shake 'ands on it."
+
+Tim Lumpy was not the boy to cherish bad feeling.  He grinned in a
+ghastly manner, and shook the extended hand.
+
+"I forgive you, Cain, but please go an' look for Abel an' pitch into
+_him_ w'en next you git into that state o' mind, for it's agin
+common-sense, as well as history, to pitch into your old father so."
+Saying which, Tim went off to wring out his dripping garments, after
+which the fishing was resumed.
+
+"Wot a remarkable difference," said Bobby, breaking a rather long
+silence of expectancy, as he glanced round on the splendid landscape
+which was all aglow with the descending sun, "'tween these 'ere diggin's
+an' Commercial Road, or George Yard, or Ratcliff 'Ighway.  Ain't it,
+Tim?"
+
+Before Tim could reply, Mr Merryboy came forward.
+
+"Capital!" he exclaimed, on catching sight of the fish; "well done,
+lads, well done.  We shall have a glorious supper to-night.  Now, Mumpy,
+you run home and tell mother to have the big frying-pan ready.  She'll
+want your help.  Ha!" he added, turning to the boys, as Martha ran off
+with her wonted alacrity, "I thought you'd soon teach yourselves how to
+catch fish.  It's not difficult here.  And what do you think of Martha,
+my boys?"
+
+"She's a trump!" said Bobby, with decision.
+
+"Fust rate!" said Tim, bestowing his highest conception of praise.
+
+"Quite true, lads; though why you should say `fust' instead of
+first-rate, Tim, is more than I can understand.  However, you'll get
+cured of such-like queer pronunciations in course of time.  Now, I want
+you to look on little Mumpy as your sister, and she's a good deal of
+your sister too in reality, for she came out of that same great nest of
+good and bad, rich and poor--London.  Has she told you anything about
+herself yet?"
+
+"Nothin', sir," answered Bob, "'cept that when we axed--asked, I mean--I
+ax--ask your parding--she said she'd neither father nor mother."
+
+"Ah! poor thing; that's too true.  Come, pick up your fish, and I'll
+tell you about her as we go along."
+
+The boys strung their fish on a couple of branches, and followed their
+new master home.
+
+"Martha came to us only last year," said the farmer.  "She's a little
+older than she looks, having been somewhat stunted in her growth, by bad
+treatment, I suppose, and starvation and cold in her infancy.  No one
+knows who was her father or mother.  She was `found' in the streets one
+day, when about three years of age, by a man who took her home, and made
+use of her by sending her to sell matches in public-houses.  Being
+small, very intelligent for her years, and attractively modest, she
+succeeded, I suppose, in her sales, and I doubt not the man would have
+continued to keep her, if he had not been taken ill and carried to
+hospital, where he died.  Of course the man's lodging was given up the
+day he left it.  As the man had been a misanthrope--that's a hater of
+everybody, lads--nobody cared anything about him, or made inquiry after
+him.  The consequence was, that poor Martha was forgotten, strayed away
+into the streets, and got lost a second time.  She was picked up this
+time by a widow lady in very reduced circumstances, who questioned her
+closely; but all that the poor little creature knew was that she didn't
+know where her home was, that she had no father or mother, and that her
+name was Martha.
+
+"The widow took her home, made inquiries about her parentage in vain,
+and then adopted and began to train her, which accounts for her having
+so little of that slang and knowledge of London low life that you have
+so much of, you rascals!  The lady gave the child the pet surname of
+Mild, for it was so descriptive of her character.  But poor Martha was
+not destined to have this mother very long.  After a few years she died,
+leaving not a sixpence or a rag behind her worth having.  Thus little
+Mumpy was thrown a third time on the world, but God found a protector
+for her in a friend of the widow, who sent her to the Refuge--the
+Beehive as you call it--which has been such a blessing to you, my lads,
+and to so many like you, and along with her the 10 pounds required to
+pay her passage and outfit to Canada.  They kept her for some time and
+trained her, and then, knowing that I wanted a little lass here, they
+sent her to me, for which I thank God, for she's a dear little child."
+
+The tone in which the last sentence was uttered told more than any words
+could have conveyed the feelings of the bluff farmer towards the little
+gem that had been dug out of the London mines and thus given to him.
+
+Reader, they are prolific mines, those East-end mines of London!  If you
+doubt it, go, hear and see for yourself.  Perhaps it were better advice
+to say, go and dig, or help the miners!
+
+Need it be said that our waifs and strays grew and flourished in that
+rich Canadian soil?  It need not!  One of the most curious consequences
+of the new connection was the powerful affection that sprang up between
+Bobby Frog and Mrs Merryboy, senior.  It seemed as if that jovial old
+lady and our London waif had fallen in love with each other at first
+sight.  Perhaps the fact that the lady was intensely appreciative of
+fun, and the young gentleman wonderfully full of the same, had something
+to do with it.  Whatever the cause, these two were constantly flirting
+with each other, and Bob often took the old lady out for little rambles
+in the wood behind the farm.
+
+There was a particular spot in the woods, near a waterfall, of which
+this curious couple were particularly fond, and to which they frequently
+resorted, and there, under the pleasant shade, with the roar of the fall
+for a symphony, Bob poured out his hopes and fears, reminiscences and
+prospects into the willing ears of the little old lady, who was so very
+small that Bob seemed quite a big man by contrast.  He had to roar
+almost as loud as the cataract to make her hear, but he was well
+rewarded.  The old lady, it is true, did not speak much, perhaps because
+she understood little, but she expressed enough of sympathy, by means of
+nods, and winks with her brilliant black eyes, and smiles with her
+toothless mouth, to satisfy any boy of moderate expectations.
+
+And Bobby _was_ satisfied.  So, also, were the other waifs and strays,
+not only with old granny, but with everything in and around their home
+in the New World.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
+
+TREATS OF ALTERED CIRCUMSTANCES AND BLUE-RIBBONISM.
+
+Once again we return to the great city, and to Mrs Frog's poor lodging.
+
+But it is not poor now, for the woman has at last got riches and joy--
+such riches as the ungodly care not for, and a joy that they cannot
+understand.
+
+It is not all riches and joy, however.  The Master has told us that we
+shall have "much tribulation."  What then?  Are we worse off than the
+unbelievers?  Do _they_ escape the tribulation?  It is easy to prove
+that the Christian has the advantage of the worldling, for, while both
+have worries and tribulation without fail, the one has a little joy
+along with these--nay, much joy if you choose--which, however, will end
+with life, if not before; while the other has joy unspeakable and full
+of glory, which will increase with years, and end in absolute felicity!
+
+Let us look at Mrs Frog's room now, and listen to her as she sits on
+one side of a cheerful fire, sewing, while Hetty sits on the other side,
+similarly occupied, and Matty, _alias_ Mita, lies in her crib sound
+asleep.
+
+It is the same room, the same London atmosphere, which no moral
+influence will ever purify, and pretty much the same surroundings, for
+Mrs Frog's outward circumstances have not altered much in a worldly
+point of view.  The neighbours in the court are not less filthy and
+violent.  One drunken nuisance has left the next room, but another
+almost as bad has taken his place.  Nevertheless, although not altered
+much, things are decidedly improved in the poor pitiful dwelling.
+Whereas, in time past, it used to be dirty, now it is clean.  The table
+is the same table, obviously, for you can see the crack across the top
+caused by Ned's great fist on that occasion when, failing rather in
+force of argument while laying down the law, he sought to emphasise his
+remarks with an effective blow; but a craftsman has been at work on the
+table, and it is no longer rickety.  The chair, too, on which Mrs Frog
+sits, is the same identical chair which missed the head of Bobby Frog
+that time he and his father differed in opinion on some trifling matter,
+and smashed a panel of the door; but the chair has been to see the
+doctor, and its constitution is stronger now.  The other chair, on which
+Hetty sits, is a distinct innovation.  So is baby's crib.  It has
+replaced the heap of straw which formerly sufficed, and there are two
+low bedsteads in corners which once were empty.
+
+Besides all this there are numerous articles of varied shape and size
+glittering on the walls, such as sauce-pans and pot-lids, etcetera,
+which are made to do ornamental as well as useful duty, being polished
+to the highest possible degree of brilliancy.  Everywhere there is
+evidence of order and care, showing that the inmates of the room are
+somehow in better circumstances.
+
+Let it not be supposed that this has been accomplished by charity.  Mrs
+Samuel Twitter is very charitable, undoubtedly.  There can be no
+question as to that; but if she were a hundred times more charitable
+than she is, and were to give away a hundred thousand times more money
+than she does give, she could not greatly diminish the vast poverty of
+London.  Mrs Twitter had done what she could in this case, but that was
+little, in a money point of view, for there were others who had stronger
+claims upon her than Mrs Frog.  But Mrs Twitter had put her little
+finger under Mrs Frog's chin when her lips were about to go under
+water, and so, figuratively, she kept her from drowning.  Mrs Twitter
+had put out a hand when Mrs Frog tripped and was about to tumble, and
+thus kept her from falling.  When Mrs Frog, weary of life, was on the
+point of rushing once again to London Bridge, with a purpose, Mrs
+Twitter caught the skirt of her ragged robe with a firm but kindly grasp
+and held her back, thus saving her from destruction; but, best of all,
+when the poor woman, under the influence of the Spirit of God, ceased to
+strive with her Maker and cried out earnestly, "What must I do to be
+saved?"  Mrs Twitter grasped her with both hands and dragged her with
+tender violence towards the Fold, but not quite into it.
+
+For Mrs Twitter was a wise, unselfish woman, as well as good.  At a
+certain point she ceased to act, and said, "Mrs Frog, go to your own
+Hetty, and she will tell you what to do."
+
+And Mrs Frog went, and Hetty, with joyful surprise in her heart, and
+warm tears of gratitude in her eyes, pointed her to Jesus the Saviour of
+mankind.  It was nothing new to the poor woman to be thus directed.  It
+is nothing new to almost any one in a Christian land to be pointed to
+Christ; but it _is_ something new to many a one to have the eyes opened
+to see, and the will influenced to accept.  It was so now with this
+poor, self-willed, and long-tried--or, rather, long-resisting--woman.
+The Spirit's time had come, and she was made willing.  But now she had
+to face the difficulties of the new life.  Conscience--never killed, and
+now revived--began to act.
+
+"I must work," she said, internally, and conscience nodded approval.  "I
+must drink less," she said, but conscience shook her head.  "It will be
+very hard, you see," she continued, apologetically, "for a poor woman
+like me to get through a hard day without just _one_ glass of beer to
+strengthen me."
+
+Conscience did all her work by looks alone.  She was naturally dumb, but
+she had a grand majestic countenance with great expressive eyes, and at
+the mention of _one_ glass of beer she frowned so that poor Mrs Frog
+almost trembled.
+
+At this point Hetty stepped into the conversation.  All unaware of what
+had been going on in her mother's mind, she said, suddenly, "Mother, I'm
+going to a meeting to-night; will you come?"
+
+Mrs Frog was quite willing.  In fact she had fairly given in and become
+biddable like a little child,--though, after all, that interesting
+creature does not always, or necessarily, convey the most perfect idea
+of obedience!
+
+It was a rough meeting, composed of rude elements, in a large but
+ungilded hall in Whitechapel.  The people were listening intently to a
+powerful speaker.
+
+The theme was strong drink.  There were opponents and sympathisers
+there.  "It is the greatest curse, I think, in London," said the
+speaker, as Hetty and her mother entered.
+
+"Bah!" exclaimed a powerful man beside whom they chanced to sit down.
+"I've drank a lot on't an' don't find it no curse, at all."
+
+"Silence," cried some in the audience.
+
+"I tell 'ee it's all barn wot 'e's talkin'," said the powerful man.
+
+"Put 'im out," cried some of the audience.  But the powerful man had a
+powerful look, and a great bristly jaw, and a fierce pair of eyes which
+had often been blackened, and still bore the hues of the last fight; no
+one, therefore, attempted to put him out, so he snapped his fingers at
+the entire meeting, said, "Bah!" again, with a look of contempt, and
+relapsed into silence, while the speaker, heedless of the slight
+interruption, went on.
+
+"Why, it's a Blue Ribbon meeting, Hetty," whispered Mrs Frog.
+
+"Yes, mother," whispered Hetty in reply, "that's one of its names, but
+its real title, I heard one gentleman say, is the Gospel-Temperance
+Association, you see, they're very anxious to put the gospel first and
+temperance second; temperance bein' only one of the fruits of the gospel
+of Jesus."
+
+The speaker went on in eloquent strains pleading the great cause--now
+drawing out the sympathies of his hearers, then appealing to their
+reason; sometimes relating incidents of deepest pathos, at other times
+convulsing the audience with touches of the broadest humour, insomuch
+that the man who said "bah!" modified his objections to "pooh!" and ere
+long came to that turning-point where silence is consent.  In this
+condition he remained until reference was made by the speaker to a man--
+not such a bad fellow too, when sober--who, under the influence of
+drink, had thrown his big shoe at his wife's head and cut it so badly
+that she was even then--while he was addressing them--lying in hospital
+hovering between life and death.
+
+"That's me!" cried the powerful man, jumping up in a state of great
+excitement mingled with indignation, while he towered head and shoulders
+above the audience, "though how _you_ come for to 'ear on't beats me
+holler.  An' it shows 'ow lies git about, for she's _not_ gone to the
+hospital, an' it wasn't shoes at all, but boots I flung at 'er, an' they
+only just grazed 'er, thank goodness, an' sent the cat flyin' through
+the winder.  So--"
+
+A burst of laughter with mingled applause and cheers cut off the end of
+the sentence and caused the powerful man to sit down in much confusion,
+quite puzzled what to think of it all.
+
+"My friend," said the speaker, when order had been restored, "you are
+mistaken.  I did not refer to you at all, never having seen or heard of
+you before, but there are too many men like you--men who would be good
+men and true if they would only come to the Saviour, who would soon
+convince them that it is wise to give up the drink and put on the blue
+ribbon.  Let it not be supposed, my friends, that I say it is the _duty_
+of every one to put on the blue ribbon and become a total abstainer.
+There are circumstances in which a `little wine' may be advisable.  Why,
+the apostle Paul himself, when Timothy's stomach got into a chronic
+state of disease which subjected him, apparently, to `frequent
+infirmities,' advised him to take a `little wine,' but he didn't advise
+him to take many quarts of beer, or numerous glasses of brandy and
+water, or oceans of Old Tom, or to get daily fuddled on the poisons
+which are sold by many publicans under these names.  Still less did Paul
+advise poor dyspeptic Timothy to become his own medical man and
+prescribe all these medicines to himself, whenever he felt inclined for
+them.  Yes, there are the old and the feeble and the diseased, who may,
+(observe I don't say who _do_, for I am not a doctor, but who _may_),
+require stimulants under medical advice.  To these we do not speak, and
+to these we would not grudge the small alleviation to their sad case
+which may be found in stimulants; but to the young and strong and
+healthy we are surely entitled to say, to plead, and to entreat--put on
+the blue ribbon if you see your way to it.  And by the young we mean not
+only all boys and girls, but all men and women in the prime of life, ay,
+and beyond the prime, if in good health.  Surely you will all admit that
+the young require no stimulants.  Are they not superabounding in energy?
+Do they not require the very opposite--sedatives, and do they not find
+these in constant and violent muscular exercise?"
+
+With many similar and other arguments did the speaker seek to influence
+the mass of human beings before him, taking advantage of every idea that
+cropped up and every incident in the meeting that occurred to enforce
+his advice--namely, total abstinence for the young and the healthy--
+until he had stirred them up to a state of considerable enthusiasm.
+Then he said:--
+
+"I am glad to see you enthusiastic.  Nothing great can be done without
+enthusiasm.  You may potter along the even tenor of your way without it,
+but you'll never come to much good, and you'll never accomplish great
+things, without it.  What is enthusiasm?  Is it not seeing the length,
+breadth, height, depth, and bearing of a good thing, and being zealously
+affected in helping to bring it about?  There are many kinds of
+enthusiasts, though but one quality of enthusiasm.  Weak people show
+their enthusiasm too much on the surface.  Powerful folk keep it too
+deep in their hearts to be seen at all.  What then, are we to scout it
+in the impulsive because too obvious; to undervalue it in the reticent
+because almost invisible?  Nay, let us be thankful for it in any form,
+for the _thing_ is good, though the individual's manner of displaying it
+may be faulty.  Let us hope that the too gushing may learn to clap on
+the breaks a little--a very little; but far more let us pray that the
+reticent and the self-possessed, and the oh!--dear--no--you'll--never--
+catch--me--doing--that--sort--of--thing people, may be enabled to get up
+more steam.  Better far in my estimation the wild enthusiast than the
+self-possessed and self-sufficient cynic.  Just look at your gentlemanly
+cynic; good-natured very likely, for he's mightily pleased with himself
+and excessively wise in regard to all things sublunary.  Why, even he
+has enthusiasm, though not always in a good cause.  Follow him to the
+races.  Watch him while he sees the sleek and beautiful creatures
+straining every muscle, and his own favourite drawing ahead, inch by
+inch, until it bids fair to win.  Is _that_ our cynic, bending forward
+on his steed, with gleaming eyes and glowing cheek, and partly open
+mouth and quick-coming breath, and so forgetful of himself that he
+swings off his hat and gives vent to a lusty cheer as the favourite
+passes the winning-post?
+
+"But follow him still further.  Don't let him go.  Hold on to his
+horse's tail till we see him safe into his club, and wait there till he
+has dined and gone to the opera.  There he sits, immaculate in dress and
+bearing, in the stalls.  It is a huge audience.  A great star is to
+appear.  The star comes on--music such as might cause the very angels to
+bend and listen.
+
+"The sweet singer exerts herself; her rich voice swells in volume and
+sweeps round the hall, filling every ear and thrilling every heart,
+until, unable to restrain themselves, the vast concourse rises _en
+masse_, and, with waving scarf and kerchief, thunders forth applause!
+And what of our cynic?  There he is, the wildest of the wild--for he
+happens to love music--shouting like a maniac and waving his hat,
+regardless of the fact that he has broken the brim, and that the old
+gentleman whose corns he has trodden on frowns at him with savage
+indignation.
+
+"Yes," continued the speaker, "the whole world is enthusiastic when the
+key-note of each individual, or class of individuals, is struck; and
+shall _we_ be ashamed of our enthusiasm for this little bit of heavenly
+blue, which symbolises the great fact that those who wear it are racing
+with the demon Drink to save men and women, (ourselves included,
+perhaps), from his clutches; racing with Despair to place Hope before
+the eyes of those who are blindly rushing to destruction; racing with
+Time to snatch the young out of the way of the Destroyer before he lays
+hand on them; and singing--ay, shouting--songs of triumph and glory to
+God because of the tens of thousands of souls and bodies already saved;
+because of the bright prospect of the tens of thousands more to follow;
+because of the innumerable voices added to the celestial choir, and the
+glad assurance that the hymns of praise thus begun shall not die out
+with our feeble frames, but will grow stronger in sweetness as they
+diminish in volume, until, the river crossed, they shall burst forth
+again with indescribable intensity in the New Song.
+
+"Some people tell us that these things are not true.  Others say they
+won't last.  My friends, I know, and many of you know, that they _are_
+true, and even if they were _not_ to last, have we not even now ground
+for praise?  Shall we not rejoice that the lifeboat has saved some,
+because others have refused to embark and perished?  But we don't admit
+that these things won't last.  Very likely, in the apostolic days, some
+of the unbelievers said of them and their creed, `How long will it
+last?'  If these objectors be now able to take note of the world's
+doings, they have their answer from Father Time himself; for does he not
+say, `Christianity has lasted nearly nineteen hundred years, and is the
+strongest moral motive-power in the world to-day?'  The Blue Ribbon, my
+friends, or what it represents, is founded on Christianity; therefore
+the principles which it represents are sure to stand.  Who will come now
+and put it on?"
+
+"I will!" shouted a strong voice from among the audience, and up rose
+the powerful man who began the evening with "bah!" and "pooh!"  He soon
+made his way to the platform amid uproarious cheering, and donned the
+blue.
+
+"Hetty," whispered Mrs Frog in a low, timid voice, "I think I would
+like to put it on too."
+
+If the voice had been much lower and more timid, Hetty would have heard
+it, for she sat there watching for her mother as one might watch for a
+parent in the crisis of a dread disease.  She knew that no power on
+earth can change the will, and she had waited and prayed till the arrow
+was sent home by the hand of God.
+
+"Come along, mother," she said--but said no more, for her heart was too
+full.
+
+Mrs Frog was led to the platform, to which multitudes of men, women,
+and children were pressing, and the little badge was pinned to her
+breast.
+
+Thus did that poor woman begin her Christian course with the fruit of
+self-denial.
+
+She then set about the work of putting her house in order.  It was
+up-hill work at first, and very hard, but the promise did not fail her,
+"Lo!  I am with you alway."  In all her walk she found Hetty a guardian
+angel.
+
+"I must work, Hetty, dear," she said, "for it will never do to make you
+support us all; but what am I to do with baby?  There is no one to take
+charge of her when I go out."
+
+"I am quite able to keep the whole of us, mother, seeing that I get such
+good pay from the lady I work for, but as you want to work, I can easily
+manage for baby.  You know I've often wished to speak of the Infant
+Nursery in George Yard.  Before you sent Matty away I wanted you to send
+her there, but--" Hetty paused.
+
+"Go on, dear.  I was mad agin' you an' your religious ways; wasn't that
+it?" said Mrs Frog.
+
+"Well, mother, it don't matter now, thank God.  The Infant Nursery, you
+know, is a part of the Institution there.  The hearts of the people who
+manage it were touched by the death of so many thousands of little ones
+every year in London through want and neglect, so they set up this
+nursery to enable poor widowed mothers and others to send their babies
+to be cared for--nursed, fed, and amused in nice airy rooms--while the
+mothers are at work.  They charge only fourpence a day for this, and
+each baby has its own bag of clothing, brush and comb, towel and cot.
+They will keep Matty from half-past seven in the morning till eight at
+night for you, so that will give you plenty of time to work, won't it,
+mother?"
+
+"It will indeed, Hetty, and all for fourpence a day, say you?"
+
+"Yes, the ordinary charge is fourpence, but widows get it for twopence
+for each child, and, perhaps, they may regard a deserted wife as a
+widow!  There is a fine of twopence per hour for any child not taken
+away after eight, so you'll have to be up to time, mother."
+
+Mrs Frog acted on this advice, and thus was enabled to earn a
+sufficiency to enable her to pay her daily rent, to clothe and feed
+herself and child, to give a little to the various missions undertaken
+by the Institutions near her, to put a little now and then into the
+farthing bank, and even to give a little in charity to the poor!
+
+Now, reader, you may have forgotten it, but if you turn back to near the
+beginning of this chapter, you will perceive that all we have been
+writing about is a huge digression, for which we refuse to make the
+usual apology.
+
+We return again to Mrs Frog where we left her, sitting beside her
+cheerful fire, sewing and conversing with Hetty.
+
+"I can't bear to think of 'im, Hetty," said Mrs Frog.  "You an' me
+sittin' here so comfortable, with as much to eat as we want, an' to
+spare, while your poor father is in a cold cell.  He's bin pretty bad to
+me of late, it's true, wi' that drink, but he wasn't always like that,
+Hetty; even you can remember him before he took to the drink."
+
+"Yes, mother, I can, and, bless the Lord, he may yet be better than he
+ever was.  When is his time up?"
+
+"This day three weeks.  The twelve months will be out then.  We must
+pray for 'im, Hetty."
+
+"Yes, mother.  I am always prayin' for him.  You know that."
+
+There was a touch of anxiety in the tones and faces of both mother and
+daughter as they talked of the father, for his home-coming might,
+perhaps, nay probably would, be attended with serious consequences to
+the renovated household.  They soon changed the subject to one more
+agreeable.
+
+"Isn't Bobby's letter a nice one, mother?" said Hetty, "and so well
+written, though the spellin' might have been better; but then he's had
+so little schoolin'."
+
+"It just makes my heart sing," returned Mrs Frog.  "Read it again to
+me, Hetty.  I'll never tire o' hearin' it.  I only wish it was longer."
+
+The poor mother's wish was not unnatural, for the letter which Bobby had
+written was not calculated to tax the reader's patience, and, as Hetty
+hinted, there was room for improvement, not only in the spelling but in
+the writing.  Nevertheless, it had carried great joy to the mother's
+heart.  We shall therefore give it _verbatim et literatim_.
+
+Brankly Farm--Kanada.
+
+"Deer Mutrer. wen i left you i promisd to rite so heer gos. this Plase
+is eaven upon arth. so pritty an grand.  O you never did see the likes.
+ide park is nuffin to it, an as for Kensintn gardings--wy to kompair
+thems rediklis. theres sitch a nice little gal here. shes wun of deer
+mis mukfersons gals--wot the vestenders calls a wafe and sometimes a
+strai. were all very fond of er spesially tim lumpy. i shuvd im in the
+river wun dai. my--ow e spluterd. but e was non the wus--all the better,
+mister an mistress meryboi aint that a joly naim are as good as gold to
+us. we as prairs nite and mornin an no end o witls an as appy as kings
+and kueens a-sitin on there throns. give all our luv to deer father, an
+etty an baiby an mis mukferson an mister olland an all our deer
+teechers. sai we'll never forgit wot they told us. your deer sun Bobby."
+
+"Isn't it beautiful?" said Mrs Frog, wiping away a tear with the sock
+she was darning in preparation for her husband's return.
+
+"Yes, mother.  Bless the people that sent 'im out to Canada," said
+Hetty, "for he would never have got on here."
+
+There came a tap to the door as she spoke, and Mrs Twitter, entering,
+was received with a hearty welcome.
+
+"I came, Mrs Frog," she said, accepting the chair--for there was even a
+third chair--which Hetty placed for her, "to ask when your husband will
+be home again."
+
+Good Mrs Twitter carefully avoided the risk of hurting the poor woman's
+feelings by needless reference to jail.
+
+"I expect him this day three weeks, ma'am," replied Mrs Frog.
+
+"That will do nicely," returned Mrs Twitter.  "You see, my husband
+knows a gentleman who takes great pleasure in getting con--in getting
+men like Ned, you know, into places, and giving them a chance of--of
+getting on in life, you understand?"
+
+"_Yes_, ma'am, we must all try to git on in life if we would keep in
+life," said Mrs Frog, sadly.
+
+"Well, there is a situation open just now, which the gentleman--the same
+gentleman who was so kind in helping us after the fire; you see we all
+need help of one another, Mrs Frog--which the gentleman said he could
+keep open for a month, but not longer, so, as I happened to be passing
+your house to-night on my way to the Yard, to the mothers' meeting, I
+thought I'd just look in and tell you, and ask you to be sure and send
+Ned to me the moment he comes home."
+
+"I will, ma'am, and God bless you for thinkin' of us so much."
+
+"Remember, now," said Mrs Twitter, impressively, "_before_ he has time
+to meet any of his old comrades.  Tell him if he comes straight to me he
+will hear something that will please him very much.  I won't tell you
+what.  That is my message to him.  And now, how is my Mita?  Oh!  I need
+not ask.  There she lies like a little angel!"  (Mrs Twitter rose and
+went to the crib, but did not disturb the little sleeper.) "I wish I saw
+roses on her little cheeks and more fat, Mrs Frog."
+
+Mrs Frog admitted that there was possible improvement in the direction
+of roses and fat, but feared that the air, (it would have been more
+correct to have said the smoke and smells), of the court went against
+roses and fat, somehow.  She was thankful, however, to the good Lord for
+the health they all enjoyed in spite of local disadvantages.
+
+"Ah!" sighed Mrs Twitter, "if we could only transport you all to
+Canada--"
+
+"Oh! ma'am," exclaimed Mrs Frog, brightening up suddenly, "we've had
+_such_ a nice letter from our Bobby.  Let her see it, Hetty."
+
+"Yes, and so nicely written, too," remarked Hetty, with a beaming face,
+as she handed Bobby's production to the visitor, "though he doesn't
+quite understand yet the need for capital letters."
+
+"Never mind, Hetty, so long as he sends you capital letters," returned
+Mrs Twitter, perpetrating the first pun she had been guilty of since
+she was a baby; "and, truly, this is a charming letter, though short."
+
+"Yes, it's rather short, but it might have been shorter," said Mrs
+Frog, indulging in a truism.
+
+Mrs Twitter was already late for the mothers' meeting, but she felt at
+once that it would be better to be still later than to disappoint Mrs
+Frog of a little sympathy in a matter which touched her feelings so
+deeply.  She sat down, therefore, and read the letter over, slowly,
+commenting on it as she went along in a pleasant sort of way, which
+impressed the anxious mother with, not quite the belief, but the
+sensation that Bobby was the most hopeful immigrant which Canada had
+received since it was discovered.
+
+"Now, mind, send Ned up _at once_," said the amiable lady when about to
+quit the little room.
+
+"Yes, Mrs Twitter, I will; good-night."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
+
+NED FROG'S EXPERIENCES AND SAMMY TWITTER'S WOES.
+
+But Ned Frog, with strong drink combined, rendered fruitless all the
+efforts that were put forth in his behalf at that time.
+
+When discharged with a lot of other jail-birds, none of whom, however,
+he knew, he sauntered leisurely homeward, wondering whether his wife was
+alive, and, if so, in what condition he should find her.
+
+It may have been that better thoughts were struggling in his breast for
+ascendency, because he sighed deeply once or twice, which was not a
+usual mode with Ned of expressing his feelings.  A growl was more common
+and more natural, considering his character.
+
+Drawing nearer and nearer to his old haunts, yet taking a roundabout
+road, as the moth is drawn to the candle, or as water descends to its
+level, he went slowly on, having little hope of comfort in his home, and
+not knowing very well what to do.
+
+As he passed down one of the less frequented streets leading into
+Whitechapel, he was arrested by the sight of a purse lying on the
+pavement.  To become suddenly alive, pick it up, glance stealthily
+round, and thrust it into his pocket, was the work of an instant.  The
+saunter was changed into a steady businesslike walk.  As he turned into
+Commercial Street, Ned met Number 666 full in the face.  He knew that
+constable intimately, but refrained from taking notice of him, and
+passed on with an air and expression which were meant to convey the idea
+of infantine innocence.  Guilty men usually over-reach themselves.
+Giles noted the air, and suspected guilt, but, not being in a position
+to prove it, walked gravely on, with his stern eyes straight to the
+front.
+
+In a retired spot Ned examined his "find."  It contained six sovereigns,
+four shillings, threepence, a metropolitan railway return ticket,
+several cuttings from newspapers, and a recipe for the concoction of a
+cheap and wholesome pudding, along with a card bearing the name of Mrs
+Samuel Twitter, written in ink and without any address.
+
+"You're in luck, Ned," he remarked to himself, as he examined these
+treasures.  "Now, old boy you 'aven't stole this 'ere purse, so you
+ain't a thief; you don't know w'ere Mrs S.T. lives, so you can't find
+'er to return it to 'er.  Besides, it's more than likely she won't feel
+the want of it--w'ereas I feels in want of it wery much indeed.  Of
+course it's my dooty to 'and it over to the p'lice, but, in the first
+place, I refuse to 'ave any communication wi' the p'lice, friendly or
+otherwise; in the second place, I 'ad no 'and in makin' the laws, so I
+don't feel bound to obey 'em; thirdly, I'm both 'ungry an' thirsty, an'
+'ere you 'ave the remedy for them afflictions, so, fourthly--'ere goes!"
+
+Having thus cleared his conscience, Ned committed the cash to his vest
+pocket, and presented the purse with its remaining contents to the rats
+in a neighbouring sewer.
+
+Almost immediately afterwards he met an Irishman, an old friend.
+
+"Terence, my boy, well met!" he said, offering his hand.
+
+"Hooroo!  Ned Frog, sure I thought ye was in limbo!"
+
+"You thought right, Terry; only half-an-hour out.  Come along, I'll
+stand you somethin' for the sake of old times.  By the way, have you
+done that job yet?"
+
+"What job?"
+
+"Why, the dynamite job, of course."
+
+"No, I've gi'n that up," returned the Irishman with a look of contempt.
+"To tell you the honest truth, I don't believe that the way to right
+Ireland is to blow up England.  But there's an Englishman you'll find at
+the Swan an' Anchor--a sneakin' blackguard, as would sell his own mother
+for dhrink--he'll help you if you wants to have a hand in the job.  I'm
+off it."
+
+Notwithstanding this want of sympathy on that point, the two friends
+found that they held enough in common to induce a prolonged stay at the
+public-house, from which Ned finally issued rather late at night, and
+staggered homewards.  He met no acquaintance on the way, and was about
+to knock at his own door when the sound of a voice within arrested him.
+
+It was Hetty, praying.  The poor wife and daughter had given up hope of
+his returning at so late an hour that night, and had betaken themselves
+to their usual refuge in distress.  Ned knew the sound well, and it
+seemed to rouse a demon in his breast, for he raised his foot with the
+intention of driving in the door, when he was again arrested by another
+sound.
+
+It was the voice of little Matty, who, awaking suddenly out of a
+terrifying dream, set up a shrieking which at once drowned all other
+sounds.
+
+Ned lowered his foot, thrust his hands into his pockets, and stood
+gazing in a state of indecision at the broken pavement for a few
+minutes.
+
+"No peace there," he said, sternly.  "Prayin' an' squallin' don't suit
+me, so good-night to 'ee all."
+
+With that he turned sharp round, and staggered away, resolving never
+more to return!
+
+"Is that you, Ned Frog?" inquired a squalid, dirty-looking woman,
+thrusting her head out of a window as he passed.
+
+"No, 'tain't," said Ned, fiercely, as he left the court.
+
+He went straight to a low lodging-house, but before entering tied his
+money in a bit of rag, and thrust it into an inner pocket of his vest,
+which he buttoned tight, and fastened his coat over it.  Paying the
+requisite fourpence for the night's lodging, he entered, and was
+immediately hailed by several men who knew him, but being in no humour
+for good fellowship, he merely nodded and went straight up to his lowly
+bed.  It was one of seventy beds that occupied the entire floor of an
+immense room.  Police supervision had secured that this room should be
+well ventilated, and that the bedding should be reasonably clean, though
+far from clean-looking, and Ned slept soundly in spite of drink, for, as
+we have said before, he was unusually strong.
+
+Next day, having thought over his plans in bed, and, being a man of
+strong determination, he went forth to carry them into immediate
+execution.  He went to a lofty tenement in the neighbourhood of Dean and
+Flower Street, one of the poorest parts of the city, and hired a garret,
+which was so high up that even the staircase ended before you reached
+it, and the remainder of the upward flight had to be performed on a
+ladder, at the top of which was a trap-door, the only entrance to Ned's
+new home.
+
+Having paid a week's rent in advance he took possession, furnished the
+apartment with one old chair, one older table, one bundle of straw in a
+sack, one extremely old blanket, and one brand-new pipe with a
+corresponding ounce or two of tobacco.  Then he locked the trap-door,
+put the key in his pocket, and descended to the street, where at
+Bird-fair he provided himself with sundry little cages and a few birds.
+Having conveyed these with some food for himself and the little birds to
+his lodging he again descended to the street, and treated himself to a
+pint of beer.
+
+While thus engaged he was saluted by an old friend, the owner of a low
+music-hall, who begged for a few minutes' conversation with him outside.
+
+"Ned," he said, "I'm glad I fell in with you, for I'm uncommon 'ard up
+just now."
+
+"I never lends money," said Ned, brusquely turning away.
+
+"'Old on, Ned, I don't want yer money, bless yer.  I wants to _give_ you
+money."
+
+"Oh! that's quite another story; fire away, old man."
+
+"Well, you see, I'm 'ard up, as I said, for a man to keep order in my
+place.  The last man I 'ad was a good 'un, 'e was.  Six futt one in 'is
+socks, an' as strong as a 'orse, but by ill luck one night, a
+sailor-chap that was bigger than 'im come in to the 'all, an' they 'ad a
+row, an' my man got sitch a lickin' that he 'ad to go to hospital, an'
+'e's been there for a week, an' won't be out, they say, for a month or
+more.  Now, Ned, will you take the job?  The pay's good an' the fun's
+considerable.  So's the fightin', sometimes, but you'd put a stop to
+that you know.  An', then, you'll 'ave all the day to yourself to do as
+you like."
+
+"I'm your man," said Ned, promptly.
+
+Thus it came to pass that the pugilist obtained suitable employment as a
+peacemaker and keeper of order, for a time at least, in one of those
+disreputable places of amusement where the unfortunate poor of London
+are taught lessons of vice and vanity which end often in vexation of
+spirit, not only to themselves, but to the strata of society which rest
+above them.
+
+One night Ned betook himself to this temple of vice, and on the way was
+struck by the appearance of a man with a barrow--a sort of book-stall on
+wheels--who was pushing his way through the crowded street.  It was the
+man who at the temperance meeting had begun with "bah!" and "pooh!" and
+had ended by putting on the Blue Ribbon.  He had once been a comrade of
+Ned Frog, but had become so very respectable that his old chum scarcely
+recognised him.
+
+"Hallo!  Reggie North, can that be you?"
+
+North let down his barrow, wheeled round, and held out his hand with a
+hearty, "how are 'ee, old man?  W'y you're lookin' well, close cropped
+an' comfortable, eh!  Livin' at Her Majesty's expense lately?  Where
+d'ee live now, Ned?  I'd like to come and see you."
+
+Ned told his old comrade the locality of his new abode.
+
+"But I say, North, how respectable you are!  What's come over you? not
+become a travellin' bookseller, have you?"
+
+"That's just what I am, Ned."
+
+"Well, there's no accountin' for taste.  I hope it pays."
+
+"Ay, pays splendidly--pays the seller of the books and pays the buyers
+better."
+
+"How's that?" asked Ned, in some surprise, going up to the barrow; "oh!
+I see, Bibles."
+
+"Yes, Ned, Bibles, the Word of God.  Will you buy one?"
+
+"No, thank 'ee," said Ned, drily.
+
+"Here, I'll make you a present o' one, then," returned North, thrusting
+a Bible into the other's hand; "you can't refuse it of an old comrade.
+Good-night.  I'll look in on you soon."
+
+"You needn't trouble yourself," Ned called out as his friend went off;
+and he felt half inclined to fling the Bible after him, but checked
+himself.  It was worth money! so he put it in his pocket and went his
+way.
+
+The hall was very full that night, a new comic singer of great promise
+having been announced, and oh! it was sad to see the youths of both
+sexes, little more than big boys and girls, who went there to smoke, and
+drink, and enjoy ribald songs and indecent jests!
+
+We do not mean to describe the proceedings.  Let it suffice to say that,
+after one or two songs and a dance had been got through, Ned, part of
+whose duty it was to announce the performances, rose and in a loud voice
+said--
+
+"Signor Twittorini will now sing."
+
+The Signor stepped forward at once, and was received with a roar of
+enthusiastic laughter, for anything more lugubrious and woe-begone than
+the expression of his face had never been seen on these boards before.
+There was a slight look of shyness about him, too, which increased the
+absurdity of the thing, and it was all _so natural_, as one half-tipsy
+woman remarked.
+
+So it was--intensely natural--for Signor Twittorini was no other than
+poor Sammy Twitter in the extremest depths of his despair.
+Half-starved, half-mad, yet ashamed to return to his father's house, the
+miserable boy had wandered in bye streets, and slept in low
+lodging-houses as long as his funds lasted.  Then he tried to get
+employment with only partial success, until at last, recollecting that
+he had been noted among his companions for a sweet voice and a certain
+power of singing serio-comic songs, he thought of a low music-hall into
+which he had staggered one evening when drunk--as much with misery as
+with beer.  The manager, on hearing a song or two, at once engaged him
+and brought him out.  As poor Sammy knew nothing about acting, it was
+decided that he should appear in his own garments, which, being
+shabby-genteel, were pretty well suited for a great Italian singer in
+low society.
+
+But Sammy had over-rated his own powers.  After the first burst of
+applause was over, he stood gazing at the audience with his mouth half
+open, vainly attempting to recollect the song he meant to sing, and
+making such involuntary contortions with his thin visage, that a renewed
+burst of laughter broke forth.  When it had partially subsided, Sammy
+once more opened his mouth, gave vent to a gasp, burst into tears, and
+rushed from the stage.
+
+This was the climax!  It brought down the house!  Never before had they
+seen such an actor.  He was inimitable, and the people made the usual
+demand for an _encore_ with tremendous fervour, expecting that Signor
+Twittorini would repeat the scene, probably with variations, and finish
+off with the promised song.  But poor Sammy did not respond.
+
+"I see,--you can improvise," said the manager, quite pleased, "and I've
+no objection when it's well done like that; but you'd better go on now,
+and stick to the programme."
+
+"I can't sing," said Sammy, in passionate despair.
+
+"Come, come, young feller, I don't like actin' _off_ the stage, an' the
+audience is gittin' impatient."
+
+"But I tell you I can't sing a note," repeated Sam.
+
+"What!  D'ye mean to tell me you're not actin'?"
+
+"I wish I was!" cried poor Sam, glancing upward with tearful eyes and
+clasping his hands.
+
+"Come now.  You've joked enough.  Go on and do your part," said the
+puzzled manager.
+
+"But I tell you I'm _not_ joking.  I couldn't sing just now if you was
+to give me ten thousand pounds!"
+
+It might have been the amount of the sum stated, or the tone in which it
+was stated--we know not--but the truth of what Sam said was borne so
+forcibly in upon the manager, that he went into a violent passion;
+sprang at Sam's throat; hustled him towards a back door, and kicked him
+out into a back lane, where he sat down on an empty packing case,
+covered his face with his hands, bowed his head on his knees, and wept.
+
+The manager returned on the stage, and, with a calm voice and manner,
+which proved himself to be a very fair actor, stated that Signor
+Twittorini had met with a sudden disaster--not a very serious one--
+which, however, rendered it impossible for him to re-appear just then,
+but that, if sufficiently recovered, he would appear towards the close
+of the evening.
+
+This, with a very significant look and gesture from Ned Frog, quieted
+the audience to the extent at least of inducing them to do nothing worse
+than howl continuously for ten minutes, after which they allowed the
+performances to go on, and saved the keeper of order the trouble of
+knocking down a few of the most unruly.
+
+Ned was the first to quit the hall when all was over.  He did so by the
+back door, and found Sam still sitting on the door-step.
+
+"What's the matter with ye, youngster?" he said, going up to him.
+"You've made a pretty mess of it to-night."
+
+"I couldn't help it--indeed I couldn't.  Perhaps I'll do better next
+time."
+
+"Better! ha! ha!  You couldn't ha' done better--if you'd on'y gone on.
+But why do ye sit there?"
+
+"Because I've nowhere to go to."
+
+"There's plenty o' common lodgin'-'ouses, ain't there?"
+
+"Yes, but I haven't got a single rap."
+
+"Well, then, ain't there the casual ward?  Why don't you go there?
+You'll git bed and board for nothin' there."
+
+Having put this question, and received no answer, Ned turned away
+without further remark.
+
+Hardened though Ned was to suffering, there was something in the fallen
+boy's face that had touched this fallen man.  He turned back with a sort
+of remonstrative growl, and re-entered the back lane, but Signor
+Twittorini was gone.  He had heard the manager's voice, and fled.
+
+A policeman directed him to the nearest casual ward, where the lowest
+stratum of abject poverty finds its nightly level.
+
+Here he knocked with trembling hand.  He was received; he was put in a
+lukewarm bath and washed; he was fed on gruel and a bit of bread--quite
+sufficient to allay the cravings of hunger; he was shown to a room in
+which appeared to be a row of corpses--so dead was the silence--each
+rolled in a covering of some dark brown substance, and stretched out
+stiff on a trestle with a canvas bottom.  One of the trestles was empty.
+He was told he might appropriate it.
+
+"Are they dead?" he asked, looking round with a shudder.
+
+"Not quite," replied his jailer, with a short laugh, "but dead-beat most
+of 'em--tired out, I should say, and disinclined to move."
+
+Sam Twitter fell on the couch, drew the coverlet over him, and became a
+brown corpse like the rest, while the guardian retired and locked the
+door to prevent the egress of any who might chance to come to life
+again.
+
+In the morning Sam had a breakfast similar to the supper; was made to
+pick oakum for a few hours by way of payment for hospitality, and left
+with a feeling that he had at last reached the lowest possible depth of
+degradation.
+
+So he had in that direction, but there are other and varied depths in
+London--depths of crime and of sickness, as well as of suffering and
+sorrow!
+
+Aimlessly he wandered about for another day, almost fainting with
+hunger, but still so ashamed to face his father and mother that he would
+rather have died than done so.
+
+Some touch of pathos, or gruff tenderness mayhap, in Ned Frog's voice,
+induced him to return at night to the scene of his discreditable
+failure, and await the pugilist's coming out.  He followed him a short
+way, and then running forward, said--
+
+"Oh, sir!  I'm very low!"
+
+"Hallo!  Signor Twittorini again!" said Ned, wheeling round, sternly.
+"What have I to do with your being low?  I've been low enough myself at
+times, an' nobody helped--"
+
+Ned checked himself, for he knew that what he said was false.
+
+"I think I'm dying," said Sam, leaning against a house for support.
+
+"Well, if you do die, you'll be well out of it all," replied Ned,
+bitterly.  "What's your name?"
+
+"Twitter," replied Sam, forgetting in his woe that he had not intended
+to reveal his real name.
+
+"Twitter--Twitter.  I've heard that name before.  Why, yes.  Father's
+name Samuel--eh?  Mother alive--got cards with Mrs Samuel Twitter on
+'em, an' no address?"
+
+"Yes--yes.  How do you come to know?" asked Sam in surprise.
+
+"Never you mind that, youngster, but you come along wi' me.  I've got a
+sort o' right to feed you.  Ha! ha! come along."
+
+Sam became frightened at this sudden burst of hilarity, and shrank away,
+but Ned grasped him by the arm, and led him along with such decision,
+that resistance he felt would be useless.
+
+In a few minutes he was in Ned's garret eating bread and cheese with
+ravenous satisfaction.
+
+"Have some beer!" said Ned, filling a pewter pot.
+
+"No--no--no--no!" said Sam, shuddering as he turned his head away.
+
+"Well, youngster," returned Ned, with a slight look of surprise, "please
+yourself, and here's your health."
+
+He drained the pot to the bottom, after which, dividing his straw into
+two heaps, and throwing them into two corners, he bade Sam lie down and
+rest.
+
+The miserable boy was only too glad to do so.  He flung himself on the
+little heap pointed out, and the last thing he remembered seeing before
+the "sweet restorer" embraced him was the huge form of Ned Frog sitting
+in his own corner with his back to the wall, the pewter pot at his
+elbow, and a long clay pipe in his mouth.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
+
+HOPES REVIVE.
+
+Mr Thomas Balls, butler to Sir Richard Brandon, standing with his legs
+wide apart and his hands under his coat tails in the servants' hall,
+delivered himself of the opinion that "things was comin' to a wonderful
+pass when Sir Richard Brandon would condescend to go visitin' of a low
+family in Whitechapel."
+
+"But the family is no more low than you are, Mr Balls," objected Jessie
+Summers, who, being not very high herself, felt that the remark was
+slightly personal.
+
+"Of course not, my dear," replied Balls, with a paternal smile.  "I did
+not for a moment mean that Mr Samuel Twitter was low in an offensive
+sense, but in a social sense.  Sir Richard, you know, belongs to the
+hupper ten, an' he 'as not been used to associate with people so much
+further down in the scale.  Whether he's right or whether he's wrong
+ain't for me to say.  I merely remark that, things being as they are,
+the master 'as come to a wonderful pass."
+
+"It's all along of Miss Diana," said Mrs Screwbury.  "That dear child
+'as taken the firm belief into her pretty 'ead that all people are equal
+in the sight of their Maker, and that we should look on each other as
+brothers and sisters, and you know she can twist Sir Richard round her
+little finger, and she's taken a great fancy to that Twitter family ever
+since she's been introduced to them at that 'Ome of Industry by Mr
+Welland, who used to be a great friend of their poor boy that ran away.
+And Mrs Twitter goes about the 'Ome, and among the poor so much, and
+can tell her so many stories about poor people, that she's grown quite
+fond of her."
+
+"But we _ain't_ all equal, Mrs Screwbury," said the cook, recurring,
+with some asperity, to a former remark, "an' nothink you or anybody else
+can ever say will bring me to believe it."
+
+"Quite right, cook," said Balls.  "For instance, no one would ever admit
+that I was as good a cook as you are, or that you was equal to Mrs
+Screwbury as a nurse, or that any of us could compare with Jessie
+Summers as a 'ouse-maid, or that I was equal to Sir Richard in the
+matters of edication, or station, or wealth.  No, it is in the more
+serious matters that concern our souls that we are equal, and I fear
+that when Death comes, he's not very particular as to who it is he's
+cuttin' down when he's got the order."
+
+A ring at the bell cut short this learned discourse.  "That's for the
+cab," remarked Mr Balls as he went out.
+
+Now, while these things were taking place at the "West-End," in the
+"East-End" the Twitters were assembled round the social board enjoying
+themselves--that is to say, enjoying themselves as much as in the
+circumstances was possible.  For the cloud that Sammy's disappearance
+had thrown over them was not to be easily or soon removed.
+
+Since the terrible day on which he was lost, a settled expression of
+melancholy had descended on the once cheery couple, which extended in
+varying degree down to their youngest.  Allusion was never made to the
+erring one; yet it must not be supposed he was forgotten.  On the
+contrary, Sammy was never out of his parents' thoughts.  They prayed for
+him night and morning aloud, and at all times silently.  They also took
+every possible step to discover their boy's retreat, by means of the
+ordinary police, as well as detectives whom they employed for the
+purpose of hunting Sammy up: but all in vain.
+
+It must not be supposed, however, that this private sorrow induced Mrs
+Twitter selfishly to forget the poor, or intermit her labours among
+them.  She did not for an hour relax her efforts in their behalf at
+George Yard and at Commercial Street.
+
+At the Twitter social board--which, by the way, was spread in another
+house not far from that which had been burned--sat not only Mr and Mrs
+Twitter and all the little Twitters, but also Mrs Loper, who had
+dropped in just to make inquiries, and Mrs Larrabel, who was anxious to
+hear what news they had to tell, and Mr Crackaby, who was very
+sympathetic, and Mr Stickler, who was oracular.  Thus the small table
+was full.
+
+"Mariar, my dear," said Mr Twitter, referring to some remarkable truism
+which his wife had just uttered, "we must just take things as we find
+'em.  The world is not goin' to change its course on purpose to please
+_us_.  Things might be worse, you know, and when the spoke in your wheel
+is at its lowest there must of necessity be a rise unless it stands
+still altogether."
+
+"You're right, Mr Twitter.  I always said so," remarked Mrs Loper,
+adopting all these sentiments with a sigh of resignation.  "If we did
+not submit to fortune when it is adverse, why then we'd have to--have
+to--"
+
+"Succumb to it," suggested Mrs Larrabel, with one of her sweetest
+smiles.
+
+"No, Mrs Larrabel, I never succumb--from principle I never do so.  The
+last thing that any woman of good feeling ought to do is to succumb.  I
+would bow to it."
+
+"Quite right, ma'am, quite right," said Stickler, who now found time to
+speak, having finished his first cup of tea and second muffin; "to bow
+is, to say the least of it, polite and simple, and is always safe, for
+it commits one to nothing; but then, suppose that Fortune is impolite
+and refuses to return the bow, what, I ask you, would be the result?"
+
+As Mrs Loper could not form the slightest conception what the result
+would be, she replied with a weak smile and a request for more sausage.
+
+These remarks, although calculated to enlist the sympathies of Crackaby
+and excite the mental energies of Twitter, had no effect whatever on
+those gentlemen, for the latter was deeply depressed, and his friend
+Crackaby felt for him sincerely.  Thus the black sheep remained
+victorious in argument--which was not always the case.
+
+Poor Twitter!  He was indeed at that time utterly crestfallen, for not
+only had he lost considerably by the fire--his house having been
+uninsured--but business in the city had gone wrong somehow.  A few heavy
+failures had occurred among speculators, and as these had always a row
+of minor speculators at their backs, like a row of child's bricks, which
+only needs the fall of one to insure the downcome of all behind it,
+there had been a general tumble of speculative bricks, tailing off with
+a number of unspeculative ones, such as tailors, grocers, butchers, and
+shopkeepers generally.  Mr Twitter was one of the unspeculative
+unfortunates, but he had not come quite down.  He had only been twisted
+uncomfortably to one side, just as a toy brick is sometimes seen
+standing up here and there in the midst of surrounding wreck.  Mr
+Twitter was not absolutely ruined.  He had only "got into difficulties."
+
+But this was a small matter in his and his good wife's eyes compared
+with the terrible fall and disappearance of their beloved Sammy.  He had
+always been such a good, obedient boy; and, as his mother said, "_so_
+sensitive."  It never occurred to Mrs Twitter that this sensitiveness
+was very much the cause of his fall and disappearance, for the same
+weakness, or cowardice, that rendered him unable to resist the playful
+banter of his drinking comrades, prevented him from returning to his
+family in disgrace.
+
+"You have not yet advertised, I think?" said Crackaby.
+
+"No, not yet," answered Twitter; "we cannot bear to publish it.  But we
+have set several detectives on his track.  In fact we expect one of them
+this very evening; and I shouldn't wonder if that was him," he added, as
+a loud knock was heard at the door.
+
+"Please, ma'am," said the domestic, "Mr Welland's at the door with
+another gentleman.  'E says 'e won't come in--'e merely wishes to speak
+to you for a moment."
+
+"Oh! bid 'em come in, bid 'em come in," said Mrs Twitter in the
+exuberance of a hospitality which never turned any one away, and utterly
+regardless of the fact that her parlour was extremely small.
+
+Another moment, and Stephen Welland entered, apologising for the
+intrusion, and saying that he merely called with Sir Richard Brandon, on
+their way to the Beehive meeting, to ask if anything had been heard of
+Sam.
+
+"Come in, and welcome, _do_," said Mrs Twitter to Sir Richard, whose
+face had become a not unfamiliar one at the Beehive meetings by that
+time.  "And Miss Diana, too!  I'm _so_ glad you've brought her.  Sit
+down, dear.  Not so near the door.  To be sure there ain't much room
+anywhere else, but--get out of the way, Stickler."
+
+The black sheep hopped to one side instantly, and Di was accommodated
+with his chair.  Stickler was one of those toadies who worship rank for
+its own sake.  If a lamp-post had been knighted Stickler would have
+bowed down to it.  If an ass had been what he styled "barrow-knighted,"
+he would have lain down and let it walk over him--perhaps would even
+have solicited a passing kick--certainly would not have resented one.
+
+"Allow me, Sir Richard," he said, with some reference to the knight's
+hat.
+
+"Hush, Stickler!" said Mrs Twitter.
+
+The black sheep hushed, while the bustling lady took the hat and placed
+it on the sideboard.
+
+"Your stick, Sir Richard," said Stickler, "permit--"
+
+"Hold your tongue, Stickler," said Mrs Twitter.
+
+The black sheep held his tongue--between his teeth,--and wished that
+some day he might have the opportunity of punching Mrs Twitter's head,
+without, if possible, her knowing who did it.  Though thus reduced to
+silence, he cleared his throat in a demonstratively subservient manner
+and awaited his opportunity.
+
+Sir Richard was about to apologise for the intrusion when another knock
+was heard at the outer door, and immediately after, the City Missionary,
+John Seaward, came in.  He evidently did not expect to see company, but,
+after a cordial salutation to every one, said that he had called on his
+way to the meeting.
+
+"You are heartily welcome.  Come in," said Mrs Twitter, looking about
+for a chair, "come, sit beside me, Mr Seaward, on the stool.  You'll
+not object to a humble seat, I know."
+
+"I am afraid," said Sir Richard, "that the meeting has much to answer
+for in the way of flooding you with unexpected guests."
+
+"Oh! dear, no, sir, I love unexpected guests--the more unexpected the
+more I--Molly, dear," (to her eldest girl), "take all the children
+up-stairs."
+
+Mrs Twitter was beginning to get confused in her excitement, but the
+last stroke of generalship relieved the threatened block and her
+anxieties at the same time.
+
+"But what of Sam?" asked young Welland in a low tone; "any news yet?"
+
+"None," said the poor mother, suddenly losing all her vivacity, and
+looking so pitifully miserable that the sympathetic Di incontinently
+jumped off her chair, ran up to her, and threw her arms round her neck.
+
+"Dear, darling child," said Mrs Twitter, returning the embrace with
+interest.
+
+"But I have brought you news," said the missionary, in a quiet voice
+which produced a general hush.
+
+"News!" echoed Twitter with sudden vehemence.  "Oh!  Mr Seaward,"
+exclaimed the poor mother, clasping her hands and turning pale.
+
+"Yes," continued Seaward; "as all here seem to be friends, I may tell
+you that Sam has been heard of at last.  He has not, indeed, yet been
+found, but he has been seen in the company of a man well-known as a
+rough disorderly character, but who it seems has lately put on the blue
+ribbon, so we may hope that his influence over Sam will be for good
+instead of evil."
+
+An expression of intense thankfulness escaped from the poor mother on
+hearing this, but the father became suddenly much excited, and plied the
+missionary with innumerable questions, which, however, resulted in
+nothing, for the good reason that nothing more was known.
+
+At this point the company were startled by another knock, and so
+persuaded was Mrs Twitter that it must be Sammy himself, that she
+rushed out of the room, opened the door, and almost flung herself into
+the arms of Number 666.
+
+"I--I--beg your pardon, Mr Scott, I thought that--"
+
+"No harm done, ma'am," said Giles.  "May I come in?"
+
+"Certainly, and most welcome."
+
+When the tall constable bowed his head to pass under the ridiculously
+small doorway, and stood erect in the still more ridiculously small
+parlour, it seemed as though the last point of capacity had been
+touched, and the walls of the room must infallibly burst out.  But they
+did not!  Probably the house had been built before domiciles warranted
+to last twenty years had come into fashion.
+
+"You have found him!" exclaimed Mrs Twitter, clasping her hands and
+looking up in Giles's calm countenance with tearful eyes.
+
+"Yes, ma'am, I am happy to tell you that we have at last traced him.  I
+have just left him."
+
+"And does he know you have come here?  Is he expecting us?" asked the
+poor woman breathlessly.
+
+"Oh! dear, no, ma'am, I rather think that if he knew I had come here, he
+would not await my return, for the young gentleman does not seem quite
+willing to come home.  Indeed he is not quite fit; excuse me."
+
+"How d'you know he's not willing?" demanded Mr Twitter, who felt a
+rising disposition to stand up for Sammy.
+
+"Because I heard him say so, sir.  I went into the place where he was,
+to look for some people who are wanted, and saw your son sitting with a
+well-known rough of the name of North, who has become a changed man,
+however, and has put on the blue ribbon.  I knew North well, and
+recognised your son at once.  North seemed to have been trying to
+persuade your boy to return," ("bless him! bless him!" from Mrs
+Twitter), "for I heard him say as I passed--`Oh! no, no, no, I can
+_never_ return home!'"
+
+"Where is he?  Take me to him at once.  My bonnet and shawl, Molly!"
+
+"Pardon me, ma'am," said Giles.  "It is not a very fit place for a
+lady--though there are _some_ ladies who go to low lodging-houses
+regularly to preach; but unless you go for that purpose it--"
+
+"Yes, my dear, it would be quite out of place," interposed Twitter.
+"Come, it is _my_ duty to go to this place.  Can you lead me to it, Mr
+Scott?"
+
+"Oh! and I should like to go too--so much, so _very_ much!"
+
+It was little Di who spoke, but her father said that the idea was
+preposterous.
+
+"Pardon me, Sir Richard," said Mr Seaward, "this happens to be my night
+for preaching in the common lodging-house where Mr Scott says poor Sam
+is staying.  If you choose to accompany me, there is nothing to prevent
+your little daughter going.  Of course it would be as well that no one
+whom the boy might recognise should accompany us, but his father might
+go and stand at the door outside, while the owner of the lodging might
+be directed to tell Sam that some one wishes to see him."
+
+"Your plan is pretty good, but I will arrange my plans myself," said Mr
+Twitter, who suddenly roused himself to action with a degree of vigour
+that carried all before it.  "Go and do your own part, Mr Seaward.
+Give no directions to the proprietor of the lodging, and leave Sammy to
+me.  I will have a cab ready for him, and his mother in the cab waiting,
+with a suit of his own clothes.  Are you ready?"
+
+"Quite ready," said the missionary, amused as well as interested by the
+good man's sudden display of resolution.  Mrs Twitter, also, was
+reduced to silence by surprise, as well as by submission.  Sir Richard
+agreed to go and take Di with him, if Giles promised to hold himself in
+readiness within call.
+
+"You see," he said, "I have been in similar places before now, but--not
+with my little child!"
+
+As for Loper, Larrabel, Crackaby, Stickler, and Company--feeling that it
+would be improper to remain after the host and hostess were gone; that
+it would be equally wrong to offer to go with them, and quite
+inappropriate to witness the home-coming,--they took themselves off, but
+each resolved to flutter unseen in the neighbourhood until he, or she,
+could make quite sure that the prodigal had returned.
+
+It was to one of the lowest of the common lodging-houses that Sam
+Twitter the younger had resorted on the night he had been discovered by
+Number 666.  That day he had earned sixpence by carrying a carpet bag to
+a railway station.  One penny he laid out in bread, one penny in cheese.
+With the remaining fourpence he could purchase the right to sit in the
+lodging-house kitchen, and to sleep in a bed in a room with thirty or
+forty homeless ones like himself.
+
+On his way to this abode of the destitute, he was overtaken by a huge
+man with a little bit of blue ribbon in his button-hole.
+
+"Hallo! young feller," exclaimed the man, "you're the chap that was
+livin' wi' Ned Frog the night I called to see 'im--eh!  Sam Twitter,
+ain't you?"
+
+"Yes," said young Sam, blushing scarlet with alarm at the abruptness of
+the question.  "Yes, I am.  T-Twitter _is_ my name.  You're the man that
+gave him the Bible, are you not, whom he turned out of his house for
+tryin' to speak to him about his soul?"
+
+"The same, young feller.  That's me, an' Reggie North is my name.  He'd
+'ave 'ad some trouble to turn me out _once_, though, but I've given up
+quarrellin' and fightin' now, havin' enlisted under the banner of the
+Prince of Peace," replied the man, who was none other than our
+Bible-salesman, the man who contributed the memorable speech--"Bah!" and
+"Pooh!" at the Gospel-temperance meeting.  "Where are you going?"
+
+Sam, who never could withhold information or retain a secret if asked
+suddenly, gave the name of the common lodging-house to which he was
+bound.
+
+"Well, I'm going there too, so come along."
+
+Sam could not choose but go with the man.  He would rather have been
+alone, but could not shake him off.
+
+Entering, they sat down at a table together near the kitchen fire, and
+North, pulling out of his pocket a small loaf, cut it in two and offered
+Sam half.
+
+Several men were disputing in the box or compartment next to them, and
+as they made a great noise, attracting the attention of all around,
+North and his friend Sam were enabled the more easily to hold
+confidential talk unnoticed, by putting their heads together and
+chatting low as they ate their frugal meal.
+
+"What made you leave Ned?" asked North.
+
+"How did you know I'd left him?"
+
+"Why, because if you was still with him you wouldn't be here!"
+
+This was so obvious that Sam smiled; but it was a sad apology for a
+smile.
+
+"I left him, because he constantly offered me beer, and I've got such an
+awful desire for beer now, somehow, that I can't resist it, so I came
+away.  And there's no chance of any one offering me beer in this place."
+
+"Not much," said North, with a grin.  "But, young feller," (and there
+was something earnestly kind in the man's manner here), "if you feel an
+_awful_ desire for drink, you'd better put on this."
+
+He touched his bit of blue ribbon.
+
+"No use," returned Sam, sorrowfully, "I once put it on, and--and--I've
+broke the pledge."
+
+"That's bad, no doubt; but what then?" returned North; "are we never to
+tell the truth any more 'cause once we told a lie?  Are we never to give
+up swearin' 'cause once we uttered a curse?  The Lord is able to save
+us, no matter how much we may have sinned.  Why, sin is the very thing
+He saves us from--if we'll only come to Him."
+
+Sam shook his head, but the manner of the man had attracted him, and
+eventually he told all his story to him.  Reggie North listened
+earnestly, but the noise of the disputants in the next box was so great
+that they rose, intending to go to a quieter part of the large room.
+The words they heard at the moment, however, arrested them.  The speaker
+was, for such a place, a comparatively well-dressed man, and wore a
+top-coat.  He was discoursing on poverty and its causes.
+
+"It is nothing more nor less," he said, with emphasis, "than the absence
+of equality that produces so much poverty."
+
+"Hear! hear!" cried several voices, mingled with which, however, were
+the scoffing laughs of several men who knew too well and bitterly that
+the cause of their poverty was not the absence of equality, but, drink
+with improvidence.
+
+"What right," asked the man, somewhat indignantly, "what right has Sir
+Crossly Cowel, for instance, the great capitalist, to his millions that
+'e don't know what to do with, when we're starvin'?"  (Hear!) "He didn't
+earn these millions; they was left to 'im by his father, an' _he_ didn't
+earn 'em, nor did his grandfather, or his great-grandfather, and so,
+back an' back to the time of the robber who came over with William--the
+greatest robber of all--an' stole the money, or cattle, from our
+forefathers."  (Hear! hear!) "An' what right has Lord Lorrumdoddy to the
+thousands of acres of land he's got?"  (`Ha! you may say that!' from an
+outrageously miserable-looking man, who seemed too wretched to think,
+and only spoke for a species of pastime.) "What right has he, I say, to
+his lands?  The ministers of religion, too, are to be blamed, for they
+toady the rich and uphold the unjust system.  My friends, it is these
+rich capitalists and landowners who oppress the people.  What right have
+they, I ask again, to their wealth, when the inmates of this house, and
+thousands of others, are ill-fed and in rags?  If I had my way,"
+(_Hear_! hear! and a laugh), "I would distribute the wealth of the
+country, and have no poor people at all such as I see before me--such as
+this poor fellow," (laying his hand on the shoulder of the outrageously
+miserable man, who said `Just so' feebly, but seemed to shrink from his
+touch).  "Do I not speak the truth?" he added, looking round with the
+air of a man who feels that he carries his audience with him.
+
+"Well, mister, I ain't just quite clear about that," said Reggie North,
+rising up and looking over the heads of those in front of him.  There
+was an immediate and complete silence, for North had both a voice and a
+face fitted to command attention.  "I'm not a learned man, you see, an'
+hain't studied the subjec', but isn't there a line in the Bible which
+says, `Blessed are they that consider the poor?'  Now it do seem to me
+that if we was all equally rich, there would be no poor to consider, an'
+no rich to consider 'em!"
+
+There was a considerable guffaw at this, and the argumentative man was
+about to reply, but North checked him with--
+
+"'Old on, sir, I ain't done yet.  You said that Sir Cowley Cross--"
+
+"Crossly Cowel," cried his opponent, correcting.
+
+"I ax your pardon; Sir Crossly Cowel--that 'e 'ad no right to 'is
+millions, 'cause 'e didn't earn 'em, and because 'is father left 'em to
+'im.  Now, I 'ad a grandmother with one eye, poor thing--but of coorse
+that's nothin' to do wi' the argiment--an' she was left a fi' pun note
+by 'er father as 'ad a game leg--though that's nothin' to do wi' the
+argiment neither.  Now, what puzzles me is, that if Sir Cow--Cross--"
+
+A great shout of laughter interrupted North here, for he looked so
+innocently stupid, that most of the audience saw he was making game of
+the social reformer.
+
+"What puzzles me is," continued North, "that if Sir Crossly Cowel 'as no
+right to 'is millions, my old grandmother 'ad no right to 'er fi' pun
+note!"  ("Hear, hear," and applause.) "I don't know nothin' about that
+there big thief Willum you mentioned, nor yet Lord Lorrumdoddy, not
+bein' 'ighly connected, you see, mates, but no doubt this gentleman
+believes in 'is principles--"
+
+"Of course I does," said the social reformer indignantly.
+
+"Well, then," resumed North, suddenly throwing off his sheepish look and
+sternly gazing at the reformer while he pointed to the outrageously
+miserable man, who had neither coat, vest, shoes, nor socks, "do you see
+that man?  If you are in earnest, take off your coat and give it to him.
+What right have you to two coats when he has none?"
+
+The reformer looked surprised, and the proposal was received with loud
+laughter; all the more that he seemed so little to relish the idea of
+parting with one of his coats in order to prove the justice of his
+principles, and his own sincerity.
+
+To give his argument more force, Reggie North took a sixpence from his
+pocket and held it up.
+
+"See here, mates, when I came to this house I said to myself, `The Lord
+'as given me success to-day in sellin' His word,'--you know, some of
+you, that I'm a seller of Bibles and Testaments?"
+
+"Ay, ay, old boy.  _We_ know you," said several voices.
+
+"And I wasn't always that," added North.
+
+"_That's_ true, anyhow," said a voice with a laugh.
+
+"Well.  For what I was, I might thank drink and a sinful heart.  For
+what I am I thank the Lord.  But, as I was goin' to say, I came here
+intendin' to give this sixpence--it ain't much, but it's all I can
+spare--to some poor feller in distress, for I practise what I preach,
+and I meant to do it in a quiet way.  But it seems to me that, seein'
+what's turned up, I'll do more good by givin' it in a public way--so,
+there it is, old man," and he put the sixpence on the table in front of
+the outrageously miserable man, who could hardly believe his eyes.
+
+The change to an outrageously jovial man, with the marks of misery still
+strong upon him, was worthy of a pantomime, and spoke volumes; for,
+small though the sum might seem to Sir Crossly Cowel, or Lord
+Lorrumdoddy, it represented a full instead of an empty stomach and a
+peaceful instead of a miserable night to one wreck of humanity.
+
+The poor man swept the little coin into his pocket and rose in haste
+with a "thank 'ee," to go out and invest it at once, but was checked by
+North.
+
+"Stop, stop, my fine fellow!  Not quite so fast.  If you'll wait till
+I've finished my little business here, I'll take you to where you'll get
+some warm grub for nothin', and maybe an old coat too."  Encouraged by
+such brilliant prospects, the now jovially-miserable man sat down and
+waited while North and Sam went to a more retired spot near the door,
+where they resumed the confidential talk that had been interrupted.
+
+"The first thing you must do, my boy," said North, kindly, "is to return
+to your father's 'ouse; an' that advice cuts two ways--'eaven-ward an'
+earth-ward."
+
+"Oh! no, no, _no_, I can never return home," replied Sam, hurriedly, and
+thinking only of the shame of returning in his wretched condition to his
+earthly father.
+
+It was at this point that the couple had come under the sharp stern eye
+of Number 666, who, as we have seen, went quietly out and conveyed the
+information direct to the Twitter family.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
+
+THE RETURNING PRODIGAL.
+
+For a considerable time the Bible-seller plied Sam with every argument
+he could think of in order to induce him to return home, and he was
+still in the middle of his effort when the door opened, and two young
+men of gentlemanly appearance walked in, bearing a portable harmonium
+between them.
+
+They were followed by one of the ladies of the Beehive, who devote all
+their time--and, may we not add, all their hearts--to the rescue of the
+perishing.  Along with her came a tall, sweet-faced girl.  She was our
+friend Hetty Frog, who, after spending her days at steady work, spent
+some of her night hours in labours of love.  Hetty was passionately fond
+of music, and had taught herself to play the harmonium sufficiently to
+accompany simple hymns.
+
+After her came the missionary, whose kind face was familiar to most of
+the homeless ones there.  They greeted him with good-natured
+familiarity, but some of their faces assumed a somewhat vinegar aspect
+when the tall form of Sir Richard Brandon followed Seaward.
+
+"A bloated haristocrat!" growled one of the men.
+
+"Got a smart little darter, anyhow," remarked another, as Di, holding
+tight to her father's hand, glanced from side to side with looks of
+mingled pity and alarm.
+
+For poor little Di had a not uncommon habit of investing everything in
+_couleur de rose_, and the stern reality which met her had not the
+slightest tinge of that colour.  Di had pictured to herself clean rags
+and picturesque poverty.  The reality was dirty rags and disgusting
+poverty.  She had imagined sorrowful faces.  Had she noted them when the
+missionary passed, she might indeed have seen kindly looks; but when her
+father passed there were only scowling faces, nearly all of which were
+unshaven and dirty.  Di had not thought at all of stubbly beards or
+dirt!  Neither had she thought of smells, or of stifling heat that it
+was not easy to bear.  Altogether poor little Di was taken down from a
+height on that occasion to which she never again attained, because it
+was a false height.  In after years she reached one of the true
+heights--which was out of sight higher than the false one!
+
+There was something very businesslike in these missionaries, for there
+was nothing of the simply amateur in their work--like the visit of Di
+and her father.  They were familiar with the East-end mines; knew where
+splendid gems and rich gold were to be found, and went about digging
+with the steady persistence of the labourer, coupled, however, with the
+fire of the enthusiast.
+
+They carried the harmonium promptly to the most conspicuous part of the
+room, planted it there, opened it, placed a stool in front of it, and
+one of the brightest diamonds from that mine--in the person of Hetty
+Frog--sat down before it.  Simply, and in sweet silvery tones, she
+sang--"Come to the Saviour."
+
+The others joined--even Sir Richard Brandon made an attempt to sing--as
+he had done on a previous occasion, but without much success, musically
+speaking.  Meanwhile, John Seaward turned up the passage from which he
+had prepared to speak that evening.  And so eloquent with nature's
+simplicity was the missionary, that the party soon forgot all about the
+Twitters while the comforting Gospel was being urged upon the unhappy
+creatures around.
+
+But _we_ must not forget the Twitters.  They are our text and sermon
+just now!
+
+Young Sam Twitter had risen with the intention of going out when the
+missionary entered, for words of truth only cut him to the heart.  But
+his companion whispered him to wait a bit.  Soon his attention was
+riveted.
+
+While he sat there spell-bound, a shabby-genteel man entered and sat
+down beside him.  He wore a broad wide-awake, very much slouched over
+his face, and a coat which had once been fine, but now bore marks of
+having been severely handled--as if recently rubbed by a drunken wearer
+on whitewashed and dirty places.  The man's hands were not so dirty,
+however, as one might have expected from his general appearance, and
+they trembled much.  On one of his fingers was a gold ring.  This
+incongruity was lost on Sam, who was too much absorbed to care for the
+new comer, and did not even notice that he pushed somewhat needlessly
+close to him.
+
+These things were not, however, lost on Reggie North, who regarded the
+man with some surprise, not unmixed with suspicion.
+
+When, after a short time, however, this man laid his hand gently on that
+of Sam and held it, the boy could no longer neglect his eccentricities.
+He naturally made an effort to pull the hand away, but the stranger held
+it fast.  Having his mind by that time entirely detached from the
+discourse of the missionary, Sam looked at the stranger in surprise, but
+could not see his face because of the disreputable wide-awake which he
+wore.  But great was his astonishment, not to say alarm, when he felt
+two or three warm tears drop on his hand.
+
+Again he tried to pull it away, but the strange man held it tighter.
+Still further, he bent his head over it and kissed it.
+
+A strange unaccountable thrill ran through the boy's frame.  He stooped,
+looked under the brim of the hat, and beheld his father!
+
+"Sammy--dear, dear Sammy," whispered the man, in a husky voice.
+
+But Sammy could not reply.  He was thunderstruck.  Neither could his
+father speak, for he was choking.
+
+But Reggie North had heard enough.  He was quick-witted, and at once
+guessed the situation.
+
+"Now then, old gen'lm'n," he whispered, "don't you go an' make a fuss,
+if you're wise.  Go out as quiet as you came in, an' leave this young
+'un to me.  It's all right.  I'm on _your_ side."
+
+Samuel Twitter senior was impressed with the honesty of the man's
+manner, and the wisdom of his advice.  Letting go the hand, after a
+parting squeeze, he rose up and left the room.  Two minutes later, North
+and Sammy followed.
+
+They found the old father outside, who again grasped his son's hand with
+the words, "Sammy, my boy--dear Sammy;" but he never got further than
+that.
+
+Number 666 was there too.
+
+"You'll find the cab at the end of the street, sir," he said, and next
+moment Sammy found himself borne along--not unwillingly--by North and
+his father.
+
+A cab door was opened.  A female form was seen with outstretched arms.
+
+"Mother!"
+
+"Sammy--darling--"
+
+The returning prodigal disappeared into the cab.  Mr Twitter turned
+round.
+
+"Thank you.  God bless you, whoever you are," he said, fumbling in his
+vest pocket; having forgotten that he represented an abject beggar, and
+had no money there.
+
+"No thanks to me, sir.  Look higher," said the Bible-seller, thrusting
+the old gentleman almost forcibly into the vehicle.  "Now then, cabby,
+drive on."
+
+The cabby obeyed.  Having already received his instructions he did not
+drive home.  Where he drove to is a matter of small consequence.  It was
+to an unknown house, and a perfect stranger to Sammy opened the door.
+Mrs Twitter remained in the cab while Sammy and his father entered the
+house, the latter carrying a bundle in his hand.  They were shown into
+what the boy must have considered--if he considered anything at all just
+then--a preposterously small room.
+
+The lady of the house evidently expected them, for she said, "The bath
+is quite ready, sir."
+
+"Now, Sammy,--dear boy," said Mr Twitter, "off with your rags--and
+g-git into that b-bath."
+
+Obviously Mr Twitter did not speak with ease.  In truth it was all he
+could do to contain himself, and he felt that his only chance of bearing
+up was to say nothing more than was absolutely necessary in short
+ejaculatory phrases.  Sammy was deeply touched, and began to wash his
+dirty face with a few quiet tears before taking his bath.
+
+"Now then, Sammy--look sharp!  You didn't use--to--be--so--slow! eh?"
+
+"No, father.  I suppose it--it--is want of habit.  I haven't undressed
+much of late."
+
+This very nearly upset poor Mr Twitter.  He made no reply, but assisted
+his son to disrobe with a degree of awkwardness that tended to delay
+progress.
+
+"It--it's not too hot--eh?"
+
+"Oh! no, father.  It's--it's--v-very nice."
+
+"Go at it with a will, Sammy.  Head and all, my boy--down with it.  And
+don't spare the soap.  Lots of soap here, Sammy--no end of soap!"
+
+The truth of which Mr Twitter proceeded to illustrate by covering his
+son with a lather that caused him quickly to resemble whipped cream.
+
+"Oh! hold on, father, it's getting into my eyes."
+
+"My boy--dear Sammy--forgive me.  I didn't quite know what I was doing.
+Never mind.  Down you go again, Sammy--head and all.  That's it.  Now,
+that's enough; out you come."
+
+"Oh! father," said the poor boy, while invisible tears trickled over his
+wet face, as he stepped out of the bath, "it's so good of you to forgive
+me so freely."
+
+"Forgive you, my son! forgive! why, I'd--I'd--" He could say no more,
+but suddenly clasped Sammy to his heart, thereby rendering his face and
+person soap-suddy and wet to a ridiculous extent.
+
+Unclasping his arms and stepping back, he looked down at himself.
+
+"You dirty boy! what d'you mean by it?"
+
+"It's your own fault, daddy," replied Sam, with a hysterical laugh, as
+he enveloped himself in a towel.
+
+A knock at the bath-room door here produced dead silence.
+
+"Please, sir," said a female voice, "the lady in the cab sends to say
+that she's gettin' impatient."
+
+"Tell the lady in the cab to drive about and take an airing for ten
+minutes," replied Mr Twitter with reckless hilarity.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Now, my boy, here's your toggery," said the irrepressible father,
+hovering round his recovered son like a moth round a candle--"your best
+suit, Sammy; the one you used to wear only on Sundays, you extravagant
+fellow."
+
+Sammy put it on with some difficulty from want of practice, and, after
+combing out and brushing his hair, he presented such a changed
+appearance that none of his late companions could have recognised him.
+His father, after fastening up his coat with every button in its wrong
+hole, and causing as much delay as possible by assisting him to dress,
+finally hustled him down-stairs and into the cab, where he was
+immediately re-enveloped by Mrs Twitter.
+
+He was not permitted to see any one that night, but was taken straight
+to his room, where his mother comforted, prayed with, fed and fondled
+him, and then allowed him to go to bed.
+
+Next morning early--before breakfast--Mrs Twitter assembled all the
+little Twitters, and put them on chairs in a row--according to order,
+for Mrs Twitter's mind was orderly in a remarkable degree.  They ranged
+from right to left thus:--
+
+Molly, Willie, Fred, Lucy, and Alice--with Alice's doll on a doll's
+chair at the left flank of the line.
+
+"Now children," said Mrs Twitter, sitting down in front of the row with
+an aspect so solemn that they all immediately made their mouths very
+small and their eyes very large--in which respect they brought
+themselves into wonderful correspondence with Alice's doll.  "Now
+children, your dear brother Sammy has come home."
+
+"Oh! how nice!  Where has he been?  What has he seen?  Why has he been
+away so long?  How jolly!" were the various expressions with which the
+news was received.
+
+"Silence."
+
+The stillness that followed was almost oppressive, for the little
+Twitters had been trained to prompt obedience.  To say truth they had
+not been difficult to train, for they were all essentially mild.
+
+"Now, remember, when he comes down to breakfast you are to take no
+notice whatever of his having been away--no notice at all."
+
+"Are we not even to say good-morning or kiss him, mamma?" asked little
+Alice with a look of wonder.
+
+"Dear child, you do not understand me.  We are all charmed to see Sammy
+back, and so thankful--so glad--that he has come, and we will kiss him
+and say whatever we please to him _except_," (here she cast an awful eye
+along the line and dropped her voice), "_except_ ask him _where--he--
+has--been_."
+
+"Mayn't we ask him how he liked it, mamma?" said Alice.
+
+"Liked what, child?"
+
+"Where he has been, mamma."
+
+"No, not a word about where he has been; only that we are so glad, so
+very glad, to see him back."
+
+Fred, who had an argumentative turn of mind, thought that this would be
+a rather demonstrative though indirect recognition of the fact that
+Sammy had been _somewhere_ that was wrong, but, having been trained to
+unquestioning obedience, Fred said nothing.
+
+"Now, dolly," whispered little Alice, bending down, "'member dat--you're
+so glad Sammy's come back; mustn't say more--not a word more."
+
+"It is enough for you to know, my darlings," continued Mrs Twitter,
+"that Sammy has been wandering and has come back."
+
+"Listen, Dolly, you hear?  Sammy's been wandering an' come back.  Dat's
+'nuff for you."
+
+"You see, dears," continued Mrs Twitter, with a slightly perplexed
+look, caused by her desire to save poor Sammy's feelings, and her
+anxiety to steer clear of the slightest approach to deception, "you see,
+Sammy has been long away, and has been very tired, and won't like to be
+troubled with too many questions at breakfast, you know, so I want you
+all to talk a good deal about anything you like--your lessons,--for
+instance, when he comes down."
+
+"Before we say good-morning, mamma, or after?" asked Alice, who was
+extremely conscientious.
+
+"Darling child," exclaimed the perplexed mother, "you'll never take it
+in.  What I want to impress on you is--"
+
+She stopped, suddenly, and what it was she meant to impress we shall
+never more clearly know, for at that moment the foot of Sammy himself
+was heard on the stair.
+
+"Now, mind, children, not a word--not--a--word!"
+
+The almost preternatural solemnity induced by this injunction was at
+once put to flight by Sammy, at whom the whole family flew with one
+accord and a united shriek--pulling him down on a chair and embracing
+him almost to extinction.
+
+Fortunately for Sammy, and his anxious mother, that which the most
+earnest desire to obey orders would have failed to accomplish was
+brought about by the native selfishness of poor humanity, for, the first
+burst of welcome over, Alice began an elaborate account of her Dolly's
+recent proceedings, which seemed to consist of knocking her head against
+articles of furniture, punching out her own eyes and flattening her own
+nose; while Fred talked of his latest efforts in shipbuilding; Willie of
+his hopes in regard to soldiering, and Lucy of her attempts to draw and
+paint.
+
+Mr and Mrs Twitter contented themselves with gazing on Sammy's
+somewhat worn face, and lying in watch, so that, when Alice or any of
+the young members of the flock seemed about to stray on the forbidden
+ground, they should be ready to descend, like two wolves on the fold,
+remorselessly change the subject of conversation, and carry all before
+them.
+
+Thus tenderly was that prodigal son received back to his father's house.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
+
+CANADA AGAIN--AND SURPRISING NEWS.
+
+It is most refreshing to those who have been long cooped up in a city to
+fly on the wings of steam to the country and take refuge among the
+scents of flowers and fields and trees.  We have said this, or something
+like it, before, and remorselessly repeat it--for it is a grand truism.
+
+Let us then indulge ourselves a little with a glance at the farm of
+Brankly in Canada.
+
+Lake Ontario, with its expanse of boundless blue, rolls like an ocean in
+the far distance.  We can see it from the hill-top where the
+sweet-smelling red-pines grow.  At the bottom of the hill lies Brankly
+itself, with its orchards and homestead and fields of golden grain, and
+its little river, with the little saw-mill going as pertinaciously as if
+it, like the river, had resolved to go on for ever.  Cattle are there,
+sheep are there, horses and wagons are there, wealth and prosperity are
+there, above all happiness is there, because there also dwells the love
+of God.
+
+It is a good many years, reader, since you and I were last here.  Then,
+the farm buildings and fences were brand-new.  Now, although of course
+not old, they bear decided traces of exposure to the weather.  But these
+marks only give compactness of look and unity of tone to everything,
+improving the appearance of the place vastly.
+
+The fences, which at first looked blank and staring, as if wondering how
+they had got there, are now more in harmony with the fields they
+enclose.  The plants which at first struggled as if unwillingly on the
+dwelling-house, now cling to it and climb about it with the affectionate
+embrace of old friends.  Everything is improved--Well, no, not
+everything.  Mr Merryboy's legs have not improved.  They will not move
+as actively as they were wont to do.  They will not go so far, and they
+demand the assistance of a stick.  But Mr Merryboy's spirit has
+improved--though it was pretty good before, and his tendency to
+universal philanthropy has increased to such an extent that the people
+of the district have got into a way of sending their bad men and boys to
+work on his farm in order that they may become good!
+
+Mrs Merryboy, however, has improved in every way, and is more blooming
+than ever, as well as a trifle stouter, but Mrs Merryboy senior,
+although advanced spiritually, has degenerated a little physically.  The
+few teeth that kept her nose and chin apart having disappeared, her
+mouth has also vanished, though there is a decided mark which tells
+where it was--especially when she speaks or smiles.  The hair on her
+forehead has become as pure white as the winter snows of Canada.
+Wrinkles on her visage have become the rule, not the exception, but as
+they all run into comical twists, and play in the forms of humour, they
+may, perhaps, be regarded as a physical improvement.  She is stone deaf
+now, but this also may be put to the credit side of her account, for it
+has rendered needless those awkward efforts to speak loud and painful
+attempts to hear which used to trouble the family in days gone by.  It
+is quite clear, however, when you look into granny's coal-black eyes,
+that if she were to live to the age of Methuselah she will never be
+blind, nor ill-natured, nor less pleased with herself, her surroundings,
+and the whole order of things created!
+
+But who are these that sit so gravely and busily engaged with breakfast
+as though they had not the prospect of another meal that year?  Two
+young men and a young girl.  One young man is broad and powerful though
+short, with an incipient moustache and a fluff of whisker.  The other is
+rather tall, slim, and gentlemanly, and still beardless.  The girl is
+little, neat, well-made, at the budding period of life, brown-haired,
+brown-eyed, round, soft--just such a creature as one feels disposed to
+pat on the head and say, "My little pet!"
+
+Why, these are two "waifs" and a "stray!"  Don't you know them?  Look
+again.  Is not the stout fellow our friend Bobby Frog, the slim one Tim
+Lumpy, and the girl Martha Mild?  But who, in all London, would believe
+that these were children who had bean picked out of the gutter?
+Nobody--except those good Samaritans who had helped to pick them up, and
+who could show you the photographs of what they once were and what they
+now are.
+
+Mr Merryboy, although changed a little as regards legs, was not in the
+least deteriorated as to lungs.  As Granny, Mrs Merryboy, and the young
+people sat at breakfast he was heard at an immense distance off,
+gradually making his way towards the house.
+
+"Something seems to be wrong with father this morning, I think," said
+Mrs Merryboy, junior, listening.
+
+Granny, observing the action, pretended to listen, and smiled.
+
+"He's either unusually jolly or unusually savage--a little more tea,
+mother," said Tim Lumpy, pushing in his cup.
+
+Tim, being father-and-motherless, called Mr Merryboy father and the
+wife mother.  So did Martha, but Bobby Frog, remembering those whom he
+had left at home, loyally declined, though he did not object to call the
+elder Mrs Merryboy granny.
+
+"Something for good or evil must have happened," said Bobby, laying down
+his knife and fork as the growling sound drew nearer.
+
+At last the door flew open and the storm burst in.  And we may remark
+that Mr Merryboy's stormy nature was, if possible, a little more
+obtrusive than it used to be, for whereas in former days his toes and
+heels did most of the rattling-thunder business, the stick now came into
+play as a prominent creator of din--not only when flourished by hand,
+but often on its own account and unexpectedly, when propped clumsily in
+awkward places.
+
+"Hallo! good people all, how are 'ee? morning--morning.  Boys, d'ee know
+that the saw-mill's come to grief?"
+
+"No, are you in earnest, father?" cried Tim, jumping up.
+
+"In earnest!  Of course I am.  Pretty engineers you are.  Sawed its own
+bed in two, or burst itself.  Don't know which, and what's more I don't
+care.  Come, Martha, my bantam chicken, let's have a cup of tea.  Bother
+that stick, it can't keep its legs much better than myself.  How are
+you, mother?  Glorious weather, isn't it?"
+
+Mr Merryboy ignored deafness.  He continued to speak to his mother just
+as though she heard him.
+
+And she continued to nod and smile, and make-believe to hear with more
+demonstration of face and cap than ever.  After all, her total loss of
+hearing made little difference, her sentiments being what Bobby Frog in
+his early days would have described in the words, "Wot's the hodds so
+long as you're 'appy?"
+
+But Bobby had now ceased to drop or misapply his aitches--though he
+still had some trouble with his R's.
+
+As he was chief engineer of the saw-mill, having turned out quite a
+mechanical genius, he ran down to the scene of disaster with much
+concern on hearing the old gentleman's report.
+
+And, truly, when he and Tim reached the picturesque spot where, at the
+water's edge among fine trees and shrubs, the mill stood clearly
+reflected in its own dam, they found that the mischief done was
+considerable.  The machinery, by which the frame with its log to be sawn
+was moved along quarter-inch by quarter-inch at each stroke, was indeed
+all right, but it had not been made self-regulating.  The result was
+that, on one of the attendant workmen omitting to do his duty, the saw
+not only ripped off a beautiful plank from a log, but continued to
+cross-cut the end of the heavy framework, and then proceeded to cut the
+iron which held the log in its place.  The result, of course, was that
+the iron refused to be cut, and savagely revenged itself by scraping
+off, flattening down, turning up, and otherwise damaging, the teeth of
+the saw!
+
+"H'm! that comes of haste," muttered Bob, as he surveyed the wreck.  "If
+I had taken time to make the whole affair complete before setting the
+mill to work, this would not have happened."
+
+"Never mind, Bob, we must learn by experience, you know," said Tim,
+examining the damage done with a critical eye.  "Luckily, we have a
+spare saw in the store."
+
+"Run and fetch it," said Bob to the man in charge of the mill, whose
+carelessness had caused the damage, and who stared silently at his work
+with a look of horrified resignation.
+
+When he was gone Bob and Tim threw off their coats, rolled up their
+sleeves to the shoulder, and set to work with a degree of promptitude
+and skill which proved them to be both earnest and capable workmen.
+
+The first thing to be done was to detach the damaged saw from its frame.
+
+"There," said Bob, as he flung it down, "you won't use your teeth again
+on the wrong subject for some time to come.  Have we dry timber heavy
+enough to mend the frame, Tim?"
+
+"Plenty--more than we want."
+
+"Well, you go to work on it while I fix up the new saw."
+
+To work the two went accordingly--adjusting, screwing, squaring, sawing,
+planing, mortising, until the dinner-bell called them to the house.
+
+"So soon!" exclaimed Bob; "dinner is a great bother when a man is very
+busy."
+
+"D'ye think so, Bob?  Well, now, I look on it as a great comfort--
+specially when you're hungry."
+
+"Ah! but that's because you are greedy, Tim.  You always were too fond
+o' your grub."
+
+"Come, Bob, no slang.  You know that mother doesn't like it.  By the
+way, talkin' of mothers, is it on Wednesday or Thursday that you expect
+_your_ mother?"
+
+"Thursday, my boy," replied Bob, with a bright look.  "Ha! that _will_
+be a day for me!"
+
+"So it will, Bob, I'm glad for your sake," returned Tim with a sigh,
+which was a very unusual expression of feeling for him.  His friend at
+once understood its significance.
+
+"Tim, my boy, I'm sorry for you.  I wish I could split my mother in two
+and give you half of her."
+
+"Yes," said Tim, somewhat absently, "it is sad to have not one soul in
+the world related to you."
+
+"But there are many who care for you as much as if they were relations,"
+said Bob, taking his friend's arm as they approached the house.
+
+"Come along, come along, youngsters," shouted Mr Merryboy from the
+window, "the dinner's gettin' cold, and granny's gettin' in a passion.
+Look sharp.  If you knew what news I have for you you'd look sharper."
+
+"What news, sir?" asked Bob, as they sat down to a table which did not
+exactly "groan" with viands--it was too strong for that--but which was
+heavily weighted therewith.
+
+"I won't tell you till after dinner--just to punish you for being late;
+besides, it might spoil your appetite."
+
+"But suspense is apt to spoil appetite, father, isn't it?" said Tim,
+who, well accustomed to the old farmer's eccentricities, did not believe
+much in the news he professed to have in keeping.
+
+"Well, then, you must just lose your appetites, for I won't tell you,"
+said Mr Merryboy firmly.  "It will do you good--eh! mother, won't a
+touch of starvation improve them, bring back the memory of old times--
+eh?"
+
+The old lady, observing that her son was addressing her, shot forth such
+a beam of intelligence and goodwill that it was as though a gleam of
+sunshine had burst into the room.
+
+"I knew you'd agree with me--ha! ha! you always do, mother," cried the
+farmer, flinging his handkerchief at a small kitten which was sporting
+on the floor and went into fits of delight at the attention.
+
+After dinner the young men were about to return to their saw-mill when
+Mr Merryboy called them back.
+
+"What would you say, boys, to hear that Sir Richard Brandon, with a
+troop of emigrants, is going to settle somewhere in Canada?"
+
+"I would think he'd gone mad, sir, or changed his nature," responded
+Bob.
+
+"Well, as to whether he's gone mad or not I can't tell--he may have
+changed his nature, who knows?  That's not beyond the bounds of
+possibility.  Anyway, he is coming.  I've got a letter from a friend of
+mine in London who says he read it in the papers.  But perhaps you may
+learn more about it in _that_."
+
+He tossed a letter to Bob, who eagerly seized it.
+
+"From sister Hetty," he cried, and tore it open.
+
+The complete unity and unanimity of this family was well illustrated by
+the fact, that Bob began to read the letter aloud without asking leave
+and without apology.
+
+"Dearest Bob," it ran, "you will get this letter only a mail before our
+arrival.  I had not meant to write again, but cannot resist doing so, to
+give you the earliest news about it.  Sir Richard has changed his mind!
+You know, in my last, I told you he had helped to assist several poor
+families from this quarter--as well as mother and me, and Matty.  He is
+a real friend to the poor, for he doesn't merely fling coppers and old
+clothes at them, but takes trouble to find out about them, and helps
+them in the way that seems best for each.  It's all owing to that sweet
+Miss Di, who comes so much about here that she's almost as well-known as
+Giles Scott the policeman, or our missionary.  By the way, Giles has
+been made an Inspector lately, and has got no end of medals and a silver
+watch, and other testimonials, for bravery in saving people from fires,
+and canals, and cart wheels, and--he's a wonderful man is Giles, and
+they say his son is to be taken into the force as soon as he's old
+enough.  He's big enough and sensible enough already, and looks twice
+his age.  After all, if he can knock people down, and take people up,
+and keep order, what does it matter how young he is?
+
+"But I'm wandering, I always do wander, Bob, when I write to you!  Well,
+as I was saying, Sir Richard has changed his mind and has resolved to
+emigrate himself, with Miss Di and a whole lot of friends and
+work-people.  He wants, as he says, to establish a colony of like-minded
+people, and so you may be sure that all who have fixed to go with him
+are followers of the Lord Jesus--and not ashamed to say so.  As I had
+already taken our passages in the _Amazon_ steamer--"
+
+"The _Amazon_!" interrupted Mr Merryboy, with a shout, "why, that
+steamer has arrived already!"
+
+"So it has," said Bob, becoming excited; "their letter must have been
+delayed, and they must have come by the same steamer that brought it;
+why, they'll be here immediately!"
+
+"Perhaps to-night!" exclaimed Mrs Merryboy.
+
+"Oh! _how_ nice!" murmured Martha, her great brown eyes glittering with
+joy at the near prospect of seeing that Hetty about whom she had heard
+so much.
+
+"Impossible!" said Tim Lumpy, coming down on them all with his
+wet-blanket of common-sense.  "They would never come on without dropping
+us a line from Quebec, or Montreal, to announce their arrival."
+
+"That's true, Tim," said Mr Merryboy, "but you've not finished the
+letter, Bob--go on.  Mother, mother, what a variety of faces you _are_
+making!"
+
+This also was true, for old Mrs Merryboy, seeing that something unusual
+was occurring, had all this time been watching the various speakers with
+her coal-black eyes, changing aspect with their varied expressions, and
+wrinkling her visage up into such inexpressible contortions of
+sympathetic good-will, that she really could not have been more sociable
+if she had been in full possession and use of her five senses.
+
+"As I had already," continued Bob, reading, "taken our passages in the
+_Amazon_ steamer, Sir Richard thought it best that we should come on
+before, along with his agent, who goes to see after the land, so that we
+might have a good long stay with you, and dear Mr and Mrs Merryboy,
+who have been so kind to you, before going on to Brandon--which, I
+believe, is the name of the place in the backwoods where Sir Richard
+means us all to go to.  I don't know exactly where it is--and I don't
+know anybody who does, but that's no matter.  Enough for mother, and
+Matty, and me to know that it's within a few hundred miles of you, which
+is very different from three thousand miles of an ocean!
+
+"You'll also be glad to hear that Mr Twitter with all his family is to
+join this band.  It quite puts me in mind of the story of the Pilgrim
+Fathers, that I once heard in dear Mr Holland's meeting hall, long ago.
+I wish he could come too, and all his people with him, and all the
+ladies from the Beehive.  Wouldn't that be charming!  But, then,--who
+would be left to look after London?  No, it is better that they should
+remain at home.
+
+"Poor Mr Twitter never quite got the better of his fire, you see, so he
+sold his share in his business, and is getting ready to come.  His boys
+and girls will be a great help to him in Canada, instead of a burden as
+they have been in London--the younger ones I mean, of course, for Molly,
+and Sammy, and Willie have been helping their parents for a long time
+past.  I don't think Mrs Twitter quite likes it, and I'm sure she's
+almost breaking her heart at the thought of leaving George Yard.  It is
+said that their friends Mrs Loper, Mrs Larrabel, Stickler, and
+Crackaby, want to join, but I rather think Sir Richard isn't very keen
+to have them.  Mr Stephen Welland is also coming.  One of Sir Richard's
+friends, Mr Brisbane I think, got him a good situation in the Mint--
+that's where all the money is coined, you know--but, on hearing of this
+expedition to Canada, he made up his mind to go there instead; so he
+gave up the Mint--very unwillingly, however, I believe, for he wanted
+very much to go into the Mint.  Now, no more at present from your loving
+and much hurried sister, (for I'm in the middle of packing), Hetty."
+
+Now, while Bob Frog was in the act of putting Hetty's letter in his
+pocket, a little boy was seen on horseback, galloping up to the door.
+
+He brought a telegram addressed to "Mr Robert Frog."  It was from
+Montreal, and ran thus: "We have arrived, and leave this on Tuesday
+forenoon."
+
+"Why, they're almost here _now_," cried Bob.
+
+"Harness up, my boy, and off you go--not a moment to lose!" cried Mr
+Merryboy, as Bob dashed out of the room.  "Take the bays, Bob," he added
+in a stentorian voice, thrusting his head out of the window, "and the
+biggest wagon.  Don't forget the rugs!"
+
+Ten minutes later, and Bob Frog, with Tim Lumpy beside him, was driving
+the spanking pair of bays to the railway station.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
+
+HAPPY MEETINGS.
+
+It was to the same railway station as that at which they had parted from
+their guardian and been handed over to Mr Merryboy years before that
+Bobby Frog now drove.  The train was not due for half an hour.
+
+"Tim," said Bob after they had walked up and down the platform for about
+five minutes, "how slowly time seems to fly when one's in a hurry!"
+
+"Doesn't it?" assented Tim, "crawls like a snail."
+
+"Tim," said Bob, after ten minutes had elapsed, "what a difficult thing
+it is to wait patiently when one's anxious!"
+
+"Isn't it!" assented Tim, "so hard to keep from fretting and stamping."
+
+"Tim," said Bob, after twenty minutes had passed, "I wonder if the two
+or three dozen people on this platform are all as uncomfortably
+impatient as I am."
+
+"Perhaps they are," said Tim, "but certainly possessed of more power to
+restrain themselves."
+
+"Tim," said Bob, after the lapse of five-and-twenty minutes, "did you
+ever hear of such a long half-hour since you were born?"
+
+"Never," replied the sympathetic Tim, "except once long ago when I was
+starving, and stood for about that length of time in front of a
+confectioner's window till I nearly collapsed and had to run away at
+last for fear I should smash in the glass and feed."
+
+"Tim, I'll take a look round and see that the bays are all right."
+
+"You've done that four times already, Bob."
+
+"Well, I'll do it five times, Tim.  There's luck, you know, in odd
+numbers."
+
+There was a sharpish curve on the line close to the station.  While Bob
+Frog was away the train, being five minutes before its time, came
+thundering round the curve and rushed alongside the platform.
+
+Bob ran back of course and stood vainly trying to see the people in each
+carriage as it went past.
+
+"Oh! _what_ a sweet eager face!" exclaimed Tim, gazing after a young
+girl who had thrust her head out of a first-class carriage.
+
+"Let alone sweet faces, Tim--this way.  The third classes are all
+behind."
+
+By this time the train had stopped, and great was the commotion as
+friends and relatives met or said good-bye hurriedly, and bustled into
+and out of the carriages--commotion which was increased by the cheering
+of a fresh band of rescued waifs going to new homes in the west, and the
+hissing of the safety valve which took it into its head at that
+inconvenient moment to let off superfluous steam.  Some of the people
+rushing about on that platform and jostling each other would have been
+the better for safety valves! poor Bobby Frog was one of these.
+
+"Not there!" he exclaimed despairingly, as he looked into the last
+carriage of the train.
+
+"Impossible," said Tim, "we've only missed them; walk back."
+
+They went back, looking eagerly into carriage after carriage--Bob even
+glancing under the seats in a sort of wild hope that his mother might be
+hiding there, but no one resembling Mrs Frog was to be seen.
+
+A commotion at the front part of the train, more pronounced than the
+general hubbub, attracted their attention.
+
+"Oh! where is he--where is he?" cried a female voice, which was followed
+up by the female herself, a respectable elderly woman, who went about
+the platform scattering people right and left in a fit of temporary
+insanity, "where is my Bobby, where _is_ he, I say?  Oh! _why_ won't
+people git out o' my way?  _Git_ out o' the way," (shoving a sluggish
+man forcibly), "where are you, Bobby?  Bo-o-o-o-o-by!"
+
+It was Mrs Frog!  Bob saw her, but did not move.  His heart was in his
+throat!  He _could_ not move.  As he afterwards said, he was struck all
+of a heap, and could only stand and gaze with his hands clasped.
+
+"Out o' the _way_, young man!" cried Mrs Frog, brushing indignantly
+past him, in one of her erratic bursts.  "Oh!  Bobby--where _has_ that
+boy gone to?"
+
+"Mother!" gasped Bob.
+
+"Who said that?" cried Mrs Frog, turning round with a sharp look, as if
+prepared to retort "you're another" on the shortest notice.
+
+"Mother!" again said Bob, unclasping his hands and holding them out.
+
+Mrs Frog had hitherto, regardless of the well-known effect of time,
+kept staring at heads on the level which Bobby's had reached when he
+left home.  She now looked up with a startled expression.
+
+"Can it--is it--oh!  Bo--" she got no further, but sprang forward and
+was caught and fervently clasped in the arms of her son.
+
+Tim fluttered round them, blowing his nose violently though quite free
+from cold in the head--which complaint, indeed, is not common in those
+regions.
+
+Hetty, who had lost her mother in the crowd, now ran forward with Matty.
+Bob saw them, let go his mother, and received one in each arm--
+squeezing them both at once to his capacious bosom.
+
+Mrs Frog might have fallen, though that was not probable, but Tim made
+sure of her by holding out a hand which the good woman grasped, and laid
+her head on his breast, quite willing to make use of him as a convenient
+post to lean against, while she observed the meeting of the young people
+with a contented smile.
+
+Tim observed that meeting too, but with very different feelings, for the
+"sweet eager face" that he had seen in the first-class carriage belonged
+to Hetty!  Long-continued love to human souls had given to her face a
+sweetness--and sympathy with human spirits and bodies in the depths of
+poverty, sorrow, and deep despair had invested it with a pitiful
+tenderness and refinement--which one looks for more naturally among the
+innocent in the higher ranks of life.
+
+Poor Tim gazed unutterably, and his heart went on in such a way that
+even Mrs Frog's attention was arrested.  Looking up, she asked if he
+was took bad.
+
+"Oh! dear no.  By no means," said Tim, quickly.
+
+"You're tremblin' so," she returned, "an' it ain't cold--but your
+colour's all right.  I suppose it's the natur' o' you Canadians.  But
+only to think that my Bobby," she added, quitting her leaning-post, and
+again seizing her son, "that my Bobby should 'ave grow'd up, an' his
+poor mother knowed nothink about it!  I can't believe my eyes--it ain't
+like Bobby a bit, yet some'ow I _know_ it's 'im!  Why, you've grow'd
+into a gentleman, you 'ave."
+
+"And you have grown into a flatterer," said Bob, with a laugh.  "But
+come, mother, this way; I've brought the wagon for you.  Look after the
+luggage, Tim--Oh!  I forgot.  This is Tim, Hetty--Tim Lumpy.  You
+remember, you used to see us playing together when we were city Arabs."
+
+Hetty looked at Tim, and, remembering Bobby's strong love for jesting,
+did not believe him.  She smiled, however, and bowed to the tall
+good-looking youth, who seemed unaccountably shy and confused as he went
+off to look after the luggage.
+
+"Here is the wagon; come along," said Bob, leading his mother out of the
+station.
+
+"The waggin, boy; I don't see no waggin."
+
+"Why, there, with the pair of bay horses."
+
+"You don't mean the carridge by the fence, do you?"
+
+"Well, yes, only we call them wagons here."
+
+"An' you calls the 'osses _bay_ 'osses, do you?"
+
+"Well now, _I_ would call 'em beautiful 'osses, but I suppose bay means
+the same thing here.  You've got strange ways in Canada."
+
+"Yes, mother, and pleasant ways too, as I hope you shall find out ere
+long.  Get in, now.  Take care!  Now then, Hetty--come, Matty.  How
+difficult to believe that such a strapping young thing can be the
+squalling Matty I left in London!"
+
+Matty laughed as she got in, by way of reply, for she did not yet quite
+believe in her big brother.
+
+"Do you drive, Tim; I'll stay inside," said Bob.
+
+In another moment the spanking bays were whirling the wagon over the
+road to Brankly Farm at the rate of ten miles an hour.
+
+Need it be said that the amiable Merryboys did not fail of their duty on
+that occasion?  That Hetty and Matty took violently to brown-eyed Martha
+at first sight, having heard all about her from Bob long ago--as she of
+them; that Mrs Merryboy was, we may say, one glowing beam of
+hospitality; that Mrs Frog was, so to speak, one blazing
+personification of amazement, which threatened to become chronic--there
+was so much that was contrary to previous experience and she was so slow
+to take it in; that Mr Merryboy became noisier than ever, and that,
+what between his stick and his legs, to say nothing of his voice, he
+managed to create in one day hubbub enough to last ten families for a
+fortnight; that the domestics and the dogs were sympathetically joyful;
+that even the kitten gave unmistakeable evidences of unusual hilarity--
+though some attributed the effect to surreptitiously-obtained cream;
+and, finally, that old granny became something like a Chinese image in
+the matter of nodding and gazing and smirking and wrinkling, so that
+there seemed some danger of her terminating her career in a gush of
+universal philanthropy--need all this be said, we ask?  We think not;
+therefore we won't say it.
+
+But it was not till Bob Frog got his mother all to himself, under the
+trees, near the waterfall, down by the river that drove the still
+unmended saw-mill, that they had real and satisfactory communion.  It
+would have been interesting to have listened to these two--with memories
+and sympathies and feelings towards the Saviour of sinners so closely
+intertwined, yet with knowledge and intellectual powers in many respects
+so far apart.  But we may not intrude too closely.
+
+Towards the end of their walk, Bob touched on a subject which had been
+uppermost in the minds of both all the time, but from which they had
+shrunk equally, the one being afraid to ask, the other disinclined to
+tell.
+
+"Mother," said Bob, at last, "what about father?"
+
+"Ah!  Bobby," replied Mrs Frog, beginning to weep, gently, "I know'd ye
+would come to that--you was always so fond of 'im, an' he was so fond o'
+you too, indeed--"
+
+"I know it, mother," interrupted Bob, "but have you never heard of him?"
+
+"Never.  I might 'ave, p'r'aps, if he'd bin took an' tried under his own
+name, but you know he had so many aliases, an' the old 'ouse we used to
+live in we was obliged to quit, so p'r'aps he tried to find us and
+couldn't."
+
+"May God help him--dear father!" said the son in a low sad voice.
+
+"I'd never 'ave left 'im, Bobby, if he 'adn't left me.  You know that.
+An' if I thought he was alive and know'd w'ere he was, I'd go back to
+'im yet, but--"
+
+The subject was dropped here, for the new mill came suddenly into view,
+and Bob was glad to draw his mother's attention to it.
+
+"See, we were mending that just before we got the news you were so near
+us.  Come, I'll show it to you.  Tim Lumpy and I made it all by
+ourselves, and I think you'll call it a first-class article.  By the
+way, how came you to travel first-class?"
+
+"Oh! that's all along of Sir Richard Brandon.  He's sitch a liberal
+gentleman, an' said that as it was by his advice we were goin' to
+Canada, he would pay our expenses; and he's so grand that he never
+remembered there was any other class but first, when he took the
+tickets, an' when he was show'd what he'd done he laughed an' said he
+wouldn't alter it, an' we must go all the way first-class.  He's a
+strange man, but a good 'un!"
+
+By this time they had reached the platform of the damaged saw-mill, and
+Bob pointed out, with elaborate care, the details of the mill in all its
+minute particulars, commenting specially on the fact that most of the
+telling improvements on it were due to the fertile brain and inventive
+genius of Tim Lumpy.  He also explained the different kinds of saws--the
+ripping saw, and the cross-cut saw, and the circular saw, and the
+eccentric saw--just as if his mother were an embryo mill-wright, for he
+_felt_ that she took a deep interest in it all, and Mrs Frog listened
+with the profound attention of a civil engineer, and remarked on
+everything with such comments as--oh! indeed! ah! well now! ain't it
+wonderful? amazin'! an' you made it all too!  Oh!  Bobby!--and other
+more or less appropriate phrases.
+
+On quitting the mill to return to the house they saw a couple of figures
+walking down another avenue, so absorbed in conversation that they did
+not at first observe Bob and his mother, or take note of the fact that
+Matty, being a bouncing girl, had gone after butterflies or some such
+child-alluring insects.
+
+It was Tim Lumpy and Hetty Frog.
+
+And no wonder that they were absorbed, for was not their conversation on
+subjects of the profoundest interest to both?--George Yard, Whitechapel,
+Commercial Street, Spitalfields, and the Sailor's Home, and the Rests,
+and all the other agencies for rescuing poor souls in monstrous London,
+and the teachers and school companions whom they had known there and
+never could forget!  No wonder, we say, that these two were absorbed
+while comparing notes, and still less wonder that they were even more
+deeply absorbed when they got upon the theme of Bobby Frog--so much
+loved, nay, almost worshipped, by both.
+
+At last they observed Mrs Frog's scarlet shawl--which was very
+conspicuous--and her son, and tried to look unconscious, and wondered
+with quite needless surprise where Matty could have gone to.
+
+Bobby Frog, being a sharp youth, noted these things, but made no comment
+to any one, for the air of Canada had, somehow, invested this waif with
+wonderful delicacy of feeling.
+
+Although Bob and his mother left off talking of Ned Frog somewhat
+abruptly, as well as sorrowfully, it does not follow that we are bound
+to do the same.  On the contrary, we now ask the reader to leave Brankly
+Farm rather abruptly, and return to London for the purpose of paying Ned
+a visit.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
+
+A STRANGE VISIT AND ITS RESULTS.
+
+Edward Frog, bird-fancier, pugilist, etcetera, (and the etcetera
+represents an unknown quantity), has changed somewhat like the rest, for
+a few years have thinned the short-cropped though once curly locks above
+his knotted forehead, besides sprinkling them with grey.  But in other
+respects he has not fallen off--nay he has rather improved, owing to the
+peculiar system of diet and discipline and regularity of life to which,
+during these years, he has been subjected.
+
+When Ned returned from what we may style his outing, he went straight to
+the old court with something like a feeling of anxiety in his heart, but
+found the old home deserted and the old door, which still bore deep
+marks of his knuckle, on the upper panels and his boots on the lower,
+was padlocked.  He inquired for Mrs Frog, but was told she had left the
+place long ago,--and no one knew where she had gone.
+
+With a heavy heart Ned turned from the door and sauntered away,
+friendless and homeless.  He thought of making further inquiries about
+his family, but at the corner of the street smelt the old shop that had
+swallowed up so much of his earnings.
+
+"If I'd on'y put it all in the savin's bank," he said bitterly, stopping
+in front of the gin-palace, "I'd 'ave bin well off to-day."
+
+An old comrade turned the corner at that moment.
+
+"What!  Ned Frog!" he cried, seizing his hand and shaking it with
+genuine goodwill.  "Well, this _is_ good luck.  Come along, old boy!"
+
+It was pleasant to the desolate man to be thus recognised.  He went
+along like an ox to the slaughter, though, unlike the ox, he knew well
+what he was going to.
+
+He was "treated."  He drank beer.  Other old friends came in.  He drank
+gin.  If good resolves had been coming up in his mind earlier in the day
+he forgot them now.  If better feelings had been struggling for the
+mastery, he crushed them now.  He got drunk.  He became disorderly.  He
+went into High Street, Whitechapel, with a view to do damage to
+somebody.  He succeeded.  He tumbled over a barrow, and damaged his own
+shins.  He encountered Number 666 soon after, and, through his
+influence, passed the night in a police cell.
+
+After this Ned gave up all thought of searching for his wife and family.
+
+"Better let 'em alone," he growled to himself on being discharged from
+the police-office with a caution.
+
+But, as we have said or hinted elsewhere, Ned was a man of iron will.
+He resolved to avoid the public-house, to drink in moderation, and to do
+his drinking at home.  Being as powerful and active as ever he had been,
+he soon managed, in the capacity of a common labourer, to scrape enough
+money together to enable him to retake his old garret, which chanced to
+be vacant.  Indeed its situation was so airy, and it was so undesirable,
+that it was almost always vacant.  He bought a few cages and birds;
+found that the old manager of the low music-hall was still at work and
+ready to employ him, and thus fell very much into his old line of life.
+
+One night, as he was passing into his place of business--the
+music-hall--a man saw him and recognised him.  This was a city
+missionary of the John Seaward type, who chanced to be fishing for souls
+that night in these troubled waters.  There are many such fishermen
+about, thank God, doing their grand work unostentatiously, and not only
+rescuing souls for eternity, but helping, more perhaps than even the
+best informed are aware of, to save London from tremendous evil.
+
+What it was in Ned Frog that attracted this man of God we know note but,
+after casting his lines for some hours in other places, he returned to
+the music-hall and loitered about the door.
+
+At a late hour its audience came pouring out with discordant cries and
+ribald laughter.  Soon Ned appeared and took his way homeward.  The
+missionary followed at a safe distance till he saw Ned disappear through
+the doorway that led to his garret.  Then, running forward, he entered
+the dark passage and heard Ned's heavy foot clanking on the stone steps
+as he mounted upwards.
+
+The sound became fainter, and the missionary, fearing lest he should
+fail to find the room in which his man dwelt--for there were many rooms
+in the old tenement--ran hastily up-stairs and paused to listen.  The
+footsteps were still sounding above him, but louder now, because Ned was
+mounting a wooden stair.  A few seconds later a heavy door was banged,
+and all was quiet.
+
+The city missionary now groped his way upwards until he came to the
+highest landing, where in the thick darkness he saw a light under a
+door.  With a feeling of uncertainty and a silent prayer for help he
+knocked gently.  The door was opened at once by a middle-aged woman,
+whose outline only could be seen, her back being to the light.
+
+"Is it here that the man lives who came up just now?" asked the
+missionary.
+
+"What man?" she replied, fiercely, "I know nothink about men, an' 'ave
+nothink to do with 'em.  Ned Frog's the on'y man as ever comes 'ere, an'
+_he_ lives up there."
+
+She made a motion, as if pointing upwards somewhere, and banged the door
+in her visitor's face.
+
+"Up there!"  The missionary had reached the highest landing, and saw no
+other gleam of light anywhere.  Groping about, however, his hand struck
+against a ladder.  All doubt as to the use of this was immediately
+banished, for a man's heavy tread was heard in the room above as he
+crossed it.
+
+Mounting the ladder, the missionary, instead of coming to a higher
+landing as he had expected, thrust his hat against a trap-door in the
+roof.  Immediately he heard a savage human growl.  Evidently the man was
+in a bad humour, but the missionary knocked.
+
+"Who's there?" demanded the man, fiercely, for his visitors were few,
+and these generally connected with the police force.
+
+"May I come in?" asked the missionary in a mild voice--not that he put
+the mildness on for the occasion.  He was naturally mild--additionally
+so by grace.
+
+"Oh! yes--you may come in," cried the man, lifting the trap-door.
+
+The visitor stepped into the room and was startled by Ned letting fall
+the trap-door with a crash that shook the whole tenement.  Planting
+himself upon it, he rendered retreat impossible.
+
+It was a trying situation, for the man was in a savage humour, and
+evidently the worse for drink.  But missionaries are bold men.
+
+"Now," demanded Ned, "what may _you_ want?"
+
+"I want your soul," replied his visitor, quietly.
+
+"You needn't trouble yourself, then, for the devil's got it already."
+
+"No--he has not got it _yet_, Ned."
+
+"Oh! you know me then?"
+
+"No.  I never saw you till to-night, but I learned your name
+accidentally, and I'm anxious about your soul."
+
+"You don't know me," Ned repeated, slowly, "you never saw me till
+to-night, yet you're anxious about my soul!  What stuff are you talkin'!
+'Ow can that be?"
+
+"Now, you have puzzled _me_," said the missionary.  "I cannot tell how
+that can be, but it is no `stuff' I assure you.  I think it probable,
+however, that your own experience may help you.  Didn't you once see a
+young girl whom you had never seen before, whom you didn't know, whom
+you had never even heard of, yet you became desperately anxious to win
+her?"
+
+Ned instantly thought of a certain woman whom he had often abused and
+beaten, and whose heart he had probably broken.
+
+"Yes," he said, "I did; but then I had falled in love wi' her at first
+sight, and you can't have falled in love wi' _me_, you know."
+
+Ned grinned at this idea in spite of himself.
+
+"Well, no," replied the missionary, "not exactly.  You're not a very
+lovable object to look at just now.  Nevertheless, I _am_ anxious about
+your soul _at first sight_.  I can't tell how it is, but so it is."
+
+"Come, now," said Ned, becoming suddenly stern.  "I don't believe in
+your religion, or your Bible, or your prayin' and psalm-singin'.  I tell
+you plainly, I'm a infidel.  But if you can say anything in favour o'
+your views, fire away; I'll listen, only don't let me have any o' your
+sing-songin' or whinin', else I'll kick you down the trap-door and down
+the stair an' up the court and out into the street--speak out, like a
+man."
+
+"I will speak as God the Holy Spirit shall enable me," returned the
+missionary, without the slightest change in tone or manner.
+
+"Well, then, sit down," said Ned, pointing to the only chair in the
+room, while he seated himself on the rickety table, which threatened to
+give way altogether, while the reckless man swung his right leg to and
+fro quite regardless of its complainings.
+
+"Have you ever studied the Bible?" asked the missionary, somewhat
+abruptly.
+
+"Well, no, of course not.  I'm not a parson, but I have read a bit here
+and there, an' it's all rubbish.  I don't believe a word of it."
+
+"There's a part of it," returned the visitor, "which says that God
+maketh his rain to fall on the just and on the unjust.  Do you not
+believe that?"
+
+"Of course I do.  A man can't help believin' that, for he sees it--it
+falls on houses, fields, birds and beasts as well."
+
+"Then you _do_ believe a word of it?"
+
+"Oh! come, you're a deal too sharp.  You know what I mean."
+
+"No," said his visitor, quickly, "I don't quite know what you mean.  One
+who professes to be an infidel professes more or less intelligent
+disbelief in the Bible, yet you admit that you have never studied the
+book which you profess to disbelieve--much less, I suppose, have you
+studied the books which give us the evidences of its truth."
+
+"Don't suppose, Mr parson, or missioner, or whatever you are," said
+Ned, "that you're goin' to floor me wi' your larnin'.  I'm too old a
+bird for that.  Do you suppose that I'm bound to study everything on the
+face o' the earth like a lawyer before I'm entitled to say I don't
+believe it.  If I see that a thing don't work well, that's enough for me
+to condemn it."
+
+"You're quite right there.  I quite go with that line of reasoning.  By
+their fruits shall ye know them.  A man don't usually go to a thistle to
+find grapes.  But let me ask you, Ned, do you usually find that
+murderers, drunkards, burglars, thieves, and blackguards in general are
+students of the Bible and given to prayer and psalm-singing?"
+
+"Ha! ha!  I should rather think not," said Ned, much tickled by the
+supposition.
+
+"Then," continued the other, "tell me, honestly, Ned, do you find that
+people who read God's Word and sing His praise and ask His blessing on
+all they do, are generally bad fathers, and mothers, and masters, and
+servants, and children, and that from their ranks come the worst people
+in society?"
+
+"Now, look here, Mr missioner," cried Ned, leaping suddenly from the
+table, which overturned with a crash, "I'm one o' them fellers that's
+not to be floored by a puff o' wind.  I can hold my own agin most men
+wi' fist or tongue.  But I like fair-play in the ring or in argiment.  I
+have _not_ studied this matter, as you say, an' so I won't speak on it.
+But I'll look into it, an' if you come back here this day three weeks
+I'll let you know what I think.  You may trust me, for when I say a
+thing I mean it."
+
+"Will you accept a Testament, then," said the missionary, rising and
+pulling one out of his pocket.
+
+"No, I won't," said Ned, "I've got one."
+
+The missionary looked surprised, and hesitated.
+
+"Don't you believe me?" asked Ned, angrily.
+
+"At first I did not," was the reply, "but now that I stand before your
+face and look in your eyes I _do_ believe you."
+
+Ned gave a cynical laugh.  "You're easy to gull," he said; "why, when it
+serves my purpose I can lie like a trooper."
+
+"I know that," returned the visitor, quietly, "but it serves your
+purpose to-night to speak the truth.  I can see that.  May I pray that
+God should guide you?"
+
+"Yes, you may, but not here.  I'll have no hypocritical goin' down on my
+knees till I see my way to it.  If I don't see my way to it, I'll let
+you know when you come back this day three weeks."
+
+"Well, I'll pray for you in my own room, Ned Frog."
+
+"You may do what you like in your own room.  Good-night."
+
+He lifted the trap-door as he spoke, and pointed downward.  The
+missionary at once descended after a brief "good-night," and a pleasant
+nod.  Ned just gave him time to get his head out of the way when he let
+the trap fall with a clap like thunder, and then began to pace up and
+down his little room with his hands in his pockets and his chin on his
+breast.
+
+After a short time he went to a corner of the room where stood a small
+wooden box that contained the few articles of clothing which he
+possessed.  From the bottom of this he fished up the New Testament that
+had been given to him long ago by Reggie North.  Drawing his chair to
+the table and the candle to his elbow, the returned convict opened the
+Book, and there in his garret began for the first time to read in
+earnest the wonderful Word of Life!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.
+
+THE GREAT CHANGE.
+
+Punctual to the day and the hour, the missionary returned to Ned's
+garret.
+
+Much and earnestly had he prayed, in the meantime, that the man might be
+guided in his search after truth, and that to himself might be given
+words of wisdom which might have weight with him.
+
+But the missionary's words were not now required.
+
+God had spoken to the rough man by his own Word.  The Holy Spirit had
+carried conviction home.
+
+He had also revealed the Saviour, and the man was converted before the
+missionary again saw him.  Reader, we present no fancy portrait to you.
+
+Our fiction had its counterpart in actual life.  Ned Frog, in essential
+points at least, represents a real man--though we have, doubtless,
+saddled on his broad shoulders a few unimportant matters, which perhaps
+did not belong to him.
+
+"I believe that this is God's Word, my friend," he said, extending his
+hand, the moment the missionary entered, "and in proof of that I will
+now ask you to kneel with me and pray."
+
+You may be sure that the man of God complied gladly and with a full
+heart.
+
+We may not, however, trace here the after-course of this man in detail.
+For our purpose it will suffice to say that this was no mere flash in
+the pan.  Ned Frog's character did not change.  It only received a new
+direction and a new impulse.  The vigorous energy and fearless
+determination with which he had in former days pursued sin and
+self-gratification had now been turned into channels of righteousness.
+
+Very soon after finding Jesus for himself, he began earnestly to desire
+the salvation of others, and, in a quiet humble way, began with the poor
+people in his own stair.
+
+But this could not satisfy him.  He was too strong both in body and mind
+to be restrained, and soon took to open-air preaching.
+
+"I'm going to begin a mission," he said, one day, to the missionary who
+had brought him to the Saviour.  "There are many stout able fellows here
+who used to accept me as a leader in wickedness, and who will, perhaps,
+agree to follow me in a new walk.  Some of them have come to the Lord
+already.  I'm goin', sir, to get these to form a band of workers, and
+we'll take up a district."
+
+"Good," said the missionary, "there's nothing like united action.  What
+part of the district will you take up yourself, Ned?"
+
+"The place where I stand, sir," he replied.  "Where I have sinned there
+will I preach to men the Saviour of sinners."
+
+And he did preach, not with eloquence, perhaps, but with such fervour
+that many of his old comrades were touched deeply, and some were brought
+to Christ and joined his "Daniel Band."  Moreover, Ned kept to his own
+district and class.  He did not assume that all rich church-goers are
+hypocrites, and that it was his duty to stand in conspicuous places and
+howl to them the message of salvation, in tones of rasping discord.  No,
+it was noted by his mates, as particularly curious, that the voice of
+the man who could, when he chose, roar like a bull of Bashan, had become
+soft and what we may style entreative in its tone.  Moreover, he did not
+try to imitate clerical errors.  He did not get upon a deadly monotone
+while preaching, as so many do.  He simply _spoke_ when he preached--
+spoke loud, no doubt, but in a tone precisely similar to that in which,
+in former days, he would have seriously advised a brother burglar to
+adopt a certain course, or to carefully steer clear of another course,
+in order to gain his ends or to avoid falling into the hands of the
+police.  Thus men, when listening to him, came to believe that he was
+really speaking to them in earnest, and not "preaching!"
+
+Oh! that young men who aim at the high privilege of proclaiming the
+"good news" would reflect on this latter point, and try to steer clear
+of that fatal rock on which the Church--not the Episcopal, Presbyterian,
+or any other Church, but the whole Church militant--has been bumping so
+long to her own tremendous damage!
+
+One point which told powerfully with those whom Ned sought to win was,
+that he went about endeavouring, as far as in him lay, to undo the evil
+that he had done.  Some of it could never be undone--he felt that
+bitterly.  Some could be remedied--he rejoiced in that and went about it
+with vigour.
+
+For instance, he owed several debts.  Being a handy fellow and strong,
+he worked like a horse, and soon paid off his debts to the last
+farthing.  Again, many a time had he, in days gone by, insulted and
+defamed comrades and friends.  These he sought out with care and begged
+their pardon.  The bulldog courage in him was so strong that in former
+days he would have struck or insulted any man who provoked him, without
+reference to his, it might be, superior size or strength.  He now went
+as boldly forward to confess his sin and to apologise.  Sometimes his
+apologies were kindly received, at other times he was rudely repelled
+and called a hypocrite in language that we may not repeat, but he took
+it well; he resented nothing now, and used to say he had been made
+invulnerable since he had enlisted under the banner of the Prince of
+Peace.
+
+Yet, strange to say, the man's pugilistic powers were not rendered
+useless by his pacific life and profession.
+
+One day he was passing down one of those streets where even the police
+prefer to go in couples.  Suddenly a door burst open and a poor drunken
+woman was kicked out into the street by a big ruffian with whom Ned was
+not acquainted.  Not satisfied with what he had done, the rough
+proceeded to kick the woman, who began to scream "murder!"
+
+A crowd at once collected, for, although such incidents were common
+enough in such places, they always possessed sufficient interest to draw
+a crowd; but no one interfered, first, because no one cared, and,
+second, because the man was so big and powerful that every one was
+afraid of him.
+
+Of course Ned interfered, not with an indignant statement that the man
+ought to be ashamed of himself, but, with the quiet remark--
+
+"She's only a woman, you know, an' can't return it."
+
+"An' wot 'ave _you_ got to do with it?" cried the man with a savage
+curse, as he aimed a tremendous blow at Ned with his right-hand.
+
+Our pugilist expected that.  He did not start or raise his hands to
+defend himself, he merely put his head to one side, and the huge fist
+went harmlessly past his ear.  Savagely the rough struck out with the
+other fist, but Ned quietly, yet quickly put his head to the other side,
+and again the fist went innocently by.  A loud laugh and cheer from the
+crowd greeted this, for, apart altogether from the occasion of the
+disagreement, this turning of the head aside was very pretty play on the
+part of Ned--being a remarkably easy-looking but exceedingly difficult
+action, as all boxers know.  It enabled Ned to smile in the face of his
+foe without doing him any harm.  But it enraged the rough to such an
+extent, that he struck out fast as well as hard, obliging Ned to put
+himself in the old familiar attitude, and skip about smartly.
+
+"I don't want to hurt you, friend," said Ned at last, "but I _can_, you
+see!" and he gave the man a slight pat on his right cheek with one hand
+and a tap on the forehead with the other.
+
+This might have convinced the rough, but he would not be convinced.  Ned
+therefore gave him suddenly an open-handed slap on the side of the head
+which sent him through his own doorway; through his own kitchen--if we
+may so name it--and into his own coal-cellar, where he measured his
+length among cinders and domestic _debris_.
+
+"I didn't want to do it, friends," said Ned in a mild voice, as soon as
+the laughter had subsided, "but, you see, in the Bible--a book I'm
+uncommon fond of--we're told, as far as we can, to live peaceably with
+all men.  Now, you see, I couldn't live peaceably wi' this man to-day.
+He wouldn't let me, but I think I'll manage to do it some day, for I'll
+come back here to-morrow, and say I'm sorry I had to do it.  Meanwhile I
+have a word to say to you about this matter."
+
+Here Ned got upon the door-step of his adversary, and finished off by
+what is sometimes styled "improving the occasion."
+
+Of course, one of the first things that Ned Frog did, on coming to his
+"right mind," was to make earnest and frequent inquiries as to the fate
+of his wife and family.  Unfortunately the man who might have guided him
+to the right sources of information--the City missionary who had brought
+him to a knowledge of the truth--was seized with a severe illness, which
+not only confined him to a sick-bed for many weeks, but afterwards
+rendered it necessary that he should absent himself for a long time from
+the sphere of his labours.  Thus, being left to himself, Ned's search
+was misdirected, and at last he came to the heart-breaking conclusion
+that they must have gone, as he expressed it, "to the bad;" that perhaps
+his wife had carried out her oft-repeated threat, and drowned herself,
+and that Bobby, having been only too successful a pupil in the ways of
+wickedness, had got himself transported.
+
+To prosecute his inquiries among his old foes, the police, was so
+repugnant to Ned that he shrank from it, after the failure of one or two
+attempts, and the only other source which might have been successful he
+failed to appeal to through his own ignorance.  He only knew of George
+Yard and the Home of Industry by name, as being places which he had
+hated, because his daughter Hetty was so taken up with them.  Of course
+he was now aware that the people of George Yard did good work for his
+new Master, but he was so ignorant of the special phase of their work at
+the beginning of his Christian career that he never thought of applying
+to them for information.  Afterwards he became so busy with his own
+special work, that he forgot all about these institutions.
+
+When the missionary recovered and returned to his work, he at once--on
+hearing for the first time from Ned his family history--put him on the
+scent, and the discovery was then made that they had gone to Canada.  He
+wrote immediately, and soon received a joyful reply from Hetty and a
+postscript from Bobby, which set his heart singing and his soul ablaze
+with gratitude to a sparing and preserving God.
+
+About that time, however, the robust frame gave way under the amount of
+labour it was called on to perform.  Ned was obliged to go into
+hospital.  When there he received pressing invitations to go out to
+Canada, and offers of passage-money to any extent.  Mrs Frog also
+offered to return home without delay and nurse him, and only waited to
+know whether he would allow her.
+
+Ned declined, on the ground that he meant to accept their invitation and
+go to Canada as soon as he was able to undertake the voyage.
+
+A relapse, however, interfered with his plans, and thus the visit, like
+many other desirable events in human affairs, was, for a time, delayed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.
+
+HOME AGAIN.
+
+Time passed away, and Bobby Frog said to his mother one morning,
+"Mother, I'm going to England."
+
+It was a fine summer morning when he said this.  His mother was sitting
+in a bower which had been constructed specially for her use by her son
+and his friend Tim Lumpy.  It stood at the foot of the garden, from
+which could be had a magnificent view of the neighbouring lake.  Rich
+foliage permitted the slanting sunbeams to quiver through the bower, and
+little birds, of a pert conceited nature, twittered among the same.
+Martha Mild--the very embodiment of meek, earnest simplicity, and still
+a mere child in face though almost a woman in years--sat on a wooden
+stool at Mrs Frog's feet reading the Bible to her.
+
+Martha loved the Bible and Mrs Frog; they were both fond of the bower;
+there was a spare half-hour before them;--hence the situation, as broken
+in upon by Bobby.
+
+"To England, Bobby?"
+
+"To England, mother."
+
+Martha said nothing, but she gave a slight--an almost imperceptible--
+start, and glanced at the sturdy youth with a mingled expression of
+anxiety and surprise.
+
+The surprise Bob had expected; the anxiety he had hoped for; the start
+he had not foreseen, but now perceived and received as a glorious fact!
+Oh!  Bobby Frog was a deep young rascal!  His wild, hilarious, reckless
+spirit, which he found it so difficult to curb, even with all
+surroundings in his favour, experienced a great joy and sensation of
+restfulness in gazing at the pretty, soft, meek face of the little waif.
+He loved Martha, but, with all his recklessness, he had not the courage
+to tell her so, or to ask the condition of her feelings with regard to
+himself.
+
+Being ingenious, however, and with much of the knowing nature of the
+"stray" still about him, he hit on this plan of killing two birds with
+one stone, as it were, by briefly announcing his intentions to his
+mother; and the result was more than he had hoped for.
+
+"Yes, mother, to England--to London.  You see, father's last letter was
+not at all satisfactory.  Although he said he was convalescent and hoped
+to be able to travel soon, it seemed rather dull in tone, and now
+several posts have passed without bringing us a letter of any kind from
+him.  I am beginning to feel anxious, and so as I have saved a good bit
+of money I mean to have a trip to old England and bring Daddy out with
+me."
+
+"That will be grand indeed, my son.  But will Mr Merryboy let ye go,
+Bobby?"
+
+"Of course he will.  He lets me do whatever I please, for he's as fond
+o' me as if he were my father."
+
+"No; he ain't that," returned Mrs Frog, with a shake of the head; "your
+father was rough, Bobby, specially w'en in liquor, but he 'ad a kind
+'art at bottom, and he was very fond o' you, Bobby--almost as fond as he
+once was o' me.  Mr Merryboy could never come up to 'im in _that_."
+
+"Did I say he came up to him, mother?  I didn't say he was as fond o' me
+as my own father, but _as if he was_ my father.  However, it's all
+arranged, and I go off at once."
+
+"Not before breakfast, Bobby?"
+
+"No, not quite.  I never do anything important on an empty stomach, but
+by this time to-morrow I hope to be far on my way to the sea-coast, and
+I expect Martha to take good care of you till I come back."
+
+"I'll be _sure_ to do that," said Martha, looking up in Mrs Frog's face
+affectionately.
+
+Bob Frog noted the look, and was satisfied.
+
+"But, my boy, I shan't be here when you come back.  You know my visit is
+over in a week, and then we go to Sir Richard's estate."
+
+"I know that, mother, but Martha goes with you there, to help you and
+Hetty and Matty to keep house while Tim Lumpy looks after the farm."
+
+"Farm, my boy, what nonsense are you talking?"
+
+"No nonsense, mother, it has all been arranged this morning, early
+though it is.  Mr Merryboy has received a letter from Sir Richard,
+saying that he wants to gather as many people as possible round him, and
+offering him one of his farms on good terms, so Mr Merryboy is to sell
+this place as soon as he can, and Tim and I have been offered a smaller
+farm on still easier terms close to his, and not far from the big farm
+that Sir Richard has given to his son-in-law Mr Welland--"
+
+"Son-in-law!" exclaimed Mrs Frog.  "Do you mean to say that Mr
+Welland, who used to come down an' preach in the lodgin'-'ouses in
+Spitalfields 'as married that sweet hangel Miss Di?"
+
+"I do mean that, mother.  I could easily show him a superior angel, of
+course," said Bob with a steady look at Martha, "but he has done pretty
+well, on the whole."
+
+"Pretty well!" echoed Mrs Frog indignantly; "he couldn't 'ave done
+better if 'e'd searched the wide world over."
+
+"There I don't agree with you," returned her son; "however, it don't
+matter--Hallo! there goes granny down the wrong path!"
+
+Bob dashed off at full speed after Mrs Merryboy, senior, who had an
+inveterate tendency, when attempting to reach Mrs Frog's bower, to take
+a wrong turn, and pursue a path which led from the garden to a pretty
+extensive piece of forest-land behind.  The blithe old lady was posting
+along this track in a tremulo-tottering way when captured by Bob.  At
+the same moment the breakfast-bell rang; Mr Merryboy's stentorian voice
+was immediately heard in concert; silvery shouts from the forest-land
+alluded to told where Hetty and Matty had been wandering, and a rush of
+pattering feet announced that the dogs of the farm were bent on being
+first to bid the old gentleman good-morning.
+
+As Bob Frog had said, the following day found him far on his way to the
+sea-coast.  A few days later found him on the sea,--wishing, earnestly,
+that he were on the land!  Little more than a week after that found him
+in London walking down the old familiar Strand towards the city.
+
+As he walked slowly along the crowded thoroughfare, where every brick
+seemed familiar and every human being strange, he could not help saying
+to himself mentally, "Can it be possible! was it here that I used to
+wander in rags?  Thank God for the rescue and for the rescuers!"
+
+"Shine yer boots, sir?" said a facsimile of his former self.
+
+"Certainly, my boy," said Bob, at once submitting himself to the
+operator, although, his boots having already been well "shined," the
+operation was an obvious absurdity.
+
+The boy must have felt something of this, for, when finished, he looked
+up at his employer with a comical expression.  Bob looked at him
+sternly.
+
+"They were about as bright before you began on 'em," he said.
+
+"They was, sir," admitted the boy, candidly.
+
+"How much?" demanded the old street boy.  "On'y one ha'penny, sir,"
+replied the young street boy, "but ven the day's fine, an' the boots
+don't want much shinin', we gin'rally expecs a penny.  Gen'l'min _'ave_
+bin known to go the length of tuppence."
+
+Bob pulled out half-a-crown and offered it.
+
+The boy grinned, but did not attempt to take it.
+
+"Why don't you take it, my boy?"
+
+"You _don't_ mean it, do you?" asked the boy, as the grin faded and the
+eyes opened.
+
+"Yes, I do.  Here, catch.  I was once like you.  Christ and Canada have
+made me what you see.  Here is a little book that will tell you more
+about that."
+
+He chanced to have one of Miss Macpherson's _Canadian Homes for London
+Wanderers_ in his pocket, and gave it to the little shoe-black,--who was
+one of the fluttering free-lances of the metropolis, not one of the
+"Brigade."
+
+Bob could not have said another word to have saved his life.  He turned
+quickly on his heel and walked away, followed by a fixed gaze and a
+prolonged whistle of astonishment.
+
+"How hungry I used to be here," he muttered as he walked along, "so
+uncommon hungry!  The smell of roasts and pies had something to do with
+it, I think.  Why, there's the shop--yes, the very shop, where I stood
+once gazing at the victuals for a full hour before I could tear myself
+away.  I do think that, for the sake of starving boys, to say nothing of
+men, women, and girls, these grub-shops should be compelled to keep the
+victuals out o' the windows and send their enticing smells up their
+chimneys!"
+
+Presently he came to a dead stop in front of a shop where a large mirror
+presented him with a full-length portrait of himself, and again he said
+mentally, "Can it be possible!" for, since quitting London he had never
+seen himself as others saw him, having been too hurried, on both
+occasions of passing through Canadian cities, to note the mirrors there.
+In the backwoods, of course, there was nothing large enough in the way
+of mirror to show more than his good-looking face.
+
+The portrait now presented to him was that of a broad-chested,
+well-made, gentlemanly young man of middle height, in a grey Tweed suit.
+
+"Not _exactly_ tip-top, A1, superfine, you know, Bobby," he muttered to
+himself with the memory of former days strong upon him, "but--but--
+perhaps not altogether unworthy of--of--a thought or two from little
+Martha Mild."
+
+Bob Frog increased in stature, it is said, by full half an inch on that
+occasion, and thereafter he walked more rapidly in the direction of
+Whitechapel.
+
+With sad and strangely mingled memories he went to the court where his
+early years had been spent.  It was much the same in disreputableness of
+aspect as when he left it.  Time had been gnawing at it so long that a
+few years more or less made little difference on it, and its inhabitants
+had not improved much.
+
+Passing rapidly on he went straight to the Beehive, which he had for
+long regarded as his real home, and there, once again, received a hearty
+welcome from its ever busy superintendent and her earnest workers; but
+how different his circumstances now from those attending his first
+reception!  His chief object, however, was to inquire the way to the
+hospital in which his father lay, and he was glad to learn that the case
+of Ned Frog was well-known, and that he was convalescent.
+
+It chanced that a tea-meeting was "on" when he arrived, so he had little
+more at the time than a warm shake of the hand from his friends in the
+Home, but he had the ineffable satisfaction of leaving behind him a sum
+sufficient to give a sixpence to each of the miserable beings who were
+that night receiving a plentiful meal for their bodies as well as food
+for their souls--those of them, at least, who chose to take the latter.
+None refused the former.
+
+On his way to the hospital he saw a remarkably tall policeman
+approaching.
+
+"Well, you _are_ a long-legged copper," he muttered to himself, with an
+irrepressible laugh as he thought of old times.  The old spirit seemed
+to revive with the old associations, for he felt a strong temptation to
+make a face at the policeman, execute the old double-shuffle, stick his
+thumb to the end of his nose, and bolt!  As the man drew nearer he did
+actually make a face in spite of himself--a face of surprise--which
+caused the man to stop.
+
+"Excuse me," said Bob, with much of his old bluntness, "are not you
+Number 666?"
+
+"That is not my number now, sir, though I confess it was once," answered
+the policeman, with a humorous twinkle of the eye.
+
+Bobby noticed the word "sir," and felt elated.  It was almost more than
+waif-and-stray human nature could stand to be respectfully "sirred" by a
+London policeman--his old foe, whom, in days gone by and on occasions
+innumerable, he had scorned, scouted, and insulted, with all the
+ingenuity of his fertile brain.
+
+"Your name is Giles Scott, is it not?" he asked.
+
+"It is, sir."
+
+"Do you remember a little ragged boy who once had his leg broken by a
+runaway pony at the West-end--long ago?"
+
+"Yes, as well as if I'd seen him yesterday.  His name was Bobby Frog,
+and a sad scamp he was, though it is said he's doing well in Canada."
+
+"He must 'ave changed considerable," returned Bob, reverting to his old
+language with wonderful facility, "w'en Number 666 don't know 'im.  Yes,
+in me, Robert Frog, Esquire, of Chikopow Farm, Canada Vest, you be'old
+your ancient henemy, who is on'y too 'appy to 'ave the chance of axin
+your parding for all the trouble he gave you, an' all the 'ard names he
+called you in days gone by."
+
+Bobby held out his hand as he spoke, and you may be sure our huge
+policeman was not slow to grasp it, and congratulate the stray on his
+improved circumstances.
+
+We have not time or space to devote to the conversation which ensued.
+It was brief, but rapid and to the point, and in the course of it Bob
+learned that Molly was as well, and as bright and cheery as ever--also
+somewhat stouter; that Monty was in a fair way to become a real
+policeman, having just received encouragement to expect admission to the
+force when old enough, and that he was in a fair way to become as
+sedate, wise, zealous, and big as his father; also, that little Jo aimed
+at the same honourable and responsible position, and was no longer
+little.
+
+Being anxious, however, to see his father, Bob cut the conversation
+short, and, having promised to visit his old enemy, hastened away.
+
+The ward of the hospital in which Bob soon found himself was a sad
+place.  Clean and fresh, no doubt, but very still, save when a weary
+sigh or a groan told of suffering.  Among the beds, which stood in a
+row, each with its head against the wall, one was pointed out on which a
+living skeleton lay.  The face was very very pale, and it seemed as if
+the angel of death were already brooding over it.  Yet, though so
+changed, there was no mistaking the aspect and the once powerful frame
+of Ned Frog.
+
+"I'd rather not see any one," whispered Ned, as the nurse went forward
+and spoke to him in a low voice, "I'll soon be home--I think."
+
+"Father, _dear_ father," said Bob, in a trembling, almost choking voice,
+as he knelt by the bedside and took one of his father's hands.
+
+The prostrate man sprang up as if he had received an electric shock, and
+gazed eagerly into the face of his son.  Then, turning his gaze on the
+nurse, he said--
+
+"I'm not dreaming, am I?  It's true, is it?  Is this Bobby?"
+
+"Whether he's Bobby or not I can't say," replied the nurse, in the tone
+with which people sometimes address children, "but you're not dreaming--
+it _is_ a gentleman."
+
+"Ah! then I _am_ dreaming," replied the sick man, with inexpressible
+sadness, "for Bobby is no gentleman."
+
+"But it _is_ me, daddy," cried the poor youth, almost sobbing aloud as
+he kissed the hand he held, "why, you old curmudgeon, I thought you'd
+'ave know'd the voice o' yer own son!  I've grow'd a bit, no doubt, but
+it's me for all that.  Look at me!"
+
+Ned did look, with all the intensity of which he was capable, and then
+fell back on his pillow with a great sigh, while a death-like pallor
+overspread his face, almost inducing the belief that he was really dead.
+
+"No, Bobby, I ain't dead yet," he said in a low whisper, as his
+terrified son bent over him.  "Thank God for sendin' you back to me."
+
+He stopped, but, gradually, strength returned, and he again looked
+earnestly at his son.
+
+"Bobby," he said, in stronger tones, "I thought the end was drawin'
+near--or, rather, the beginnin'--the beginnin' o' the New Life.  But I
+don't feel like that now.  I feel, some'ow, as I used to feel in the
+ring when they sponged my face arter a leveller.  I did think I was done
+for this mornin'.  The nurse thought so too, for I 'eerd her say so; an'
+the doctor said as much.  Indeed I'm not sure that my own 'art didn't
+say so--but I'll cheat 'em all yet, Bobby, my boy.  You've put new life
+into my old carcase, an' I'll come up to the scratch yet--see if I
+don't."
+
+But Ned Frog did not "come up to the scratch."  His work for the Master
+on earth was finished--the battle fought out and the victory gained.
+
+"Gi' them all my love in Canada, Bobby, an' say to your dear mother that
+I _know_ she forgives me--but I'll tell her all about that when we
+meet--in the better land."
+
+Thus he died with his rugged head resting on the bosom of his loved and
+loving son.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY.
+
+THE NEW HOME.
+
+Once again, and for the last time, we shift our scene to Canada--to the
+real backwoods now--the Brandon Settlement.
+
+Sir Richard, you see, had been a noted sportsman in his youth.  He had
+chased the kangaroo in Australia, the springbok in Africa, and the tiger
+in India, and had fished salmon in Norway, so that his objections to the
+civilised parts of Canada were as strong as those of the Red Indians
+themselves.  He therefore resolved, when making arrangements to found a
+colony, to push as far into the backwoods as was compatible with comfort
+and safety.  Hence we now find him in the _very_ far West.
+
+We decline to indicate the exact spot, because idlers, on hearing of its
+fertility and beauty and the felicity of its inhabitants, might be
+tempted to crowd to it in rather inconvenient numbers.  Let it suffice
+to say, in the language of the aborigines, that it lies towards the
+setting sun.
+
+Around Brandon Settlement there are rolling prairies, illimitable
+pasture-land, ocean-like lakes, grand forests, and numerous rivers and
+rivulets, with flat-lands, low-lands, high-lands, undulating lands,
+wood-lands, and, in the far-away distance, glimpses of the back-bone of
+America--peaked, and blue, and snow-topped.
+
+The population of this happy region consists largely of waifs with a
+considerable sprinkling of strays.  There are also several families of
+"haristocrats," who, however, are not "bloated"--very much the reverse.
+
+The occupation of the people is, as might be expected, agricultural;
+but, as the colony is very active and thriving and growing fast, many
+other branches of industry have sprung up, so that the hiss of the saw
+and the ring of the anvil, the clatter of the water-mill, and the clack
+of the loom, may be heard in all parts of it.
+
+There is a rumour that a branch of the Great Pacific Railway is to be
+run within a mile of the Brandon Settlement; but that is not yet
+certain.  The rumour, however, has caused much joyful hope to some, and
+rather sorrowful anxiety to others.  Mercantile men rejoice at the
+prospect.  Those who are fond of sport tremble, for it is generally
+supposed, though on insufficient grounds, that the railway-whistle
+frightens away game.  Any one who has travelled in the Scottish
+Highlands and seen grouse close to the line regarding your clanking
+train with supreme indifference, must doubt the evil influence of
+railways on game.  Meanwhile, the sportsmen of Brandon Settlement pursue
+the buffalo and stalk the deer, and hunt the brown and the grizzly bear,
+and ply rod, net, gun, and rifle, to their hearts' content.
+
+There is even a bank in this thriving settlement--a branch, if we
+mistake not, of the flourishing Bank of Montreal--of which a certain Mr
+Welland is manager, and a certain Thomas Balls is hall-porter, as well
+as general superintendent, when not asleep in the hall-chair.  Mrs
+Welland, known familiarly as Di, is regarded as the mother of the
+settlement--or, more correctly, the guardian angel--for she is not yet
+much past the prime of life.  She is looked upon as a sort of goddess by
+many people; indeed she resembles one in mind, face, figure, and
+capacity.  We use the last word advisedly, for she knows and sympathises
+with every one, and does so much for the good of the community, that the
+bare record of her deeds would fill a large volume.  Amongst other
+things she trains, in the way that they should go, a family of ten
+children, whose adoration of her is said to be perilously near to
+idolatry.  She also finds time to visit an immense circle of friends.
+There are no poor in Brandon Settlement yet, though there are a few sick
+and a good many aged, to whom she ministers.  She also attends on Sir
+Richard, who is part of the Bank family, as well as a director.
+
+The good knight wears well.  His time is divided between the children of
+Di, the affairs of the settlement, and a neighbouring stream in which
+the trout are large and pleasantly active.  Mrs Screwbury, who spent
+her mature years in nursing little Di, is renewing her youth by nursing
+little Di's little ones, among whom there is, of course, another little
+Di whom her father styles Di-licious.  Jessie Summers assists in the
+nursery, and the old cook reigns in the Canadian kitchen with as much
+grace as she formerly reigned in the kitchen at the "West-End."
+
+Quite close to the Bank buildings there is a charming villa, with a view
+of a lake in front and a peep through the woods at the mountains behind,
+in which dwells the cashier of the Bank with his wife and family.  His
+name is Robert Frog, Esquire.  His wife's name is Martha.  His eldest
+son, Bobby--a boy of about nine or ten--is said to be the most larky boy
+in the settlement.  We know not as to that, but any one with half an eye
+can see that he is singularly devoted to his mild little brown-eyed
+mother.
+
+There is a picturesque little hut at the foot of the garden of Beehive
+Villa, which is inhabited by an old woman.  To this hut Bobby the second
+is very partial, for the old woman _is_ exceedingly fond of Bobby--quite
+spoils him in fact--and often entertains him with strange stories about
+a certain lion of her acquaintance which was turned into a lamb.  Need
+we say that this old woman is Mrs Frog?  The Bank Cashier offered her a
+home in Beehive Villa, but she prefers the little hut at the foot of the
+garden, where she sits in state to receive visitors and is tenderly
+cared for by a very handsome young woman named Matty, who calls her
+"mother".  Matty is the superintendent of a neighbouring school, and it
+is said that one of the best of the masters of that school is anxious to
+make Matty and the school his own.  If so, that master must be a greedy
+fellow--all things considered.
+
+There is a civil engineer--often styled by Bob Frog an uncivil
+engineer--who has planned all the public works of the settlement, and is
+said to have a good prospect of being engaged in an important capacity
+on the projected railway.  But of this we cannot speak authoritatively.
+His name is T Lampay, Esquire.  Ill-natured people assert that when he
+first came to the colony his name was Tim Lumpy, and at times his wife
+Hetty calls him Lumpy to his face, but, as wives do sometimes call their
+husbands improper names, the fact proves nothing except the perversity
+of woman.  There is a blind old woman in his establishment, however, who
+has grown amiably childish in her old age, who invariably calls him Tim.
+Whatever may be the truth as to this, there is no question that he is a
+thriving man and an office-bearer in the Congregational church, whose
+best Sabbath-school teacher is his wife Hetty, and whose pastor is the
+Reverend John Seaward--a man of singular good fortune, for, besides
+having such men as Robert Frog, T. Lampay, and Sir Richard Brandon to
+back him up and sympathise with him on all occasions, he is further
+supported by the aid and countenance of Samuel Twitter, senior, Samuel
+Twitter, junior, Mrs Twitter, and all the other Twitters, some of whom
+are married and have twitterers of their own.
+
+Samuel Twitter and his sons are now farmers!  Yes, reader, you may look
+and feel surprised to hear it, but your astonishment will never equal
+that of old Twitter himself at finding himself in that position.  He
+never gets over it, and has been known, while at the tail of the plough,
+to stop work, clap a hand on each knee, and roar with laughter at the
+mere idea of his having taken to agriculture late in life!  He tried to
+milk the cows when he first began, but, after having frightened two or
+three animals into fits, overturned half a dozen milk-pails, and been
+partially gored, he gave it up.  Sammy is his right-hand man, and the
+hope of his declining years.  True, this right-hand has got the name of
+being slow, but he is considered as pre-eminently sure.
+
+Mrs Twitter has taken earnestly to the sick, since there are no poor to
+befriend.  She is also devoted to the young--and there is no lack of
+them.  She is likewise strong in the tea-party line, and among her most
+favoured guests are two ladies named respectively Loper and Larrabel,
+and two gentlemen named Crackaby and Stickler.  It is not absolutely
+certain whether these four are a blessing to the new settlement or the
+reverse.  Some hold that things in general would progress more smoothly
+if they were gone; others that their presence affords excellent and
+needful opportunity for the exercise of forbearance and charity.  At all
+events Mrs Twitter holds that she could not live without them, and
+George Brisbane, Esquire, who owns a lovely mansion on the outskirts of
+the settlement, which he has named Lively Hall, vows that the departure
+of that quartette would be a distinct and irreparable loss to society in
+Brandon Settlement.
+
+One more old friend we have to mention, namely, Reggie North, who has
+become a colporteur, and wanders far and near over the beautiful face of
+Canada, scattering the seed of Life with more vigour and greater success
+than her sons scatter the golden grain.  His periodical visits to the
+settlement are always hailed with delight, because North has a genial
+way of relating his adventures and describing his travels, which renders
+it necessary for him to hold forth as a public lecturer at times in the
+little chapel, for the benefit of the entire community.  On these
+occasions North never fails, you may be quite sure, to advance his
+Master's cause.
+
+Besides those whom we have mentioned, there are sundry persons of both
+sexes who go by such names as Dick Swiller, Blobby, Robin, Lilly Snow,
+Robbie Dell, and Little Mouse, all of whom are grown men and women, and
+are said to have originally been London waifs and strays.  But any one
+looking at them in their backwoods prosperity would pooh-pooh the idea
+as being utterly preposterous!
+
+However this may be, it is quite certain that they are curiously well
+acquainted with the slums of London and with low life in that great
+city.  These people sometimes mention the name of Giles Scott, and
+always with regret that that stalwart policeman and his not less
+stalwart sons are unable to see their way to emigrate, but if they did,
+as Bobby Frog the second asks, "what would become of London?"
+
+"They'd make such splendid backwoodsmen," says one.
+
+"And the daughters would make such splendid wives for backwoodsmen,"
+says another.
+
+Mr Merryboy thinks that Canada can produce splendid men of its own
+without importing them from England, and Mrs Merryboy holds that the
+same may be said in regard to the women of Canada, and old granny, who
+is still alive, with a face like a shrivelled-up potato, blinks with
+undimmed eyes, and nods her snow-white head, and beams her brightest
+smile in thorough approval of these sentiments.
+
+Ah, reader!  Brandon Settlement is a wonderful place, but we may not
+linger over it now.  The shadows of our tale have lengthened out, and
+the sun is about to set.  Before it goes quite down let us remind you
+that the Diamonds which you have seen dug out, cut, and polished, are
+only a few of the precious gems that lie hidden in the dust of the great
+cities of our land; that the harvest might be very great, and that the
+labourers at the present time are comparatively few.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Dusty Diamonds Cut and Polished, by R.M. Ballantyne
+
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