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+Project Gutenberg's The Little Princess of Tower Hill, by L. T. Meade
+
+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: The Little Princess of Tower Hill
+
+Author: L. T. Meade
+
+Release Date: February 5, 2012 [EBook #38771]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE PRINCESS OF TOWER HILL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Josephine Paolucci and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "I WILL KNOCK. YOU ARE TO SAY, 'PLEASE IS MRS. ROBBINS
+IN?'"--Page 171.]
+
+
+
+
+THE LITTLE PRINCESS OF TOWER HILL.
+
+BY L. T. MEADE,
+
+_Author of "A Sweet Girl Graduate," "The Lady of the Forest," "A World of
+Girls," "Polly", "The Palace Beautiful," etc._
+
+SIX PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+NEW YORK
+A. L. BURT, PUBLISHER.
+
+[Transcriber's note: This book contains the following stories as well:
+"Tom, Pepper, and Trusty", "Billy Anderson and his Troubles", "The Old
+Organ-Man". The table of contents is only for The Little Princess of Tower
+Hill.]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                   PAGE
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Her Very Young Days                   1
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Father's Short Visitor               12
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Snubbed                              23
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+The Stable Clock                     35
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+The Empty Hutch                      49
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Jo's Room                            63
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+In Violet                            77
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+Choosing Her Colors                 103
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+A Jolly Plan                        113
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+A Great Fear                        127
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Going Home                          142
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+In the Wood                         151
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Thank God for All                   165
+
+
+
+
+THE LITTLE PRINCESS OF TOWER HILL
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+HER VERY YOUNG DAYS.
+
+
+All the other children who knew her thought Maggie a wonderfully fortunate
+little girl. She was sometimes spoken about as the "Little Princess of
+Tower Hill," for Tower Hill was the name of her father's place, and Maggie
+was his only child. The children in the village close by spoke of her with
+great respect, and looked at her with a good deal of longing and also no
+slight degree of envy, for while they had to run about in darned and shabby
+frocks, Maggie could wear the gayest and daintiest little dresses, and
+while they had to trudge sometimes even on little bare feet, Maggie could
+sit by her mother's side and be carried rapidly over the ground in a most
+delicious and luxurious carriage, or, better still, she might ride on her
+white pony Snowball, followed by a groom. The poor children envied Maggie,
+and admired her vastly, and the children of those people who, compared to
+Sir John Ascot, Maggie's father, might be considered neither rich nor poor,
+also thought her one of the most fortunate little girls in existence.
+Maggie was nearly eight years old, and from her very earliest days there
+had been a great fuss made about her. At the time of her birth bonfires had
+been lit, and oxen killed and roasted whole to be given away to the poor
+people, and Sir John and Lady Ascot did not seem at all disappointed at
+their baby being a girl instead of a son and heir to the old title and the
+fine old place. There was a most extraordinary fuss made over Maggie while
+she was a baby; her mother was never tired of visiting her grand nurseries
+and watching her as she lay asleep, or smiling at her and kissing her when
+she opened her big, bright blue eyes. The eyes in question were very
+pretty, so also was the little face, and the father and mother quite
+thought that there never was such a baby as their little Maggie. They had
+christened her Margarita Henrietta Villiers; these were all old family
+names, and very suitable to the child of proud old county folk. At least so
+Sir John thought, and his pretty young wife agreed with him, and she gave
+the servants strict directions that the baby was to be called Miss
+Margarita, and that the name was on no account whatever to be abridged or
+altered. This was very fine as long as the baby could only coo or make
+little inarticulate sounds, but that will of her own, which from the
+earliest minutes of her existence Maggie had manifested, came fully into
+play as soon as she found the full use of her tongue. She would call
+herself Mag-Mag, and would not answer to Margarita, or pay the smallest
+heed to any summons which came to her in this guise, and so, simply because
+they could not help themselves, Sir John and Lady Ascot had almost
+virtually to rechristen their little daughter, and before she was two years
+old Maggie was the only name by which she was known.
+
+Years passed, and no other baby came to Tower Hill, and every year Maggie
+became of a little more importance, and was made a little more fuss about,
+and as a natural consequence was a little more spoiled. She was a very
+pretty child; her hair was wavy and curly, and exquisitely fine; in its
+darkest parts it was nut-brown, but round her temples, and wherever the
+light fell on it, it was shaded off to the brightest gold; her eyes were
+large, and blue, and well open; her cheeks were pink, her lips rosy, and
+she had a saucy, never-me-care look, which her father and mother and the
+visitors who saw her thought wonderfully charming, but which now and then
+her nurse and her patient governess, Miss Grey, objected to. All things
+that money could buy, and all things that love could devise, were lavished
+at Maggie's feet. Her smallest wishes were instantly granted; the most
+expensive toys were purchased for her; the most valuable presents were
+given to her day by day. "Surely," said the village children, "there can be
+no happier little girl in all the wide, wide world than our little
+princess. If there is a child who lives always, every day, in a fairy-land,
+it is Miss Maggie Ascot."
+
+Maggie had two large nurseries to play in, and two nurses to wait upon her,
+and when she was seven years old a certain gentle-faced, kind-hearted Miss
+Grey arrived at Tower Hill to superintend the little girl's education. Then
+a schoolroom was added to her suit of apartments, and then also the
+troubles of her small life began. Hitherto everything had gone for Maggie
+Ascot with such smoothness and regularity, with such an eager desire on the
+part of every one around her not only to grant her wishes, but almost to
+anticipate them, that although nurse, and especially Grace, the
+under-nurse, strongly suspected that Miss Maggie had a temper of her own,
+yet certainly Sir John and Lady Ascot only considered her a somewhat
+daring, slightly self-willed, but altogether charming little girl.
+
+With the advent, however, of Miss Grey things were different. Maggie had
+taken the greatest delight in the furnishing and arranging of her
+schoolroom; she had laughed and clapped her hands with glee when she saw
+the pretty book-shelves being put up, and the gayly bound books arranged on
+them; and when Miss Grey herself arrived, Maggie had fallen quite in love
+with her, and had sat on her knee, and listened to her charming stories,
+and in fact for the first day or two would scarcely leave her new friend's
+side; but when lessons commenced, Maggie began to alter her mind about Miss
+Grey. That young lady was as firm as she was gentle, and she insisted not
+only on her little pupil obeying her, but also on her staying still and
+applying herself to her new duties for at least two hours out of every day.
+Long before a quarter of the first two hours had expired, Maggie had
+expressed herself tired of learning to read, and had announced, with her
+usual charming frankness, that she now intended to run into the garden and
+pick some roses.
+
+[Illustration: "I WANT TO PICK THOSE WHITE ROSES."--Page 6.]
+
+"I want to pick a great quantity of those nice white roses, and some of the
+prettiest of the buds, and when they are picked, I'll give them all to you,
+Miss Grey, darling," she continued, raising her fearless and saucy eyes to
+her governess' face. "Here you go, you tiresome old book," and the new
+reading-book was flung to the other side of the room, and Maggie had almost
+reached the door before Miss Grey had time to say:
+
+"Pick up your book and return to your seat, Maggie dear. You forget that
+these are lesson hours."
+
+"But I'm tired of lessons," said Maggie, "and I don't wish to do any more.
+I don't mean to learn to read--I don't like reading--I like being read to.
+I shan't ever read, I have quite made up my mind. How many roses would you
+like, Miss Grey?"
+
+"Not any, Maggie; you forget, dear, that Thompson, the gardener, told you
+last night you were not to pick any more roses at present, for they are
+very scarce just now."
+
+"Well, what are they there for except for me to pick?" answered the
+spoiled child, and from that moment Miss Grey's difficulties began.
+Maggie's hitherto sunshiny little life became to her full of troubles--she
+could not take pleasure in her lessons, and she failed to see any reason
+for her small crosses. Miss Grey was kind, and conscientious, and
+painstaking, but she certainly did not understand the spoiled but
+warm-hearted little girl she was engaged to teach, and the two did not pull
+well together. Nurse petted her darling and sympathized with her, and
+remarked in a somewhat injudicious way to Grace that Miss Maggie's cheeks
+were getting quite pale, and that she was certain, positive sure, that her
+brain was being forced into over-ripeness.
+
+"What's over-ripeness?" inquired Maggie as she submitted to her hair being
+brushed and curled for dinner, and to nurse turning her about with many
+jerks as she tied her pink sash into the most becoming bow--"what's
+over-ripeness, nursey, and what has it to say to my brain? That's the part
+of me what thinks, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, Miss Maggie dear, and when it's forced unnatural it gets what I call
+over-ripe. I had a nephew once whose brain went like that--he died eventual
+of the same cause, for it filled with water."
+
+Maggie's round blue eyes regarded her nurse with a certain gleam of horror
+and satisfaction. Miss Grey had now been in the house for three months, and
+certainly the progress Maggie had made in her studies was not sufficiently
+remarkable to induce any one to dread evil consequences to her little
+brain. She trotted down to dinner, and took her usual place opposite her
+governess. In one of the pauses of the meal, her clear voice was heard
+addressing Sir John Ascot.
+
+"Father dear, did you ever hear nurse talk of her nephew?"
+
+"No, Mag-Mag, I can't say I have. Nurse does not favor me with much news
+about her domestic concerns, and she has doubtless many nephews."
+
+"Oh, but this is the one who was over-ripe," answered Maggie, "so you'd be
+sure to remember about him father."
+
+"What an unpleasant description, little woman!" answered Sir John; "an
+over-ripe nephew! Don't let's think of him. Have a peach, little one. Here
+is one which I can promise you is not in that state of incipient decay."
+
+Maggie received her peach with a little nod of thanks, but she was
+presently heard to murmur to herself:
+
+"I'm over-ripe, too. I quite 'spect I'll soon fill with water."
+
+"What is the child muttering?" asked Sir John of his wife; but Lady Ascot
+nodded to her husband to take no notice of Maggie, and presently she and
+her governess left the room.
+
+"My dear," said Lady Ascot to Sir John, when they were alone, "Miss Grey
+says that our little girl is determined to grow up a dunce--she simply
+won't learn, and she won't obey her; and I often see Maggie crying now, and
+nurse is not at all happy about her."
+
+"Miss Grey can't manage her; send her away," pronounced the baronet
+shortly.
+
+"But, my dear, she seems a very nice, good girl. I have really no reason
+for giving her notice to leave us--and--and--John, even though Maggie is
+our only little darling, I don't think we ought to spoil her."
+
+"Spoil her! Bless me, I never saw a better child."
+
+"Yes, my dear, she is all that is good and sweet to us, but she ought to be
+taught to obey her governess; indeed, I think we must not allow her to have
+the victory in this matter. If we sent Miss Grey away, Maggie would feel
+she had won the victory, and she would behave still more badly with the
+next governess."
+
+"Tut! tut!" said Sir John. "What a worry the world is, to be sure! Of
+course the little maid must be taught discipline; we'd none of us be
+anywhere without it; eh, wife? I'll tell you what, Maggie is all alone; she
+needs a companion. I'll send for Ralph."
+
+"That is a good idea," replied Lady Ascot.
+
+"Well, say nothing about it until I see if my sister can spare him. I'll go
+up to town to-morrow, and call and see her. Ralph will mold Maggie into
+shape better than twenty Miss Greys."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+FATHER'S SHORT VISITOR.
+
+
+Ralph's mother was a widow. She had traveled on the Continent for a long
+time, but had at last taken a small house in London. Sir John intended week
+after week to go and see his sister, and week after week put off doing so,
+until it suddenly dawned upon him that Ralph's society might do his own
+little princess good. Sir John told his wife to say nothing to Maggie about
+her cousin's visit, as it was quite uncertain whether his mother would
+spare him, and he did not wish the little maid to be disappointed. Maggie,
+however, was a very sharp child, and she was much interested in sundry
+mysterious preparations which were taking place in a certain very pretty
+bedroom not far from her own nurseries. A little brass bedstead, quite new
+and bright, was being covered with snowy draperies; and sundry articles
+which girls were not supposed to care about, but which, nevertheless,
+Maggie looked at with eyes of the deepest veneration and curiosity, were
+being placed in the room; among these articles might have been seen some
+cricket-bats, a pair of boxing-gloves, a couple of racket-balls, and even a
+little miniature gun. The little gun was harmless enough in its way; it had
+belonged to Sir John when a lad, but why was it placed in this room, and
+what did all these preparations mean? Maggie eagerly questioned Rosalie,
+the under-housemaid, but Rosalie could tell her nothing, beyond the fact
+that she was bid to make certain preparations in the room, and she supposed
+one of master's visitors was expected.
+
+"He must be a very short man," said Maggie, laying herself down at full
+length on the little white bed, and measuring the distance between her feet
+and the bright brass bars at the bottom; "he'll be about half a foot bigger
+than me," and then she scampered off to Miss Grey.
+
+"Father's visitor's room is all ready," she said. "How tall should you
+think he'd be, Miss Grey?"
+
+"Dear me, Maggie, how can I tell? If the visitor is a man, he'll be sure to
+be somewhere between five feet and six feet; I can't tell you the exact
+number of inches."
+
+"No, you're as wrong as possible," answered Maggie, clapping her hands.
+"There's a visitor coming to father, and of course he's a man, or he
+wouldn't be father's visitor, and he's only about one head bigger than me.
+He's very manly, too; he likes cricket, and racket, and boxing, and firing
+guns. His room is full of all those 'licious things. Oh, I wish I was a man
+too. Miss Grey, darling, how soon shall I be growed up?"
+
+"Not for a long, long time yet. Now do sit straight, dear, and don't cross
+your legs. Sit upright on your chair, Maggie, like a little lady. Here is
+your hemming, love; I have turned down a nice piece for you. Now be sure
+you put in small stitches, and don't prick your finger."
+
+These remarks and these little injunctions always drew a deep frown
+between Maggie's arched brows.
+
+"Sewing isn't meant for rich little girls like me," she said. "I'm not
+going to sew when I grow up; I know what I'll do then. I know quite well;
+when I'm tired I'll sit in an easy-chair and eat lollipops, and when I'm
+not tired I'll ride on all the wildest horses I can find, and I'll play
+cricket, and fire guns, and fish, and--and--oh, I wish I was grown up."
+
+Miss Grey, who was by this time quite accustomed to Maggie's erratic
+speeches, thought it best to take no notice whatever of her present
+remarks. Maggie would have liked her to argue with her and remonstrate; she
+would have preferred anything to the calm and perfect stillness of the
+governess. She was allowed to talk a little while she was at her hemming,
+and she now turned her conversation into a different channel.
+
+"Miss Grey," she said, "which do you think are the best off, very rich
+little only children girls, or very poor little many children girls?"
+
+"Maggie dear," replied her governess, "you are asking me, as usual, a
+silly question. The fact of a little girl being rich and an only child, or
+the fact of a little girl being poor and having a great many brothers and
+sisters, has really much less to do with happiness than people think.
+Happiness is a very precious possession, and sometimes it is given to
+people who look very pale and suffering, and sometimes it is denied to
+those who look as if they wanted for nothing."
+
+"That's me," said Maggie, uttering a profound sigh. "I'm rich and I want
+for nothing, and I'm the mis'rable one, and Jim, the cripple in our
+village, is poor, and he hasn't got no nice things, and he's the happy one.
+Oh, how I wish I was Jim the cripple."
+
+"Why, Maggie, you would not surely like to give up your dear father and
+mother to be somebody else's child."
+
+"No, of course not. They'd have to be poor too. Mother would have to take
+in washing and father--I'm afraid father would have to put on ragged
+clothes, and go about begging from place to place. I don't think Jim, the
+cripple, has any father, but I couldn't do without mine, so he'd have to be
+a beggar and go about from place to place to get pennies for mother and me.
+We'd be darling and poor, and we couldn't afford to keep you, Miss Grey,
+and I wouldn't mind that at all, 'cause then I need never do reading and
+hemming, and I'd be as ignoram as possible all my days."
+
+Just at this moment somebody called Maggie, and she was told to put on her
+out-door things, and to go for a drive with her mother in the carriage.
+
+Maggie was a very sharp little girl, and she could not help noticing a
+certain air of expectancy on Lady Ascot's face, and a certain brightening
+of her eyes, particularly when Maggie, in her usual impetuous fashion,
+asked eager questions about the very short gentleman visitor who was coming
+to stay with father.
+
+"He's not four feet high," said Maggie. "I am sure I shall like him
+greatly; he'll be a sort of companion to me, and I know he must be very
+brave."
+
+"Why do you know that, little woman?" asked Lady Ascot in an amused voice
+"Oh, 'cause, 'cause--his gun, and his fishing-tackle, and his boxing-gloves
+have been sent on already. Of course he must be brave and manly, or father
+would have nothing to say to him. But as he's only three inches taller than
+me, I'm thinking perhaps he'll be tired keeping up with father's long
+steps, when they go out shooting together; and so perhaps he will really
+like to make a companion of me."
+
+"I should not be surprised, Maggie--I should not be the least surprised,
+and now I'm going to tell you a secret. We are going at this very moment to
+drive to Ashburnham station to meet father and his gentleman visitor."
+
+"Oh, mother!" exclaimed Maggie, "and do you know the visitor? Have you seen
+him before? What is his name?"
+
+"His name is Ralph, and though I have heard a great deal about him, it so
+happens I have never seen him."
+
+"Mr. Ralph," repeated Maggie, softly; "it's a nice short name, and easy to
+remember. I think Mr. Ralph is a very good name indeed for father's little
+tiny gentleman visitor."
+
+All during their drive to Ashburnham Maggie chattered, and laughed, and
+wondered. Her bright little face looked its brightest, and her merry blue
+eyes quite danced with fun and happiness. No wonder her mother thought her
+a most charming little girl, and no wonder the village children looked at
+the pretty and beautifully dressed child with eyes of envy and admiration!
+
+When they reached Ashburnham station, Lady Ascot got out of the carriage,
+and taking Maggie's hand in hers, went on the platform. They had scarcely
+arrived there before the train from London puffed into the station, and Sir
+John Ascot was seen to jump out of a first-class smoking carriage,
+accompanied by a brown-faced, slender-looking boy, whose hands were full of
+parcels, and who began to help Sir John vigorously, and to indignantly
+disdain the services of the porter, and of Sir John's own groom, who came
+up at that moment.
+
+"No, thank you; I wish to hold these rabbits myself," he exclaimed, "and
+my pigeons. Uncle John, will you please hand me down that cage? Oh, aren't
+my fantails beauties!"
+
+"Mother," exclaimed Maggie in a low, breathless voice, "is that the
+gentleman visitor?"
+
+"Yes, darling, your cousin Ralph Grenville. Ralph is your visitor, Maggie,
+not your father's. Come up and let me introduce you. Ralph, my dear boy,
+how do you do? I am your aunt. I am very glad to see you. Welcome to Tower
+Hill!"
+
+"Are you Aunt Beatrice?" answered the brown-faced boy. "How do you do, Aunt
+Beatrice? Oh, I do hope my fishing-tackle is safe."
+
+"And this is your Cousin Maggie," proceeded Lady Ascot. "You and Maggie
+must be great friends."
+
+"Do you like fantails?" asked Ralph, looking full at his little cousin.
+
+"Do you mean those darling white birds in the cage?" answered Maggie, her
+cheeks crimsoning.
+
+[Illustration: "I CAUGHT HIM MY OWN SELF."--Page 21.]
+
+"Yes; I've got some pouters at home, but I only brought the fantails here.
+I hope you've got a nice pigeon-cote at Tower Hill. Oh, my rabbits, my
+bunnies! Help me, Maggie; one of them has got loose; help me, Maggie, to
+catch him."
+
+Before either Sir John or Lady Ascot could interfere, the two children had
+disappeared into a crowd of porters, passengers, and luggage. Lady Ascot
+uttered a scream of dismay, but Sir John said coolly:
+
+"Let them be. The little lad has got his head screwed on the right way; and
+if I don't mistake, my pretty maid can hold her own with anybody. Don't
+agitate yourself, Bee; they'll be back all right in a moment."
+
+So they were, Maggie holding a huge white rabbit clasped against her
+beautiful embroidered frock. The rabbit scratched and struggled, but Maggie
+held him without flinching, although her face was very red.
+
+"I caught him my own self," she screamed. "Ralph couldn't, 'cause his hands
+were too full."
+
+"Pop him into this cage now," exclaimed the boy. "Uncle John, has a
+separate trap come for all the luggage? and if so, may I go home in it? I
+must watch my bunnies, and I should like to keep the fantails on my lap."
+
+"Well, yes, Ralph," replied Sir John Ascot in an amused voice. "I have no
+doubt the dog-cart has turned up by now. Do you think you can manage to
+stick on, my boy? The mare is very fresh."
+
+"I stick on? Rather!" answered Ralph. "You may hold the cage with the
+bunnies, if you like, while I step up, Jo--Maggie, I mean."
+
+"I'd like to go up there, too, father," whispered little Miss Ascot's full
+round tones.
+
+"No, no, bairnie," answered the baronet. "I don't want your pretty little
+neck to be broken. There, hop into the carriage beside mother, and I'll get
+in the dog-cart to keep this young scamp out of mischief. Now then, off we
+go. We'll all be at home in a twinkling."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+SNUBBED.
+
+
+When the children met next it was at tea-time. There was a very nice and
+tempting tea prepared in Maggie's schoolroom, and Miss Grey presided, and
+took good care to attend to the wants of the hungry little traveler. Ralph
+looked a very different boy sitting at the tea-table munching
+bread-and-butter, and disposing of large plates of strawberries and cream,
+from what he did when Maggie met him at Ashburnham station. He was no
+longer in the least excited; he was neatly dressed, with his hair well
+brushed, and his hands extremely clean and gentlemanly. He was polite and
+attentive to Miss Grey, and thanked her in quite a sweet voice for the
+little attentions which she lavished upon him. Maggie was far too excited
+to feel hungry. She could scarcely take her round blue eyes off Ralph,
+who, for his part, did not pay her the smallest attention. He was
+conversing in quite a proper and grown-up tone with the governess.
+
+"Do you really like flat countries best?" he said. "Ah! I suppose, then,
+you must suffer from palpitation. Mother does very much--she finds sal
+volatile does her good; did you ever try that? When I next write to mother,
+I'll ask her to send me a little bottle, and when you feel an attack coming
+on, I'll measure some drops for you. If you take ten drops in a little
+water, and then lie down, you don't know how much better you'll get. Thank
+you, yes, I'll have another cup of tea. I like a good deal of cream,
+please, and four or five lumps of sugar; if the lumps are small, I don't
+mind having six. Well, what were we talking about? Oh, scenery! I like
+hilly scenery. I like to get on the top of a hill, and race down as fast as
+ever I can to the bottom. Sometimes I shout as I go--it's awfully nice
+shouting out loud as you're racing through the air. Did you ever try that?
+Oh, I forgot; you couldn't if you suffer from palpitation."
+
+"I like steep mountains, and flying over big precipices," here burst from
+Maggie. "I hate flat countries, and I don't think much of running down
+little hills. Give me the mountains and the precipices, and you'll see how
+I'll scamper."
+
+Ralph raised his eyebrows a tiny bit, smiled at Maggie with a gentle pity
+in his face, and then, without vouchsafing any comment to her audacious
+observations, resumed his placid conversation with the governess.
+
+"Mother and I have been a good deal in Switzerland, you know," he
+continued, "so of course we can really judge what scenery is like. I got
+tired of those great mountains after a bit. I'm very fond indeed of
+England, particularly since I have spent so much of my time with Jo. Do you
+know my little friend Jo, Miss Grey?"
+
+"No, Mr. Ralph, I cannot say I do. Is he a nice little boy? Is he about
+your age?"
+
+Ralph laughed, but in a very moderate "I beg your pardon," he exclaimed.
+"I hope you were not hurt when I laughed. Mother says it's very rude to
+laugh at a grown-up lady, but it seemed so funny to hear you speak of Jo as
+a boy. She's a girl, quite the very nicest girl in the world; her real name
+is Joanna, but I call her Jo."
+
+Here Maggie, who, after Ralph's ignoring of her last audacious observation,
+had been getting through her tea in a subdued manner, brightened up
+considerably, shook back her shining curls, and said in a much more gentle
+voice than she had hitherto used:
+
+"I should like to see her."
+
+"You!" said Ralph. "She's not the least in your style. Well, I've done my
+tea. Have you done your tea, Miss Grey? And may I leave the table, please?
+I should like to have a run around the place before it gets dark."
+
+"And may I come with you?" asked Maggie.
+
+"Oh, yes, Mag! Come along."
+
+Ralph held out his hand, which Maggie took with a great deal of gratitude
+in her heart, and the two children went out together into the sweet summer
+air.
+
+Ralph first of all inspected his pigeons, and then his rabbits. He grumbled
+a good deal over the arrangements made for the reception of his pets, and
+informed Maggie that the hutch for the rabbits was but small and close, and
+that the dove-cote must be altered immediately, and that he would take care
+to speak to his Uncle John about it in the morning.
+
+Maggie agreed with every word Ralph said. She, too, pronounced the hutch
+small and dirty, and said the dove-cote must be altered, and while she
+echoed her cousin's sentiments, she felt herself quite big and important,
+and turned away from the rather smiling eyes of Jim, the stable-boy, who
+was in attendance on the pair.
+
+The children then proceeded to the stable, where Maggie's pretty snow-white
+pony was kept.
+
+"Ah!" said Ralph, "I wish you could see my horse. My horse is black, and
+rather bigger than this, and he has an eye of fire and such a beautiful
+glossy, arched neck. I can tell you it is worth something to see Raven.
+Yes, Maggie, Snowball is rather a nice little pony, and very well suited
+for you, I should imagine."
+
+"I don't like him much," said Maggie, who until this moment had adored her
+pet. "I like flashy, frisky horses. I like them fresh, don't you, Ralph?"
+
+"Don't talk nonsense!" said Ralph rather pertly. "Now where shall we go?"
+
+"Oh, Ralph, I should like to show you my garden. I dare say father will
+give you a little garden near mine if we ask him. I'm building a rockery. I
+don't work in my garden very often, 'cause it's rather tiresome, but I like
+building my rockery, and when we go to the seaside, I shall gather lots of
+shells for it. Come, Ralph, this is the way."
+
+"Never mind to-night," said Ralph. "Here is a nice seat on this little
+mossy bank. If you like to sit by me, Maggie, we can talk."
+
+Maggie was only too pleased. Ralph stretched himself on the soft velvety
+grass, put his hands under his head, and gazed up at the sky; Maggie took
+care to imitate his position in all particulars. She also put her hands
+under her head, and gazed through her shady hat up at the tall trees where
+the rooks were going to sleep.
+
+That night the rather spoiled little princess of Tower Hill lay awake for
+some time. It was very unusual for Maggie to remain for an instant out of
+the land of dreams. The moment she laid her curly head on the pillow she
+entered that pleasant country, and, as a rule, she stayed there and enjoyed
+delightful times with other dream-children until the morning. On the
+present occasion, however, sleep did not visit her so quickly; she was
+disturbed by the events of the day. Ralph was a very new experience in her
+little life; she thought of all he had said to her, of how he had looked,
+of his extreme manliness, his fearlessness, and his great politeness to
+Miss Grey. Maggie owned with a half-sigh that there was nothing at all
+particularly gracious in Ralph's manners to her.
+
+"But I like him all the better for that," she thought. "He treats me as an
+equal; most likely half the time he forgets that I'm a girl, and believes
+that I'm a boy like himself. I wish I were a boy! Wouldn't it be jolly to
+climb trees, and fish, and go out shooting with father! I'd be a great
+comfort to Ralph if I were a boy, but I'm not; that's the worst of it. How
+I do wish my pony was black, and was called Raven! I think I'll ask father
+to sell Snowball; he's rather a fat, stupid little horse. Ralph's horse has
+an eye of fire. How splendid he must be! I wonder if Jo has got a horse
+too, and if it is black, and if its eyes flash. Jo must be a splendid girl.
+How Ralph did look when he spoke of her! I wish I knew her! Ralph talks of
+her as if she were as good as a boy. I dare say she climbs trees, and
+fishes, and shoots. I should like Ralph to talk of me as he talks of Jo."
+
+At this stage of Maggie's meditations her bright eyes closed very gently,
+and she remembered nothing more until the morning.
+
+The sun shone brightly into her room when she awoke; she had been dreaming
+about Jo. She sprang up instantly, and began to dress herself. This feat
+she had never accomplished before in her life. Two servants, as a rule,
+waited on the little princess when she made her toilet, but now, with a
+vivid dream of the manly Jo in her mind, and with some vague ideas that she
+would please Ralph if she were up very bright and early, she proceeded to
+tumble into her cold bath, and then, after an untidy fashion, to scramble
+into her clothes. At last her dressing was completed, she knelt down for a
+moment by her bedside to utter a very hasty little childish prayer, and
+then ran softly out of her bedroom. She certainly did not know how early it
+was, but as there was no one stirring in the house, and as she did not wish
+nurse to find her and to call her back, and perhaps pop her once more into
+bed, she went on tiptoe along the passages until she reached her Cousin
+Ralph's bedroom door. She opened the door and went in. The large window of
+Ralph's bedroom exactly faced his little white bed; the blind of the window
+was up to the top, and the full light of the morning sun shone directly on
+the little sleeper's face. Oh, how delightful! thought Maggie. Ralph was
+still sound, sound asleep; she was the good one now, for Ralph was
+decidedly lazy. She went softly to the bedside and gazed at her cousin. His
+arms were thrown up over his head; he was lying on his back, and breathing
+softly and easily. Ralph had a handsome little face, and it looked gentle
+and sweet in his slumbers. The dauntless expression of his dark eyes, and
+the somewhat scornful and hard way in which he looked when he addressed
+himself to Maggie, were no longer perceptible. Maggie had a loving little
+heart, and it went out to her stranger cousin now.
+
+"I hope some day he'll like me as well as he does Jo," she murmured, and
+then she bent down and printed the lightest of light kisses on his
+forehead.
+
+"Bother those flies," muttered Ralph, raising his hand to brush the
+offending kiss away. This remark caused Maggie to burst into a peal of
+laughter, and of course her laugh aroused the young sleeper.
+
+"Yes, I'm up," said Maggie, dancing softly up and down. "I'm up, and I'm
+dressed, and I'm ready to go into the garden. Don't you think it's very
+good of me to get up so early? Don't you think I'm about as good as that Jo
+of yours?"
+
+Ralph had recovered from his first surprise, and now he gazed tranquilly at
+his little cousin.
+
+"What's the hour?" he asked.
+
+Maggie said, "I don't know."
+
+"Well, you'd better find out," responded Ralph; "it feels very early. My
+watch is on the dressing-table. Do you know the time by a watch yet? If you
+can read it, you may, and tell me the hour. How untidily you have dressed
+yourself!"
+
+Maggie felt herself growing very red when Ralph asked her if she could tell
+the hour by a watch. The fact was, she could not; she had always been too
+lazy to learn. She went in a faltering way to the dressing-table, feeling
+quite sure in her little heart that Jo knew all about watches, and that if
+she revealed her ignorance to Ralph, he would despise her for the rest of
+her life. Just at this moment, however, relief came, for the stable clock
+was heard to strike very distinctly. It struck four times.
+
+"It's four o'clock," said Maggie.
+
+"Yes, and what a muff you are!" answered Ralph. "Four o'clock! Why, it's
+the middle of the night. Good-night, Maggie. Please go away, and shut the
+door after you."
+
+"Then you're not getting up?" questioned the little cousin wistfully.
+
+"Getting up? No, thank you, not for many an hour to come. Good-night,
+Maggie. I don't want to be rude, but you really are a little worry coming
+in and waking me in this fashion."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE STABLE CLOCK.
+
+
+It was rather desolate standing at the other side of Ralph's door in the
+passage. There was plenty of light in the passage, but no sunshine, and
+Maggie felt her excitement cooling down and her heart beating tranquilly
+again. All that delightful energy and zest which she had shown when
+dressing herself, which she had felt when she had danced into her cousin's
+room, had forsaken her. She walked slowly back to her own little chamber,
+wondering what she had better do now, and thinking how very disagreeable it
+was to be spoken of as "a muff." Was it really only the middle of the
+night, and had she better just ignominiously undress herself and go back to
+bed?
+
+No; she would not do that. It was horrid to think of Ralph sound and
+happily asleep, and of nurse asleep, and father and mother also in the
+land of dreams. Maggie felt quite forlorn, and as if she were alone in the
+world. But at this moment a thrush perched itself on a bough of clematis
+just outside the window, and sang a delicious morning song. The little
+princess clapped her hands.
+
+"The birdies are up!" she exclaimed. "I expect lots of delightful creatures
+are up in the garden. I'll go into the garden. Perhaps, after all, Ralph is
+more of a muff than me."
+
+She swung her garden hat on her head, and ran softly and quickly
+downstairs. All the doors were barred and locked; the place felt intensely
+still and strange; but Maggie found egress through a small side window,
+which she easily opened; and, once in the garden, her loneliness and
+sadness vanished like magic. She laughed aloud, and ran gayly hither and
+thither. The butterflies were out, the birds were having a splendid morning
+concert, and the flowers were opening their petals and taking their morning
+breakfast from the sunshine.
+
+"Oh, dear! Ralph is the muff, and I am the good one, after all!" exclaimed
+Maggie aloud. She ran until she was tired, then went into an arbor at one
+end of a long grass walk, and sat down to rest herself. In a moment the
+most likely thing happened--she fell asleep. She slept in the arbor, with
+her head resting on the rustic table, until the stable clock struck six;
+that sound awoke her. She rubbed her drowsy eyes and looked around. Jim,
+the boy who had smiled the night before when he saw Maggie and Ralph
+talking together, passed the entrance to the little arbor at this moment
+with a bag of tools slung over his shoulder. Maggie called to him:
+
+"Jim, come here; aren't you surprised? I'm up, you see."
+
+"Why, Miss Maggie!" exclaimed the astonished stable-boy, "you a sitting in
+the arbor at this hour, miss! Oh, dear! oh, dear! ain't you very cold,
+missie? And was you overtook with sleep, and did you spend the night here?
+Why, I 'spect your poor pa and ma were in a fine fright about you, Miss
+Maggie."
+
+"Oh, do, they are not," answered Maggie, shaking herself, and running up to
+Jim, and taking hold of one of his hands. "They know nothing at all about
+it, Jim. They are all in their beds, every one of them, sound, fast asleep.
+Even my new Cousin Ralph is asleep. He said I was a muff, but I 'spect he
+is. Isn't it 'licious being up so bright and early, Jim?"
+
+"Well, no, missie, I don't think it is. I likes to lie in bed uncommon
+myself, so I do. I 'ates getting up of a morning, Miss Maggie; and whenever
+I gets a holiday, don't I take it out in my bed, that's all!"
+
+"Oh, you poor Jim!" said Maggie in a very compassionate tone. "I didn't
+know bed was thought such a treat; I don't find it so. Well, Jim, I'm glad,
+anyhow, you're obliged to be up this morning, 'cause you and me, we can be
+company to one another. I'm going with you into the stable-yard now."
+
+"Oh! but, missie, I has to clean out Snowball's stable, and get another
+stable ready for Master Ralph's pony Raven, and that's all work that a
+little lady could have no call to mix with. I think, missie, if I was you,
+I'd go straight back to my bed, and have another hour or two before Sir
+John and her ladyship are up."
+
+But Maggie shook her head very decidedly over this proposition.
+
+"No," she said, "I'm going to the stable-yard; I'm going to look at
+Snowball. I don't think very much of Snowball; I think he'll have to be
+sold."
+
+Jim opened his eyes and raised his eyebrows a trifle at this proof of
+inconstancy on Maggie's part, but he thought fit to offer no verbal
+objection, and the two walked together in the direction of the stables.
+Here the large stable clock attracted the erratic little maid's attention;
+she suddenly remembered the dreadful feeling of shame which had swept over
+her when Ralph had asked her to tell him the hour. She had earnestly wished
+at that moment that she had been a good child, and had learned how to tell
+the time when Miss Grey offered to teach her. It would never do for Ralph
+to discover her deficiency in this matter. Perhaps Jim could teach her. She
+turned to him eagerly.
+
+"Jim, do you know what o'clock it is?"
+
+"Yes, missie, of course; it's a quarter-past six."
+
+"Oh! how clever of you, Jim, to know that. Did you find it out by looking
+up at the stable clock?"
+
+"Why, of course, Miss Maggie; there it is in front of us. You can see for
+yourself."
+
+Maggie's face became very grave, and her eyes assumed quite a sad
+expression.
+
+"I want to whisper something to you, Jim," she said. "Stoop down; I want to
+say it very, very low. I don't know the clock time."
+
+Jim received this solemn secret in a grave manner. He was silent for a
+moment; then he said slowly:
+
+"You can learn it, I suppose, Miss Maggie?"
+
+"Oh, yes, dear Jim; and you can teach me."
+
+Jim began to rumple up his hair and to look perplexed.
+
+"I--oh! that's another thing," he said.
+
+"Yes, you can, Jim; and you must begin right away. There's a big, round
+white thing, and there are little figures marked on it; and there are two
+hands that move, 'cause I've watched them; and there's a funny thing at the
+bottom that goes tick-tick all the time."
+
+"That's the pend'lum, Miss Maggie."
+
+"Yes, the pend'lum," repeated Maggie glibly. "I'll remember that word; I
+won't forget. Now, go on, Jim. What's the next thing?"
+
+"Well, there's the two 'ands, miss; the little 'and points to the hours,
+and the big 'un to the minutes."
+
+"It sounds very puzzling," said Maggie.
+
+"So it is, miss; so it is. You couldn't learn the clock not for a score of
+days. I took a week of Sundays over it myself, and I'm not to say dull. The
+clock's a puzzler, Miss Maggie, and can't be learned off in a jiffy,
+anyhow."
+
+"Well, but, Jim, Ralph mustn't find out; he mustn't ever find out that I
+don't know it. It would be quite dreadful what Ralph would think of me
+then; he wouldn't ever, ever believe that I could turn out as well as Jo.
+You don't think Jo such a wonderful girl, do you, Jim?"
+
+"Oh, no, Miss Maggie; I don't think nothing at all about her. I'd better
+get to my work now, miss."
+
+"Yes, but you must teach me something about the old clock, just to make
+Ralph s'pose I know about the hour."
+
+"Well, miss, you can talk a little bit about the pend'lum, and the big 'and
+and the little 'un, and you can say that you think the stable clock is
+fast; it is that same, miss, and that will sound very 'cute. Now I must go
+to my sweeping. William will be round almost immediately, and he'll be ever
+so angry if I have nothing done, so you'll please to excuse me, miss."
+
+Maggie left the stable-yard rather discontentedly.
+
+It was not yet half-past six, and breakfast would not be on the table for
+two long hours. What should she do? After all, perhaps she was a muff to
+get up in the middle of the night; perhaps she was the silly one, and
+Ralph, so snug and rosy and comfortable in his little bed, was the wise and
+good one. Some things very like tears came to Maggie's bright blue eyes as
+she turned back again to the garden, for she was beginning to feel a little
+tired, and oh! very, very hungry. She wondered if Jo ever got up at four
+o'clock in the morning, and if Ralph had ever called Jo a muff; but of
+course he had not. Jo was doubtless one of those unpleasant model little
+girls about whom nurse sometimes spoke to her on Sunday: little girls who
+always did at once what their old nurses told them, who never rumpled their
+pinafores, nor made their hair untidy, nor soiled their clean hands, but
+walked instead of running, and smiled instead of laughing. Nurse had spoken
+over and over of these dear little lady-like misses. These little girls
+delighted in doing plain needlework, and were intensely happy when they
+conquered a fresh word in their reading, and they always adored their
+governesses, and were rather sorry when holiday time came. When nurse spoke
+about these children, Maggie usually interrupted her vehemently with the
+exclamation. "I hate that proper good little girl!" and then nurse's small
+twinkling brown eyes would grow full of suppressed fun, and she would
+passionately kiss her spoiled darling.
+
+Maggie, as she walked through the garden, where the dew was still
+sparkling, quite made up her mind that Jo belonged to this unpleasant order
+of little maids, and she determined to dislike her very much. As she was
+sauntering slowly along she passed a small narrow path which led into a
+shrubbery; directly through the shrubbery was another path, which branched
+out in the direction of Maggie's neglected garden; suppose she went and did
+a little weeding in her garden; or no, suppose she did what would be much
+more enchanting, suppose she paid a visit to Ralph's rabbits! Ralph had
+complained the night before of the hutch where his pets had been put; he
+had grumbled at its not being bright enough, and large enough, and clean
+enough. Suppose Maggie went and furbished it up a little, and looked at
+Ralph's pets, and gave them some lettuce leaves to eat.
+
+In a moment she had flown through the shrubbery, had passed the little
+neglected garden and the half-finished rockery, and was kneeling down by
+the hutch where Ralph's rabbits had made for themselves a new home.
+
+There they were, two beautiful snow-white creatures, with long silky hair,
+and funny bright red eyes, and pink noses. They had not a black hair on
+either of their glossy coats. Ralph had said they were very valuable
+rabbits, and because of the extreme purity of their coats he had called
+them Lily and Bianco. Maggie, too, thought them lovely; she bent close to
+the bars of the hutch and called them to her, and tried to stroke their
+noses through the little round holes. Bianco was very tame, but Lily was a
+little shy, and kept in the background, and did not allow her nose to be
+rubbed. Maggie showered endearing names on her; no pet she had ever
+possessed herself seemed equal to Ralph's snow-white rabbits. After playing
+with them for a little she ran into the kitchen garden to fetch some
+lettuce leaves, and with a good bundle in her arms returned to the
+rabbit-hutch. At so tempting a sight even Lily lost her shyness, and
+pressed her nose against the bars of her cage, and struggled to get at the
+tempting green food.
+
+"They shall come out and eat their breakfasts in peace and comfort, the
+darlings!" exclaimed Maggie. "Here, I'll make a nice pile of it just by
+this tree, and I'll open the door, and out they'll both come. While they
+are eating I can be cleaning the hutch. What a nice useful girl I am, after
+all! I expect Ralph will think I'm quite as good as that stupid old Jo of
+his. Come along, Bianco pet; here's your dear little breakfast ready for
+you. Oh, you darling, precious Lily! you need not be afraid of me. I would
+not hurt a hair of your lovely coat."
+
+Open went the door of the hutch, and out scampered the two white rabbits.
+They bounded in rabbit fashion toward the green lettuces, and when Maggie
+saw them happily feeding, she turned her attention to the hutch.
+
+"No, this is not a proper hutch," she said to herself. "It's not large
+enough, nor roomy enough, nor handsome enough. I don't wonder at poor Ralph
+being put out--he felt he was treated shabby. I must speak to father about
+it. There must be a new hutch made as quick as possible. Well, I had better
+clean this one while the dear bunnies are at their breakfast. I'll see if I
+can get some fresh straw. I'll run round to the yard and try if I can pull
+some straw out of one of the ricks. I really am most useful. Good-by,
+Bianco and Lily; I'll be back with you in a moment, dear little pets."
+
+The rabbits did not pay the slightest heed to Maggie's loving words. It is
+to be feared that, beautiful as they were in person, they possessed but
+small and selfish natures; they liked fresh lettuces very much, and when
+they had eaten enough they looked around somewhat shyly, after the manner
+of timid little creatures. The whole place represented a strange world to
+them, but as there was not a soul in sight, they thought they might
+explore this new land a little. Bianco bounded on in front, and looked
+back at Lily; Lily scampered after her companion. In a short time they
+found themselves on the boundary of a green and shady and pleasant-looking
+wood. In this wood doubtless abounded those many good and tempting things
+to which rabbits as a race are partial. They went a little further, and
+lost themselves in the soft green herbage. When Maggie returned to the
+rabbit-hutch, with her arms full of straw and her rosy cheeks much flushed,
+Bianco and Lily were nowhere to be seen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE EMPTY HUTCH.
+
+
+At breakfast that morning Lady Ascot noticed how tired Maggie looked--her
+blue eyes were swollen as if she had been crying, her pretty cheeks were
+very red, and she did not come to table with at all her usual appetite.
+Maggie always breakfasted with her father and mother. She also had her
+early dinner at their lunch, but her own lunch and tea she took in the
+schoolroom with Miss Grey. Miss Grey was now present at the
+breakfast-table, and so also was Ralph. Ralph was a very slight and thin
+boy, with a dark face and bright eyes. He looked uncommonly well this
+morning, remarkably neat in his person, and altogether a striking contrast
+to poor disheveled little Maggie. Maggie felt afraid to raise her eyes from
+her plate. When her mother noticed her fatigue and languor, she knew that
+Ralph's quizzical and laughing gaze was upon her, and that his lips were
+softly moving to the inaudible words:
+
+"Little muff, she got up in the middle of the night! She got up in the
+middle of the night!"
+
+Maggie would have been quite saucy enough, and independent enough, to be
+indifferent to these remarks of Ralph's, and perhaps even to pay him back
+in his own coin, but for the loss of the rabbits. Bianco and Lily were
+gone, however; the hutch was empty; it was all the little princess' fault,
+and, in consequence, her versatile spirits had gone down to zero. With all
+her faults--and she had plenty--Maggie was far too honest a child to think
+of concealing what she had done from her cousin. She meant to tell him, but
+she had dreaded very much going through her revelation, and she felt that
+his contempt and anger would be very bitter and hard to bear. Maggie always
+sat next her father at breakfast, and he now patted her on her hot cheeks,
+looked tenderly at her, and piled the choicest morsels on her plate.
+
+"The little maid does not look quite the thing," Sir John called across the
+table to his wife. "I think we must give her a holiday. Miss Grey, you
+won't object to a holiday, I am sure, and Ralph and Maggie will have plenty
+to do with one another."
+
+"If you please, sir," here burst from Ralph, "do you mind coming round with
+me after breakfast and seeing to the accommodation of the rabbits and
+pigeons? I think my rabbits want a larger and better hutch, if you please,
+Uncle John."
+
+"All right, my boy, we'll see about them," replied the good-natured uncle.
+"Hullo, little maid, what is up with you--where are you off to?"
+
+"I--I don't want any breakfast. I'm tired," said Maggie, and before her
+father could again interrupt her she ran out of the room.
+
+Her heart was full, there was a limit to her endurance; she could not go
+with Sir John and her Cousin Ralph to look at the empty hutch. She wondered
+what she should do; she wished with all her heart at this moment that
+Ralph had never come, that he had never brought those tiresome and
+beautiful rabbits to tempt her to open the door of their prison, and so
+unwittingly set them free. She ran once more into the garden, and went in a
+forlorn manner into the shrubbery; she had a kind of wild vain hope that
+Bianco and Lily might be tired of having run away, and might have returned
+to their new home. She approached the rabbit-hutch; alas! the truants were
+nowhere in sight; she stooped down and looked into the empty home; and just
+at this moment voices were heard approaching, the clear high voice of her
+boy cousin, accompanied by Sir John's deeper tones. Maggie had nothing for
+it but to hide, and the nearest and safest way for her to accomplish this
+feat was to climb into a large tree which partly over-shaded the
+rabbit-hutch. Maggie could climb like any little squirrel, and Sir John and
+Ralph took no notice of a rustling in the boughs as they approached. Her
+heart beat fast; she crouched down in the green leafy foliage, and hoped
+and trusted they would not look up. There was certainly no chance of their
+doing that. When Ralph discovered that his pets were gone, he gave vent to
+something between a howl and a cry of agony, and then, dragging his uncle
+by the arm, they both set off in a vain search for the missing pets--Bianco
+and Lily. No one knew better than poor Maggie did how slight was their
+chance of finding them. She wondered if she might leave her leafy prison,
+if she would have time to rush in to nurse or mother before Ralph came
+back. She thought she might try. It would be such a comfort to put her head
+on mother's breast and tell the story to this sympathizing friend. She had
+just made the first rustling in the old tree, preparatory to her descent,
+when Sir John's portly form was seen returning. He was coming back alone,
+and, after a fashion he had, was saying aloud:
+
+"Very strange occurrence. 'Pon my word, quite mysterious. Whoever did open
+the door of the hutch? Surely Jim would not be so mischievous! I must
+question him, and if I think the young rascal is telling me a lie, he
+shall go--yes, he shall go. I won't be humbugged. And Ralph, poor lad! It's
+a disgrace to have my sister's son annoyed in this way on the very first
+morning of his visit. Why, hullo, Maggie, little woman! What are you doing
+up there?"
+
+"I'm coming down if you'll just wait a minute, father," called down Maggie.
+"Oh, please, father, stand close under the tree, and don't let Ralph see
+us. I'm coming down as hard as ever I can. There, please stretch up your
+hand, father; when I catch it I'll jump."
+
+"Into my arms," said Sir John, folding her tight in a loving embrace. "My
+darling, you are not well. You are all trembling. What is the matter,
+little woman?"
+
+"Nothing, father; only I wanted to speak to you so badly, and I didn't want
+Ralph to hear. I heard you say that perhaps Jim did it, and you'd send him
+away. 'Twasn't Jim, 'twas me. I'm miserable about it--'twas all me,
+father."
+
+"All you? Mag-Mag, what do you mean?"
+
+"I let them out, father. I gave poor Bianco and Lily some nice lettuce
+leaves just here under the tree. See, they have not quite finished what I
+gave them. While they were feeding I thought I'd clean the hutch to please
+Ralph, and I ran round to the hay-rick for some fresh hay, and when I came
+back Bianco and Lily were gone. I spent all the time before breakfast
+looking for them, but I couldn't see them anywhere. Poor Jim had nothing to
+do with it, father. I did see Jim this morning. I think he's an awfully
+good boy. Father, Jim had nothing to do with opening the door of the
+hutch--it was all me."
+
+"Yes, Maggie, so it seems. Ah! here comes Ralph himself. Now, my dear
+little maid, you really need not be frightened. I'll undertake to break the
+tidings to Master Ralph. You were a good child to tell me the truth,
+Maggie."
+
+"I can't find them anywhere, uncle," called back Ralph, in his high voice.
+"Who could have been the mischievous person? Don't you think it was very
+wicked, Uncle John, for any one to open my hutch door? I expect some thief
+came and stole them. I suppose you are a magistrate, Uncle John; I hope you
+are, and that you'll have a warrant issued immediately, so that the person
+who stole my Bianco and Lily may find themselves locked up in prison. Why,
+if that is not Maggie standing behind you. How very, very queer you look,
+Maggie!"
+
+Sir John laid his hand on Ralph's shoulder.
+
+"The fact is, my lad," he said, "this poor dear little maid of mine has
+come to me with a sad confession. It seems that she is the guilty person.
+She gave your rabbits something to eat, and let them out in order that they
+might enjoy their meal the better. Then it occurred to her to get some
+fresh hay for the hutch, and while she was away Bianco and Lily took it
+into their heads to play truants. You must forgive Maggie, Ralph; she meant
+no harm. If the rabbits are not found I can only promise to get you another
+pair as handsome as money can buy."
+
+While his uncle was speaking Ralph's face had grown very white.
+
+"I don't want any other rabbits, thank you, Uncle John," he said. "It was
+poor little Jo gave me Bianco and Lily, and I was fond of them; other
+rabbits would not be the same."
+
+"I only hope, Ralph, your pets will be found. I shall send a couple of men
+to search for them directly. In the mean time, you must promise me not to
+be angry with my poor little girl; she meant no harm."
+
+"Oh, I'm not angry," said Ralph; "most girls are muffs; Jo isn't, but then
+she's not like other people." He turned on his heel and sauntered slowly
+away.
+
+It is difficult to say how the affair of the rabbits would have terminated,
+and how soon Maggie would have been taken back into Ralph's favor, but just
+then, on the afternoon of that very day in fact, an event occurred which
+turned every one's thoughts into a fresh channel.
+
+Lady Ascot received a telegram announcing the dangerous illness of her
+favorite and only sister--it was necessary that she and Sir John should
+start that very night for the North to see her. The question then arose.
+What was to become of the two children?
+
+"Send us to mother, of course," promptly said Ralph.
+
+"Hullo!" exclaimed Sir John; "why, I declare if it isn't a good thought.
+Violet wouldn't mind having you both on a visit for a fortnight or so, and
+Miss Grey could go with you, so that your mother need have no extra
+trouble. Remember, Ralph, you are bound to us for the summer, my boy, and
+we only lend you to your mother for a few days. You quite understand?"
+
+"Lend me to mother; no, I'm sure I don't understand that," said Ralph. "Oh!
+Maggie," he exclaimed suddenly, in all his old brightest manner, "if we go
+to London, you'll see Jo!"
+
+"I'll go off this very moment and telegraph to my sister," said Sir John;
+"the children and Miss Grey can start to-morrow morning. It's all arranged.
+It is a splendid plan."
+
+In five minutes the plan was made which was to exercise so large an
+influence over little Maggie, which was, in short, completely to alter her
+life. Sir John sent off his telegram, and in the course of the afternoon
+his sister, Mrs. Grenville, replied to it. She would be ready to receive
+Ralph and Maggie the next day, and would be pleased also to have Miss Grey,
+Maggie's governess, accompany the children. Maggie had never seen London;
+and Ralph became eloquent with regard to its charms.
+
+"It will be delightful for you," he said; "of course I am rather tired of
+it, for I have been everywhere and seen all the sights, but it will really
+be very nice for you. You are young, you know, Maggie, and you'll have to
+go to the places where quite the little children are seen; Madame Tussaud's
+is one, and the Zoological Gardens is another. Oh, won't it be fun to see
+you jumping when the lions roar!"
+
+At these words of Ralph's Maggie turned rather pale, and perceiving that he
+had made an impression, he proceeded still further to work on her feelings,
+describing graphically the scene at the Zoo when the lions are fed, the
+cruel glitter in the eyes of the hungry beasts, and the awful sound which
+they make when they crush the great bones of meat provided for them.
+
+"You mustn't go too near their cages," said Ralph; "nobody knows how strong
+a lion is; and though the cages are made with very large bars of iron, yet
+still----" Here Ralph made an expressive pause.
+
+Maggie opened her blue eyes, remained quite silent for a moment, for she
+did not wish Ralph to suppose that she was really afraid of the lions, and
+then she said softly:
+
+"I'm not going to the Zoo--at least not at first. I'm going to do my
+lessons with Miss Grey in the hours when the lions are fed. I know it's
+very good of me, but I'm going to be good, 'cause I am so sorry about your
+rabbits, Ralph."
+
+"So you ought to be," said Ralph, turning red; "but weeks and weeks of
+being sorry won't bring them back. When people do very careless and
+thoughtless things, being sorry doesn't mend matters. You ask mother, and
+she'll explain to you. But please don't say anything more about Bianco and
+Lily. I want to know what you mean by saying that you'll do your lessons at
+the hour the lions are fed. You do your lessons at the hour that most suits
+Miss Grey, don't you?"
+
+Maggie nodded.
+
+"Yes," she said, "I'm going to please poor Miss Grey too; I'm going to be
+very good."
+
+"Well, Miss Grey won't like to be kept at home in the afternoons teaching
+you your lessons--she'll like to be out amusing herself in the afternoon. I
+call that more thoughtlessness. You'll have to do your lessons in the
+morning, and the lions are fed at three o'clock, so that excuse won't
+serve."
+
+"I'm not going to the Zoo," continued Maggie, who began to feel decidedly
+worried. "If Miss Grey wants to be out in the afternoon, I'll go to Madame
+Tussaud's then. I don't like that Zoo, and I'm not fond of lions; but I
+expect Madame Tussaud's must be a nice sort of place."
+
+"Oh--oh--oh," said Ralph, beginning to jump about on one leg; "you see the
+chamber of horrors before you make up your mind whether it's a nice sort of
+place or not. Why, at Madame Tussaud's you always have your heart in your
+mouth because you don't know whether the wax figures are alive or not; and
+you are always saying, 'I beg your pardon;' and you are always knocking up
+against people whom you think are alive and want to speak to you, when they
+are only big wax dolls; and whenever you give a little start and show by
+your face that you have made a mistake, the real live people laugh. I can
+tell you, Maggie, you have to mind your p's and q's at Madame Tussaud's."
+
+"I won't go," said Maggie; "I need not go unless I like;" and then she
+walked out of the room, beginning seriously to debate in her poor little
+mind on the joys of having a playmate, for Ralph contrived at every turn to
+make her feel so very small.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+JO'S ROOM.
+
+
+It was well for Maggie that Ralph was a very different boy when with his
+mother and when without her. When the children arrived in London and found
+themselves in Mrs. Grenville's pretty bright house in Bayswater, Ralph flew
+to the sweet-looking young mother who came up to meet them, clasped his
+arms round her neck, laid his head on her shoulder, and instantly a
+softened and sweet expression came over his dark and somewhat hard little
+face. Mrs. Grenville was very much like her brother, so that prevented
+Maggie being shy with her. She also petted the little girl a great deal,
+and, as a matter of course, took more notice of her than of Ralph. Mrs.
+Grenville also spoke about the Zoo and Madame Tussaud's, but she contrived
+to make these two places of entertainment sound quite delightful to her
+little visitor. Instead of dwelling on their horrors she spoke of their
+manifold and varied charms, until Maggie's eyes sparkled, and she said in
+her quick, excitable way:
+
+"I'll go there with you, Aunt Violet; I'd like to go to both of those
+places with you."
+
+Aunt Violet read between the lines here, and gave Ralph a quick little
+glance which he pretended not to see.
+
+The next morning Mrs. Grenville asked Miss Grey to allow Maggie to have a
+holiday.
+
+"To-morrow she will begin her lessons regularly," continued the lady. "Of
+course by this time such a tall girl can read and write nicely, and I shall
+like to inclose a little letter from her to her mother; but to-day the
+children and I mean to be very busy together. Ralph, as you are older, and
+as you know most about London, you shall choose what our amusement shall
+be."
+
+Maggie felt herself turning first red and then white when Mrs. Grenville
+spoke of her reading and writing accomplishments, but Miss Grey was
+merciful and made no comment, and as Ralph had not yet been made acquainted
+with the poor little princess' profound ignorance, she trusted that her
+secret was safe.
+
+"Mother," here eagerly burst in Ralph, "of course the very first thing we
+must do is to go and see Jo. Shall I go round to see Jo this morning,
+mother, and may I take Maggie with me? I think it would do Maggie lots of
+good to see a girl like Jo."
+
+"Jo would do any one good," responded Mrs. Grenville. "It is a kind
+thought, Ralph, and you may carry it out. If you and Maggie like to run
+upstairs and get ready now, I will send Waters round with you, and I will
+call for you myself at Philmer's Buildings at twelve o'clock. After all, I
+should like to take Maggie myself to the Zoo--I want her to see the monkeys
+and the birds, and she shall have a ride on one of the elephants if she
+likes. As to the lions, dear," continued Mrs. Grenville, looking kindly at
+the little girl, "you shall not see them feed unless you like."
+
+"I don't mind seeing them feed if you are with me," whispered back Maggie;
+but just then Ralph called to her imperiously, and she had to hurry out of
+the room.
+
+"Aren't you glad that you are going at last to see my dear little Jo?"
+exclaimed the boy. "Now do hurry, Mag; get yourself up nice and smart, for
+Jo does so admire pretty things."
+
+Maggie made no response, but went slowly into her little bedroom.
+
+In her heart of hearts she was becoming intensely jealous of this wonderful
+Jo. She was putting her in the same category with those unpleasant little
+girls who liked needlework, and were exceedingly proper and good, and
+belonged to that tiresome class of little models of whom nurse was so fond
+of speaking. Maggie had borne patiently all Ralph's rhapsodies over this
+perfect little Jo, but quite a pang went through her heart when she heard
+Mrs. Grenville also praise her.
+
+"I don't want to go," she said as Miss Grey helped her to put on her boots,
+and took out her neat little jacket and pretty shady hat from their
+drawers.
+
+"Not want to go?" said the governess. "Oh, surely you will like the walk
+with Ralph this lovely morning, Maggie?"
+
+"No, I won't," said Maggie. "I don't want to see Jo; I'm sure she's a
+horrid good little girl; she's like nurse's Sunday go-to-meeting girls, and
+I never could bear them."
+
+Miss Grey could not help smiling slightly at Maggie's eager words.
+
+"I remember," she said after a pause as she helped to put the little girl's
+sash straight, "when I was a child about your age, Maggie, I often amused
+myself making up pictures of people before I had seen them. I generally
+found that the pictures were wrong, and that the people were not at all
+like what I had fancied them to be."
+
+Maggie pondered over this statement; then she said solemnly:
+
+"But I know about Jo--I'm quite sure that my picture of Jo isn't wrong. She
+wears a white pinafore, and there are no spots on it, and her hair is so
+shiny--I 'spect there is vaseline on her hair--and her nails are neat, and
+her shoes are always buttoned, and--and--and--she's a horrid good little
+girl--and I don't like her--and I never will like her."
+
+"Maggie! Maggie!" shouted Ralph from below, and Maggie, with a nod at Miss
+Grey, and the parting words, "I know all about her," rushed out of the
+room, danced down the stairs, and holding her cousin's hand, and
+accompanied by the sedate Waters, set out on their morning walk.
+
+It was Maggie's first walk in London, and the children and maid soon found
+themselves crossing Hyde Park, coming out at one of the gates at the
+opposite side from Mrs. Grenville's pretty house, and then entering a
+crowded thoroughfare. Here Waters stepped resolutely between the little
+pair, took a hand of each, and hurried them along. Ralph carried a small
+closed basket in his hand, and Maggie wondered what it contained, and why
+Ralph looked so grave and thoughtful, and why he so often questioned Waters
+as to the contents of a square box which she also carried.
+
+"You took great care of that box while I was away, Waters?"
+
+"Well, yes, Master Ralph; it always stood on the mantelpiece in my
+mistress' room, and I dusted it myself most regularly."
+
+"And do you really think it's getting heavy, Waters?"
+
+"Well, sir, you were away exactly two nights and two days, and that means,
+by the allowance of one penny a day given to you, two pennies more in the
+money-box. It's two pennies heavier than it was, sir, when you left us, and
+that's all."
+
+Ralph sighed profoundly.
+
+"Time goes very slowly," he said. "How I wish I had more money, and that
+when I had it I didn't spend it so fast. Well, perhaps Jo has managed about
+the tambourine after all. If there is a good manager, Jo is one. Oh, here
+we are at last!"
+
+The children and Waters had turned into a shabby-looking street, and were
+now standing before a block of buildings which looked new and tolerably
+clean. Unlike any ordinary house Maggie had ever seen, this one appeared
+to possess no hall door, but was entered at once by a flight of stone
+stairs. The children and the servant began to ascend the stairs, and Maggie
+wondered how many they would have to go up before they reached the rooms
+where the little girl in the spotless pinafore with the white hands and the
+smoothly vaselined hair resided. Maggie was rather puzzled and disconcerted
+by the bare look of the stone stairs, and also by the somewhat anxious and
+grave expression on Ralph's face. She was unacquainted with that kind of
+look, and it puzzled her, and she began dimly to wonder if Miss Grey was
+right, and her picture of Jo was untrue.
+
+At last they stopped at a door, which was shut, and which contained some
+writing in large black letters on its yellow paint. Maggie could not read,
+but Ralph pointed to the letters, and said joyfully:
+
+"Here we are at last!"
+
+The words on the door where these: "Mrs. Aylmer, Laundress and Charwoman,"
+but Maggie, of course, was not enlightened by what she could not
+understand.
+
+Waters knocked at the door; a quick, eager little voice said, "Come in."
+There was the pattering of some small feet, the door was flung wide open,
+and Maggie, Ralph, and Waters found themselves inside Jo's room.
+
+That was the first impression the room gave; it seemed to belong to Jo;
+Jo's spirit seemed to pervade it all over. Mrs. Aylmer, laundress and
+charwoman, might own the room and pay the rent for it, but that made no
+difference--it was Jo's.
+
+Who was Jo? Maggie asked herself this question; then she turned red; then
+she felt her lips trembling; then she became silent, absorbed, fascinated.
+The picture she had conjured up faded never to return, and the real Jo took
+its place.
+
+Jo was the most beautiful little girl Maggie had ever seen--she had fluffy,
+shining, tangled hair; her pale face was not thin, but round and smooth;
+each little feature was delicate and chiseled; the lips were little
+rosebuds; the eyes had that serene light which you never see except in the
+faces of those children who have been taught patience through suffering. Jo
+was a sadly crippled little girl lying on a low bed. Maggie, of course, had
+seen poor children in the village at home; but those children had not been
+ill; they were rosy and hearty and strong. This child looked fragile, and
+yet there was nothing absolutely weak about her. At the moment when Ralph
+and Maggie entered Jo was keeping school; two twin boys were standing by
+her bedside, and listening eagerly to her instructions.
+
+"No, no, Bob," she was saying, "you mustn't do it that way; you must do it
+more carefully, Bob, and slower. Now, shall we begin again?"
+
+Bob tried to drone something in a monotonous sing-song, but just then the
+visitors' faces appeared, and all semblance of school vanished on the spot.
+Ralph poured out a whole string of remarks. The contents of the money-box
+were emptied on Jo's bed, and the exciting question of Susy's tambourine
+came under earnest discussion. If Susy had a proper tambourine she could
+use her rather sweet voice to advantage, and earn money by singing and
+dancing in the streets. Susy was ten years old--a thick-set little girl
+with none of Jo's transparent beauty. Sixpence had been already collected
+for the coveted musical instrument; Ralph's box contained eightpence, but,
+alas! the tambourine on which Susy had set her heart could not be obtained
+for a smaller sum than half a crown.
+
+"They are not worth nothing for less than that," she exclaimed; "they makes
+no sound, and when you sings or dances with them, your voice don't seem to
+carry nohow. No, I'd a sight rayther wait and have a good one. Them cheap
+'uns cracks, too, when they gets wet. Here's sixpence and here's
+eightpence; that makes one shilling and two pennies. Oh! but it do seem as
+if it were a long way off afore we see our way to 'arf a crown."
+
+Here Susy, whose face had been radiant, became suddenly depressed, and
+Maggie felt a lump in her throat, and an earnest, almost passionate, wish
+to get hold of her father's purse-strings.
+
+"Now come and talk to Jo," said Ralph, drawing his little cousin forward.
+"We need not say any more about the tambourine to-day; I'm saving up all my
+money; I earn a penny every day that I'm good, and I'll give my penny to
+Susy for the present, so she'll really have the half-crown by and by. Now,
+Jo, this is my Cousin Maggie; I've told her about you. She lives down in
+the country; she doesn't know much, but then that's not to be wondered at.
+She was very naughty and careless too about my rabbits; she has asked me to
+forgive her, and of course I haven't said much; it wouldn't be at all manly
+to scold a girl; but you are really the one to forgive her, Jo, for the
+rabbits were yours before they were mine."
+
+"What, Bianco and Lily?" answered Jo, the pink color coming into her little
+face. "Oh, missie, wasn't they beautiful and white?"
+
+[Illustration: "NOW, JO, THIS IS MY COUSIN MAGGIE."--Page 74.]
+
+"Yes, and they're lost," said Maggie; "'twas I did it. I opened the door of
+their little house, and they ran out, and went into a wood, and none of us
+could find them since. Ralph said it was you gave them to him, and he
+doesn't really and truly forgive me, though he pretends he does. I was
+sorry, but I won't go on being sorry if he doesn't really and truly forgive
+me."
+
+To this rather defiant little speech of Maggie's Jo made a very eager
+reply. She looked into the pretty little country lady's face, right
+straight up into her eyes, and then she said ecstatically:
+
+"Oh, ain't I happy to think as my beautiful darling white Bianco and Lily
+has got safe away into a real country wood! Oh, missie, are there real
+trees there, and grass? and I hopes, oh, I hopes there's a little stream."
+
+"Yes, there is," said Maggie, "a sweet little stream, and it tinkles away
+all day and all night, and of course there are trees, and there's grass.
+It's just like any other country wood."
+
+"I'm so glad," said Jo; "I can picter it. In course I has never seen it,
+but I can picter it. Trees, grass, and the little stream a-tinkling, and
+the white bunnies ever and ever so happy. Yes, missie, thank you, missie;
+it's real beautiful, and when I shuts my eyes I can see it all."
+
+Jo had said nothing about forgiving Maggie; on the contrary, she seemed to
+think her careless deed something rather heroic, Ralph raised his dark
+brows, fidgeted a little, and began to look at his cousin with a new
+respect. At this moment Mrs. Grenville's footman came up to say that the
+carriage was waiting for the children; so Maggie's first visit to Jo was
+over.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+IN VIOLET.
+
+
+Maggie and Ralph spent a very happy afternoon at the Zoo. The best of Ralph
+always came to the surface when he was with his mother, and he was also
+impressed by Jo's remarks about her rabbits. Was it really true that Maggie
+had done a beautiful deed by giving his white and pretty darlings their
+liberty in a country wood? How Jo's eyes shone when she spoke, and how
+ecstatically she looked at the little princess! Ralph was a great deal too
+much of a boy, and a great deal too proud to make any set speech of
+forgiveness to Maggie, but he determined on the spot to restore her to his
+favor. He ceased to be condescending, and greeted her more as a little
+hail-fellow-well-met. Maggie rejoiced in the change. Mrs. Grenville was her
+brightest and most agreeable self; the lions on near acquaintance proved
+more fascinating than dreadful, and on their way home Maggie pronounced in
+favor of the Zoo, said she would certainly like to go there again, and
+thought that on the whole it must be a nicer place than Madame Tussaud's,
+where, according to Ralph's account, unless you visited the chamber of
+horrors there were only large and overgrown dolls to be seen.
+
+"I wonder," said Maggie to her cousin as they sat in the most amiable
+manner side by side at their tea that evening, "I wonder why Susy cares to
+go out into the streets and sing and play a funny little tambourine. She
+can't be at all shy to sing before a lot of people; can she, Ralph?"
+
+Ralph stared hard at Maggie.
+
+"Don't you really know what she does it for?" he asked.
+
+"I suppose for a kind of play," said Maggie, opening her eyes a little.
+
+Ralph stamped his foot impatiently. "A kind of play!" he repeated. "I was
+beginning to respect you. I forgot how ignorant you are, Poor Susy goes
+out and plays the tambourine and dances and sings because she wants
+pennies--pennies to buy bread for Jo and for herself, and for Ben and Bob.
+No, of course you can't know! Susy wants the tambourine not to play with,
+but because she's hungry."
+
+Ralph spoke with great energy; Maggie's little round sweet face became
+quite pale; she dropped the delicious bread-and-butter and marmalade which
+she was putting to her lips, and remained absolutely silent.
+
+"Must the tambourine cost half a crown?" she asked presently.
+
+"Yes," replied Ralph; "didn't you hear her say so? She knows best what it
+ought to cost."
+
+Maggie wished she were not such a dunce, that she could read a little and
+write a little, and that she had some slight knowledge of figures. Hitherto
+she had been shy of revealing any of her great ignorance to Ralph, but now
+her intense longing to know how many pennies were in half a crown made her
+ask her cousin the question.
+
+Ralph assured her carelessly that there were thirty pennies in that very
+substantial piece of money.
+
+"It will take a long time to collect," he said, sighing deeply. "Poor Susy
+will have to have plenty of patience, for I know Jo can't help her, and
+she'll have to depend on me. I earn a penny a day when I'm good. I
+generally am good when I'm with mother. It was quite different at Tower
+Hill, for you annoyed me a good deal, Maggie, but I've made up my mind to
+say nothing more on that subject. I dare say you, too, will try to be a
+good girl when you're with mother. Well, what was I saying? Oh! about
+Susy's pennies. With what I gave her and what Jo collected she has got
+fourteen. Take fourteen from thirty, how much is left, Maggie? Of course
+you know, so I need not tell you. All that number of days poor Susy will
+have to wait, however hungry she is. There, we have finished our tea, let's
+go up to the drawing-room to mother now. Isn't mother sweet? Did you ever
+see any one--any one so nice?"
+
+"Yes, I saw my own mother, and she's a lot nicer," said Maggie.
+
+Ralph's eyes flashed.
+
+"I like that," he said; "why, every one says the same thing about my
+mother, that she's the very, very nicest lady in the world. Oh, I say,
+Maggie, where are you----" But his little cousin had disappeared.
+
+The facts were these. The events of her first day in London had worked up
+poor little Maggie's feelings to a crisis. She had been excited, she had
+been pleased, she had been greatly surprised. All the old tranquil life in
+the midst of which she had moved, knowing all the time that she was its
+center, that she, the little princess, was the beloved object for whom most
+things were done, for whom treats were prepared and delights got ready--all
+this old life had vanished, and Maggie was nothing more than little Maggie
+Ascot, an ignorant child, a dunce who could not even reckon figures or read
+a word of the queen's English, or have any pennies in her purse. Maggie was
+only the little cousin whom Ralph rather despised, who was nobody at all
+in his estimation compared to Jo--Jo, who was so humble, and so very poor.
+Maggie's feelings had been greatly moved about Jo and Susy; she had longed
+beyond words to put the necessary number of pennies into Susy's hand, and
+to tell her to go out and buy that tambourine, on which her heart was set,
+without a moment's delay. She had wished this when she only supposed that
+Susy wanted the tambourine to amuse herself. How much more now did she long
+to get it for her, when Ralph had assured her that Susy's need was so great
+that she wished for the tambourine in order that she might earn money to
+buy bread! When Ralph said this Maggie felt a lump rising in her throat,
+and her own healthy childish appetite failing her--even then she felt
+inclined to rush away and cry; but when Ralph added to this his somewhat
+slighting remarks about the mother whose arms Maggie did so long to feel
+round her, the little princess could bear her feelings no longer, and
+rushed upstairs to sob out her over-full heart.
+
+It was not Miss Grey who found Maggie in the dark in her little room, but
+the good-natured Waters, who after all knew far more about children than
+the somewhat inexperienced governess. Waters wasted no time in asking the
+little girl what was the matter, but she lifted her into a very motherly
+embrace, and soothed and petted her with many loving words. Maggie thought
+Waters a most delicious person, and soon wiped away her tears, and began to
+smile once again. Waters was judicious enough to ask no questions about the
+tears, and, when they were over, to forget that they ever existed. She took
+Maggie into her mistress' room, and made her sit on the bed, and showed her
+some of Ralph's childish toys. It occurred to Maggie as she sat there that
+Waters would not be nearly such a dreadful person as most others to confide
+in. She was intensely anxious to gain some information, and she resolved to
+trust Waters.
+
+"May I tell you something as a great, tremendous secret?" she asked.
+
+"Well, Miss Maggie, that's as you please," replied the servant. "I can only
+tell you one thing--that what's confided to me is a secret from that day
+forward, and no mistake. What's the color to keep a secret in, Miss Maggie?
+In violet. That's where I keeps it, and so it's sure to be safe."
+
+Maggie laughed and clapped her hands.
+
+"Waters, I think you're a darling!" she said, "and I will trust you. I
+don't suppose you ever heard of any one so ignorant as me. I'll be eight
+years old before very long, and I can't read, and I can't write, and I
+can't put figures together. I can't even tell the time, Waters--I can't,
+really."
+
+While Maggie was speaking, Waters kept gazing at her with a most perfectly
+unmoved countenance.
+
+"Bless the child!" she said presently. "Well, Miss Maggie dear, where's the
+secret I'm to keep inviolate?"
+
+"Why, that's it, Waters; the secret is that I don't know nothing--nothing
+at all."
+
+"Well, you'll learn, dearie," said Waters; "you'll learn all in good time.
+You're nothing but a young child, and you has lots and lots of years before
+you."
+
+Maggie did not at all consider herself very young. There were one or two
+babies in the village at home, just beginning to toddle, who were really
+juvenile; but she, Maggie Ascot, who could run and jump and skip, and even
+ride!--it was really rather silly to speak of her as a very young child.
+However, now she was so soothed by "Waters' gentle words and Waters'
+petting that she could find no fault with any remark made to her by that
+worthy person. On the contrary, she cuddled up to her and stroked her
+cheek, and felt relieved at the unburdening of her secret.
+
+"I didn't learn to read till I was a good bit older than you," said Waters.
+"I don't mean that I'm an example for any dear little lady to follow, for I
+never could abide a bookworm. I don't take to it now. I only learned
+because my mother said it was a shame to have a great big girl who could
+neither spell nor write. My tastes always lay in the needlework line. Since
+I was a little tot I was forever with a bit of sewing in my hand; I'd hem,
+and I'd back-stitch, and I'd top-sew whenever I had the chance. Why, I
+mind me of the time when I unpicked one of my father's old shirts just for
+the pleasure of putting it together again, and didn't mother laugh when she
+saw what I was after! Plain needlework was my line, Miss Maggie, and maybe
+it's yours too, dearie."
+
+"Oh, no, it isn't!" said Maggie, opening her blue eyes with quite a gleam
+of horror in them. "I hate plain sewing worser even than I do reading; I
+hate it even worser than my figures. Plain sewing pricks, and it worries
+me. I hate it more than anything."
+
+"Well, well, dearie, you're in the pricking stages yet; I went through
+that, same as another. You'll come to learn the comfort of it, for of all
+the soothers for poor worrited women, there's nothing at all in my opinion
+like needle and thread."
+
+Maggie was beginning to find this turn in the conversation rather
+unintelligible, so she brought Waters back to the subject which most
+interested her by asking if she had also found the study of figures very
+good for the worries, and if she would let her know how many pennies Susy
+must have to make up the half-crown.
+
+"Oh, is that little Susy Aylmer?" said Waters. "I don't approve of no child
+going out to sing in the streets. However, it isn't for me to interfere,
+and Mrs. Aylmer is as honest and hard-working a body as ever walked, and
+that little Jo is a real angel, and as the poor things must live somehow,
+why, I suppose Susy had better sing. Master Ralph is saving up his pennies,
+and he'll give them all to her as sure as sure, so you has no call to put
+yourself out about it, Miss Maggie."
+
+"Yes, but I don't want her to wait," said Maggie. "She has nothing to eat,
+and she'll be so dreadfully, dreadfully hungry. She has got fourteen
+pennies, and she can't get anything to eat until she has thirty. Oh,
+Waters! if you do know figures, please tell me how many days poor Susy must
+live without any food until she has got the thirty pennies."
+
+Waters laughed.
+
+"Things won't be as bad as that for Susy Aylmer," she said. "She is a
+sturdy little piece, and I don't believe she denies herself much; don't you
+fret about her, Miss Maggie darling."
+
+"Yes, but what is the difference between fourteen and thirty?" insisted
+Maggie. "Ralph only gets a penny a day; how many days will have to pass
+before Susy gets the thirty pennies?"
+
+"She has fourteen now," said Waters; "well--well, it is something of a
+poser; I never had much aptitude in the figure line, Miss Maggie. Fourteen
+in hand, thirty to make up; well--well, let's try it by our fingers. Ten
+fingers first, five on each hand. Bear that in your mind, Miss Maggie. Add
+ten to fourteen, makes twenty-four; come now, I'm getting on, but that
+isn't thirty, is it, darling? Try the fingers again; five more fingers
+makes twenty-nine, and one--why, there we are--thirty. Ten, five, and one
+make sixteen. There, Miss Maggie, sixteen pennies more she'll have to get."
+
+Just at this moment Mrs. Grenville entered the room, and Maggie's
+conversation with the good-natured lady's maid was brought to an abrupt
+conclusion.
+
+The next morning Maggie awoke out of a profound sleep, in which she had
+been dreaming of Jo as turned into a real angel with wings, and of Susy as
+playing on the most perfect tambourine that was ever invented. The little
+girl awoke out of this slumber to hear the unfamiliar London sounds, and to
+sit up in bed and rub her sleepy eyes. The hours kept at Mrs. Grenville's
+were not so early as those enjoyed at Tower Hill. Maggie was tired of lying
+in bed; she was occupying a tiny room which led out of Miss Grey's, and she
+now jumped up and went to the window. What was her amazement to see just
+under the window, walking leisurely across the road, one of the objects of
+her last vivid dream, Susy Aylmer herself! Susy's very stout little form
+was seen crossing the street and coming right up to the Grenvilles' house.
+Maggie was charmed to see her, and took not an instant in making up her
+mind to improve the occasion. She knocked violently on the pane, but her
+room was too high up for even Susy's quick ears to discern this signal, and
+she then, in her little blue dressing-gown, rushed through Miss Grey's
+room, and ran as fast as her small feet would carry her down the stairs,
+down and down until she reached the front hall. There were no servants in
+the hall, but the chain had already been taken off the hall door, and
+Maggie had no difficulty in slipping back the bolt. She opened the door and
+stood on the steps.
+
+"Susy! Susy! Susy!" she screamed.
+
+Susy at this moment was receiving what indeed she came for every morning--a
+good supply of broken bread and meat from Mrs. Grenville's cook. Mrs.
+Grenville allowed the cook to give these things to Mrs. Aylmer, and Susy
+was generally sent to fetch them. She was much amazed to see the pretty
+little country lady calling to her so vehemently; she was also delighted,
+and came to the foot of the hall-door steps, and looked up at Maggie with a
+very eager face. For a girl who was so dreadfully starved, Maggie could not
+help thinking the said face rather round and full; however, she would not
+allow this passing reflection to spoil her interest. She beckoned to Susy,
+and said in a whisper:
+
+[Illustration: MAGGIE STOOD IN A CONTEMPLATIVE ATTITUDE.--Page 91.]
+
+"I'm most terrible sorry for you. If I had any money I'd give it to
+you--really and truly I would, but I haven't got nothing at all. Father
+has--father's ever so rich, but he's not with me, he's far away, and I
+can't--oh! Susy, can you write?"
+
+Maggie stood in a contemplative attitude. Susy posed herself on one leg,
+held her basket of broken meat in a careless manner, as though it did not
+account for anything at all, and kept her quick and intelligent eyes fixed
+on the little princess.
+
+"I do want to help you, very much," said Maggie, at last. "I want to help
+you my own self, without any one knowing anything about it. I think I want
+to do this as much for Jo as for you. Once I didn't like Jo at all, but now
+I do love her; she looks so beautiful and so sweet. I don't think you do;
+you have rather a cross face, and you are very red, and you've such fat
+cheeks; but maybe being hungry makes people look cross and red."
+
+"And--and--fat," continued Susy eagerly. "I'm puffed out with being so
+holler inside. I am now, missie, really. It's an awfully empty feel, and it
+won't go, not a bit of it, till I gets that 'ere tambourine."
+
+"I wish I could help you!" continued Maggie again.
+
+Just then there were sounds inside the house, sounds of dustpans and
+brushes, and of industrious maids approaching, and Susy knew that her
+opportunity was short.
+
+"I believe you, missie," she said, "I believe in your kind 'eart, missie.
+It do seem a shame as you shouldn't have no money, for you would know how
+to pervide for the poor and needy, missie; but--but it might be managed in
+other ways, Miss Maggie."
+
+"In other ways?" repeated Maggie. "How, Susy--how, dear, nice Susy?"
+
+"Why, now, you hasn't nothing as you could sell, I suppose?"
+
+"That I could sell?" repeated little Miss Ascot. "Oh, dear, no, I haven't
+nothing at all to make a shop with, if that's what you mean."
+
+"I wasn't thinking of that, missie; I was wondering now if you had any
+little bit of dress as you didn't want. Your clothes is very 'andsome, and
+something as you didn't greatly care for would fetch a few pence if it was
+sold, and so help on the tambourine."
+
+Maggie's blue eyes began to sparkle.
+
+"Why, there's my new hat," she said; "mother got it from London only a week
+ago, and I know it cost pounds--it has two long white feathers; I like it
+very much, but I could do without it, 'cause I've got my little common
+garden-hat to wear. Do you think I'd get two or three pennies for my new
+best hat with the feathers and the lace, Susy?"
+
+"Oh, yes, missie--oh, yes, missie; I seed the hat yesterday, and I never
+clapped my two eyes on such a beauty. But it seems a pity to take it away
+from you, missie dear, and maybe the little common garden-hat would fetch
+enough to buy the tambourine."
+
+"Oh, I wouldn't sell that at all," said Maggie; "I am very fond of my
+garden-hat, 'cause father likes me in it; and 'sides, I've gathered
+strawberries in it, and I've had wild birds' eggs in it. I'd much, much
+rather sell the stupid new hat."
+
+Susy was quite agreeable to the transfer, and it was finally arranged that
+the two little girls were to meet each other at the same hour on the
+following morning, and Susy was to accompany Maggie to the pawnbroker's,
+where the new hat might be disposed of.
+
+If there was a commonplace, ordinary, every-day London child, it was Susy
+Aylmer. She was the sister of two little brothers, who also belonged to a
+very easily found class of human beings; she was the daughter of an
+industrious, hard-working, every-day mother; and yet she was also sister to
+Jo!
+
+How Jo got into that home was a puzzle to all who knew her; she had innate
+refinement; she had heaven-born beauty. Her ideas were above her class; her
+little flower-like face looked like some rare exotic among its ruder
+companions.
+
+Mrs. Aylmer alone knew why Jo was different from her other children. Jo
+represented a short, bright episode in the hard-working woman's life. She
+had been born in good days, in sweet, happy, country days. Her father had
+been like her, refined in feature and poetic in temperament. Shortly after
+Jo's birth the Aylmers had come to London, poverty and all its attendant
+ills had over-taken them, and after a few years Aylmer had fallen a victim
+to consumption, and had left his wife with four young children on her
+hands, the three younger of whom altogether resembled her.
+
+Mrs. Aylmer had no time to grieve--she was a brave woman; there are many
+brave women in the world, thank God; among the working poor they are
+perhaps more the rule than the exception. She turned round, faced her
+position, and managed after a fashion to provide for her children. Many
+visitors came to see her, for she was eminently respectable, and had an
+honest way about her which impressed people, and all these visitors pitied
+her when they saw Jo.
+
+Poor little Jo was a cripple, a lovely cripple, but still unable to walk
+or move from her little sofa. The visitors congratulated Mrs. Aylmer on her
+strong boys and stalwart-looking little daughter, but they invariably
+pitied her about Jo. Nothing made that worthy woman so angry. "For Jo is my
+brightest blessing," she would exclaim; "she's always like a bit of
+sunshine in the room. Trouble, bless her! she a trouble! Why, don't she
+take the trouble off my shoulders more than any one else ever did or ever
+will do? Ask me who never yet spoke a cross word, and I'll tell you it's
+that little pale girl who can never lift herself off the sofa. Ask me who
+keeps the peace with the others, and I'll tell you again it's little Jo.
+And she don't preach, not she, for she don't know how, and she never looks
+reproachful for all the roughness and the wildness of the others; but her
+life's one sarmin, and, in short, we none of us could get on without her.
+Jo my trouble indeed! I only wish them visitors wouldn't talk about what
+they knows nothing on."
+
+What Mrs. Aylmer felt for her little lame daughter was also, although
+perhaps in a slightly minor degree, acknowledged by the boys and Susy. They
+clung to Jo, and looked up to her. The boys, who were the two youngest of
+the family, had a habit of giving her their absolute confidence. They not
+only told her of their good deeds, but of their naughty ones. They had a
+habit of pouring out their little scrapes and misdemeanors with one of Jo's
+thin hands clasped to their tearful faces, and when she forgave, and when
+she encouraged, the sunshine came out again on them.
+
+But Susy was different from the boys, and of late she had kept the
+knowledge of more than one naughty little action from Jo. The history of
+the tambourine, the history of the purchase of that redoubtable instrument
+which was to make Susy's fortune and fill the Aylmers' home with not only
+the necessaries, but also some of the dainties of life, was, of course,
+known by Jo. No one had ever been more interested in the purchase of a
+musical instrument than she was in the collecting of that hoard which was
+to result in the buying of Susy's tambourine. Jo was a delightful and
+sympathizing listener, and Susy liked nothing better than to kneel by her
+sofa and pour out her longings and dreams into so good a listener's ears;
+but Susy had kept more than one secret to herself, and she said nothing to
+Jo about her interview with little Miss Ascot, nor about the arrangement
+she had made with that little lady to purchase the tambourine out of the
+proceeds of the sale of her best hat.
+
+Susy knew perfectly that Jo would not approve of anything so underhanded,
+and she resolved to keep her own counsel. She returned home, however, in
+the wildest spirits, and indulged all day long in fantastic day-dreams. Jo
+was having a bad day of much pain and suffering, but Susy's brightness was
+infectious, and Mrs. Aylmer thought as she tidied up her place and made it
+straight, that surely there never were happier children than hers.
+
+"But we won't have the tambourine for many and many a day yet," said Ben.
+"Don't be too sure, Susy; how can you tell but that Master Ralph'll get
+tired of saving up all his pennies for you? Hanyhow," continued Ben, with a
+profound sigh, "we has a sight of days to wait afore we gets 'arf a crown."
+
+"I knows what I knows," answered Susan oracularly. "Look here, Jo, you're
+the one for making up real 'ticing pictures. I wants to make a day-dream,
+and you tell me what to do with it when we get it. S'pose now--oh, do be
+quiet, Ben and Bob--s'pose now I 'ad the tambourine, and it wor a beauty;
+well, s'pose as the day is fine, and the hair balmy, and every-body goes
+out, so to speak, with their pockets open, and they sees me--I'm dressed up
+smart and tidy--"
+
+"Oh, my, and ain't you red about the face, just?" here interrupts Bob.
+
+"Well, don't interrupt; I can't help my 'plexion; I'm tidy enough--and I'm
+dancing round, and I'm playing the tambourine like anything, and I'm
+singing. Well, maybe it's 'Nelly Bly,' or maybe it's the 'Ten Little Nigger
+Boys;' hanyhow I takes; I'm nothing but little Susy Aylmer, but I takes.
+The crowd collects, and they laugh, and they likes it, and then, the
+ladies and the gents, they go by, so they give me their pennies--lots of
+'em; and one old gent, he have no change, and he throws me a shilling.
+Well, now, that's my day-dream. I comes home, I gives the pennies to
+mother, but I keeps the shilling; I keeps the shilling for a treat for us
+four young 'uns. Now, Jo, speak up. What shall we do with our day-dream?"
+
+The boys were here wildly excited. To all intents and purposes the shilling
+was already in Susy's possession. Bob, to relieve his over-charged
+feelings, instantly stood on his head, and Ben set to work to punch him;
+Jo's eyes began to shine.
+
+"'Tis a real beautiful day-dream, Susy darlint," she said.
+
+"Yes, ain't it, Jo? a whole shilling; you mind that, Jo. Now make up what
+we'll do with it. Let's all sit quiet, and shut our heyes, and listen to
+Jo. You'll be sure to make up something oncommon, Joey dear."
+
+Jo, when she spoke, or at least when she made up what her brothers and
+sisters called day-dreams, always clasped her hands and gazed straight
+before her; her large violet-tinted eyes began to see visions, nowhere to
+be perceived within that commonplace, whitewashed room; the children who
+listened to her instinctively perceived this, and they usually closed their
+own eyes in order to follow her glowing words the better.
+
+On this occasion she spoke slowly, and after a pause.
+
+"A whole shilling," she began; "it's a sight of money, and it ought to do a
+deal. What I'm thinking is this: suppose we had a wan, a wan as would hold
+us all, mother, and Susy, and Ben, and Bob, and there was lots of green
+grass in the bottom of the wan, so we all of us sat easy, and had no pain
+even when it moved. Suppose there was two horses to the wan, and a kind
+driver, and we went werry quick; we went away from the houses, and the
+streets, and we left the noise ahind us, and the dust and the dirt ahind
+us, and we got out into fields. Fields, with trees a-growing, and real
+yellow buttercups looking up at you saucy and perky like, and dear little
+white daisies, like bits of snow with yellow eyes. S'pose we all got out
+there, right in the fields, and we seed a little brook running and rushing
+past us, and we see the fishes leaping for joy out of the water; and if the
+sun was werry hot we got under a big tree, where it was shady, and we sat
+there; mother and I sat side by side, and you, Susy, and you, Ben and Bob,
+just rolled about on the green, and picked the buttercups and the daisies.
+Why, I can think of nothing better than that, unless, maybe, angels came
+and talked to us while we were there."
+
+Here Jo paused abruptly, and the three children who had sat absolutely
+motionless opened their eyes; the two boys sighed deeply, but Susy after a
+time began to cut up the day-dream; while Jo thought of angels as the only
+possible culmination to such intense joy, it occurred to practical Susy to
+suggest a good substantial dinner to be eaten under the shade of the green
+trees.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+CHOOSING HER COLORS.
+
+
+Maggie had found it very delightful to talk to Susy on the doorstep of her
+aunt's house. The little mystery of the whole proceeding fascinated her,
+and as she was in reality a very romantic and imaginative child, she
+thought nothing could be finer than going off privately with Susy, and
+sacrificing her best hat for the benefit of this young person. She had also
+a decidedly mixed and perhaps somewhat naughty desire to out-do Ralph in
+this matter, and to be herself the person who was to rescue poor Susy and
+her family from the depths of starvation. When Susy went away, she crept
+upstairs and went softly into her little room, no one having heard her
+either leave it or return to it.
+
+There was one part, however, of the programme marked out by Susy which was
+not quite so agreeable to little Miss Ascot. Susy had adjured her, with
+absolute tears starting to her black eyes, to keep the whole thing a
+secret. Maggie had not the smallest difficulty in promising this at the
+moment, but she had no sooner reached her little bedroom than she became
+possessed with a frantic desire to tell her little adventure to some one.
+She was not yet eight years old; she had never kept a secret in her life,
+and the moment she possessed this one it began to worry her. Little Maggie,
+however, was not without a certain code of morals; she knew that it would
+be very wrong indeed to tell a lie. She had given her word to Susy; she
+must keep her poor little secret at any cost.
+
+Miss Grey, who of course knew nothing of all that had transpired, came in
+at her accustomed hour to assist her little pupil at her toilet. Maggie
+capered about and seemed in excellent spirits while she was being dressed.
+She had no idea of betraying her secret, but she liked, so to speak, to
+play with it, to show little peeps of it, and certainly fully to acquaint
+those she was with, with the fact that she was the happy possessor of such
+a treasure. She remembered Waters' remarks of the night before. Waters had
+said how very faithfully she preserved anything told to her in confidence.
+Waters kept her secrets in violet. Maggie did not quite understand the
+double meaning of this expression; but, as she was being dressed, she
+became violently enamored of what she called the "secret" color.
+
+"No, no, I won't have my pink sash this morning, please, Miss Grey; I don't
+like pink; I mean it isn't the fit color for me to wear to-day. You don't
+know why; you'll never of course guess why, but pink isn't my color to-day
+anyhow."
+
+"Well, Maggie, you need not wear it," replied the patient governess; "here
+is a very pretty blue sash, dear; it will go quite nicely with your white
+frock; let me tie it on in a hurry, dear, for the breakfast gong has
+sounded."
+
+But Maggie would not be satisfied with the blue sash, nor yet with the
+tartan, nor even with the pale gold.
+
+"I want a violet sash," she said; "I'll have nothing but a violet sash; I'm
+keeping something in violet; you'll never, never guess what."
+
+The breakfast gong here sounded a second time, and of course Miss Grey
+could not find any violet ribbons in Maggie's box; fortunately she had a
+piece of the desired color among her own stores; so when the little
+princess was decked in it, she went downstairs, feeling very happy and
+proud.
+
+Miss Grey's violet sash did not happen to be of a pretty shade; it was an
+old ribbon, of a dark tint of color, and was a great deal too short for its
+present purpose.
+
+"What a hideous thing you have round your waist," whispered Ralph to his
+little cousin; but here he caught his mother's eye; she did not allow him
+to make personal remarks, and although she herself was considerably
+surprised at Lady Ascot's allowing such a ribbon into Maggie's wardrobe,
+nothing further was said on the subject. Even the wearing of the violet
+sash, however, could scarcely keep the secret from bubbling to Maggie's
+lips. Mrs. Grenville began to form her plans for the day. Maggie and Ralph
+were to employ themselves over their lessons until twelve o'clock and then
+Mrs. Grenville would take them both out with her, first to Madame
+Tussaud's, and later on for a drive in the park.
+
+"To-morrow," she continued, "you are both going with me to a children's
+garden party. Mrs. Somerville--you know Mrs. Somerville, Ralph, and what
+nice children hers are--happened to hear that you and Maggie were coming to
+me for a short time, and she sent an invitation for you both last night. We
+shall not return until quite late, as it will be Hugh Somerville's
+birthday; and they are going to have fireworks in the evening, and even a
+little dance."
+
+Ralph rubbed his hands together with delight.
+
+"Won't Maggie jump when she hears the fireworks?" he said. "You never saw
+fireworks, did you, Mag? Oh, I say, what a jolly time we are going to
+have!"
+
+Maggie felt her cheeks flushing, more particularly as she had seen a few
+rockets, and even some Catharine wheels, and in consequence she had
+hitherto believed herself rather knowing on the subject of fireworks; but
+when Ralph proceeded to enlighten her with regard to the style of fireworks
+likely to be exhibited at Mrs. Somerville's garden party; when he spoke
+about the fairy fountains, and the electric lights, and the golden showers
+of fire-drops, and last, but not least, the bouquet which was to end the
+entertainment, she felt she had better keep silent with regard to the
+rockets and Catharine wheels which her father had once displayed for the
+amusement of the villagers.
+
+Mrs. Grenville here began to speak earnestly to Miss Grey.
+
+"I want Maggie's dress to be quite suitable. Is there anything we ought to
+get for her, Miss Grey?"
+
+"I think not," replied Miss Grey. "She has just had a beautifully worked
+Indian muslin frock from Perrett's, in Bond Street, which she has not yet
+worn; and I don't think anything could be more dressy than her new hat with
+the ostrich feathers."
+
+"Oh, yes, it is a charming hat," replied Mrs. Grenville. "Of course she
+must wear it to-day when she drives with me in the carriage, but that won't
+injure it for to-morrow. Then I need not trouble about your wardrobe, my
+darling; you will accompany me to-morrow, quite the little princess your
+father is so fond of calling you."
+
+During this brief conversation, Maggie's little face had been changing
+color.
+
+"I think," she said suddenly, "that perhaps I'd better have a new hat."
+
+"Why so, my love? your hat is quite new and charming. It came from
+Perrett's, too, did it not, Miss Grey?"
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Grenville; it was sent in the same box as the muslin costume."
+
+"Oh, it will answer admirably, Maggie, dear. Why, what is the matter, my
+child?"
+
+Maggie's lips were quivering, and her eyes were fixed on her violet sash.
+
+"Only perhaps--perhaps the new hat might get lost or something," she
+muttered incoherently.
+
+Mrs. Grenville looked at her for a moment, but as her remark was not very
+intelligible, she dismissed it from her mind.
+
+The rest of the day passed happily enough. In half an hour Maggie ceased to
+fret about her hat. She comforted herself with the thought that her plain
+brown straw garden-hat, trimmed with a neat band of brown velvet, and a few
+daisies, would be after all just the thing for a garden party, and that in
+any case it did not greatly matter what she wore. What was of much more
+consequence was, that to-morrow Susy would be capering about with her
+tambourine, and that pennies would be pouring in for the Aylmer children,
+and for Jo in particular. She was obliged to wear her best hat when she
+went out that afternoon, and she certainly was remarkably careful as to how
+she put it on, and she quite astonished Miss Grey, when she came home in
+the evening, by the extreme care with which she herself placed it back in
+its box.
+
+"Waters," she said that night, when she suddenly met Mrs. Grenville's maid,
+"I am quite happy again; I have done just as you do, and I have kept it in
+violet all day long."
+
+"What, my darling?" asked the surprised servant.
+
+"Oh, my secret; I have got such a darling secret. It would be very wrong of
+me to tell it, wouldn't it, Waters?"
+
+Waters looked dubious.
+
+"I don't approve of secrets for a little lady."
+
+"But, Waters, how queer you are! You always keep your own secrets in
+violet, don't you?"
+
+"Oh, yes, dear; yes. But I haven't many. They're sort of burdensome things;
+at least, I find them so. And in no case do I approve of secrets for little
+ladies, Miss Maggie; in no single case."
+
+Maggie knit her brows, looked exceedingly perplexed, felt a great longing
+to pour the whole affair into Waters' sympathizing ears, then remembered
+Susy and refrained.
+
+"But I promised not to tell," she said; "I promised most solemn not to
+tell."
+
+"Well, well; I s'pose it's something between you and Master Ralph,"
+remarked the servant, who felt worried she scarcely knew why.
+
+Maggie jumped softly up and down.
+
+"It isn't Ralph's secret, but it's about Ralph. He needn't save up his
+pennies no more. It's about Ralph's pennies and the half-crown. I know what
+it is; I'll tell you exactly what it is, Waters, and yet I know you won't
+never guess. It's add sixteen to fourteen makes thirty. My secret's the
+sixteen. You'll never, never, never guess, will you, Waters?"
+
+Here Waters had to confess herself bamboozled, and Maggie skipped off to
+bed with a very light heart. She had kept her secret all day long, and now
+all she had to do was to wake up quite early in the morning, and go off
+with Susy to the pawnbroker's.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+A JOLLY PLAN.
+
+
+Maggie, on the whole, was inclined to wake early; she was not a
+particularly sound sleeper, and on the summer mornings she always had an
+intense longing to be up and about. It occurred to her, however, as Miss
+Grey was helping her to undress that night, how very, very dreadful it
+would be if Susy were to wait down in the street on the following morning,
+and she were all unconsciously to oversleep herself. She thought that such
+a thing ought not to be left to chance, and she cast about in her active
+little brain for some means of rousing herself. The little room she slept
+in used to be occupied by Ralph; and among the rest of its furniture, it
+held a nice little book-shelf, full of gayly covered boy's books. Maggie
+could not read, but Ralph during the day had come up with her and told her
+the names of some of his favorite volumes. Maggie now thought that these
+books might help her to wake; and accordingly, after Miss Grey had left her
+tucked up comfortably in her little white bed, she slipped on to the floor,
+and going to the book-case, selected a green and gayly bound volume, which
+Ralph had called "Robinson Crusoe;" another, which he had entitled "Swiss
+Family Robinson," and a book bound in brown, which he assured her was as
+heavy in its contents as in its exterior, and which bore the name of
+"Sandford and Merton."
+
+Maggie carried these three books into her bed, and then arranged them with
+system.
+
+"I am sure to wake now," she said to herself. "And poor little Susy shall
+not be disappointed of her tambourine. The green book is 'Robinson Crusoe,'
+he'll do to begin with; he's rather thick, and he'll make a good clatter.
+Now I do call this a lovely plan."
+
+Maggie now arranged herself in bed, and placed "Robinson Crusoe" on her
+feet.
+
+"I'll go sound asleep, and though he's rather weighty I don't mind him,
+and then when I turn, he'll go bang on the floor, and that'll wake me the
+first time," she said. "The other two books can stay handy until they're
+wanted under my pillow."
+
+Then the little princess shut up her curly fringed eyes and went happily
+off into the land of dreams.
+
+It so happened that Miss Grey was getting into bed when the bump occasioned
+by "Robinson Crusoe's" fall occurred. She rushed into her little pupil's
+room to inquire what was wrong. Maggie was sitting up in bed and rubbing
+her sleepy eyes.
+
+"He did come down with a bang," she said; "it's a jolly plan. Please, Miss
+Grey, it's only 'Robinson Crusoe;' do you mind putting him on the shelf?"
+
+Miss Grey picked up the volume in great wonder, but concluding that Maggie,
+who could not read a word, must have been amusing herself looking at the
+pictures, laid the book down and retired to rest.
+
+In the course of the night she had again to fly into the little princess'
+bedroom. This time Maggie was very sleepy, and only murmured drowsily:
+
+"I think it's his 'Family' that has got on the floor now."
+
+Miss Grey picked up the "Swiss Family Robinson," and with a not unnatural
+reflection that there seldom was a more troublesome little girl than her
+pupil, once more sought her couch.
+
+The third bang was the loudest of all, and it came with daylight, and
+strange and unfortunate to say, awoke the pupil, and not the governess.
+Maggie was out of bed in a moment, and approached the window, and was
+gazing out to see some sign of Susy in the street. It was not yet five
+o'clock, and certainly Susy was not likely to put in an appearance so
+early; but Maggie determined not to risk going to sleep again, and she
+accordingly dressed herself, and then getting on the window-sill, which
+happened to be rather deep, curled herself up, and pressed her little face
+against the glass. The band-box containing the precious hat was by her
+side. The moment Susy appeared, therefore, she was ready to start.
+
+Six o'clock struck from a church tower hard by, but another hour had very
+nearly passed before a somewhat stout little figure was seen eagerly
+turning the corner and gazing right up to the window where Maggie, cold and
+tired with waiting, sat. At the sight of Susy, however, her spirits revived
+and her enthusiasm was once more kindled. With the band-box containing the
+new hat in her hand she rushed out of the room--she was too excited to be
+very prudent this morning--and dashed downstairs in a way which certainly
+would have aroused any one in the dead of the night, but was only mistaken
+now for a frantic housemaid's extra cleaning.
+
+Once more she reached the hall without any one seeing her, and opening the
+street door, found Susy Aylmer waiting on the steps.
+
+"Oh! here you are, miss--my heart was in my mouth for fear as you'd fail
+me. Oh, not that band-box please, Miss Maggie, anybody would notice us with
+the band-box! I have brought round the little broken-victual basket, and
+we'll stuff the hat into that."
+
+Maggie on this occasion was certainly not going to be particular, but she
+did feel a pang of some annoyance when she saw her lovely hat crushed and
+squeezed into a by no means clean basket. She concluded, however, that as
+the hat was now absolutely Susy's, she need not trouble any further about
+it.
+
+"That's all right now," she said; "you'll be able to buy the tambourine
+now, won't you?"
+
+"Well, I 'ope so, miss; that's if the 'at ain't a sham, and it don't look
+like a sham--it looks like a real good 'at. Now, then, Miss Maggie, hadn't
+we better come along?--it's a good step from here to the pawnshop--we'll
+get there a little before eight, and they opens at eight. It's a good plan
+to be at the pawn bright and early, and then you get served first; come
+along, miss."
+
+"But I didn't know you wanted me to go with you to the shop," said Maggie;
+"I thought you might do that by yourself; I have gived you the hat, and I
+thought you'd sell it by yourself. Why, what is the matter Susy?"
+
+Susy Aylmer's face had grown crimson, redder, indeed, than any face Maggie
+had ever seen; she began opening the basket and pulling out the hat.
+
+"Oh! oh!" she said, "and is that your kind? Is it me that 'ud take this hat
+and sell it by myself? Why, I'd be took for a thief, that's what I'd be
+took for, and I'd be put in the lock-up, that's where I'd be found. There,
+Miss Maggie, take back your hat, miss; it's better to be ever so hungry and
+holler, and have your bit of liberty. I must do without the tambourine, and
+Jo's day dream won't come, that's all. Good-morning to yer, miss."
+
+Susy began to walk very slowly away, but Maggie flew after her.
+
+"Why, Susy," she said, "I don't mind going with you; I think perhaps I'd
+rather like going, only I didn't know you wanted me. You shan't be put in
+the lock-up, Susy, though I'm sure I don't know what the lock-up is, and
+you shall have your tambourine. But oh, Susy, I hope they won't take me for
+a thief and put me into that funny place!"
+
+"Oh, dear, no, missy darling--any one might see at a glance that you was
+the rightful owner of that 'ere pretty hat, and might well sell what was
+your own. Come, missy dear, it's all right now, and I never thought as
+you'd be that real mean as to desert me."
+
+"We must be very quick, then, Susy," said Maggie; "for my Aunt Violet is
+going to have breakfast at half-past eight this morning and I have been up
+a long time--a very long time, and I never was so hungry in all my life. I
+had a very disturbed night, Susy, for 'Robinson Crusoe' did bump so when he
+fell on the floor, and so did the 'Family,' but none of them bumped quite
+so hard as 'Sandford and Merton.'"
+
+All the time the two little girls were talking they were going further and
+further away from Mrs. Grenville's door, and by the time Maggie had quite
+made up her mind to accompany her little companion they had turned into a
+side street, and if she had wished it she could not now have found her way
+home.
+
+Maggie, however, no longer wished to go back; it was great fun going with
+Susy to the pawnbroker's, and she felt very important at having something
+of her own to sell. She was a strong, healthy little girl, and did not feel
+particularly tired when they at last reached the special pawnbroker's which
+Susy had fixed upon as the best place for making their bargain. The doors
+of this shop were not yet open, but they were presently pushed back, the
+shutters were taken down, and a dirty-looking girl and a slovenly red-faced
+man entered the establishment. Maggie had never seen such an
+unpleasant-looking pair, and she was very glad to shelter herself behind
+Susy, and felt much inclined to refuse to enter the shop at all.
+
+Susy, however, marched in boldly, and very soon the white hat was laid upon
+the counter, and a fierce haggling ensued between this young person and the
+red-faced man. The dirty girl also came and stared very hard at Maggie, for
+certainly such a refined little face and such a lovely hat had not been
+seen in that pawnshop for many a day. The hat was new, and had cost several
+guineas, but Maggie's eyes quite glistened when the red man presented her
+with seven shillings in exchange for it. She thought this a magnificent
+lot of money--her cheeks became deeply flushed, and she poured the silver
+into Susy's hand with the delighted remark:
+
+"Oh, now you can get a tambourine! This will more than make up the sixteen
+added to fourteen, won't it?"
+
+Susy, too, thought seven shillings a splendid lot of money, and the two
+were leaving the pawnbroker's in a state of ecstasy, when Susy suddenly
+felt even her florid complexion turning pale, and Maggie exclaimed
+joyfully:
+
+"Oh, it's dear Waters! Waters, where have you come from, and how did you
+learn my secret?"
+
+For answer to Maggie's eager inquiries Waters stooped down and lifted the
+little girl into her arms; she held her close, and even kissed her in a
+quite tremulous and agitated manner.
+
+"Thank God, Miss Maggie!" she exclaimed; "thank God, my pretty innocent
+lamb, I'm in time. Oh, what a bad, bad girl that Susy must be! How could
+she tempt you to do anything so wicked? Why, Miss Maggie, you might have
+been stolen yourself--you might have been--you might have been! Oh, poor
+dear Sir John! What a near escape he has had of having his heart broke!"
+
+Here Waters shed some tears and leaned up against the counter in her
+agitation.
+
+"Susy was not to blame," said Maggie, when she could speak in her utter
+astonishment. "Poor Susy wanted the tambourine, and I wanted to give it
+her, and I couldn't think of no other way, 'cause I'm a dunce and can't
+write, and so I couldn't send no letter to father to ask him to give me the
+money. Don't you be frightened, Susy; come here; poor Susy you shall have
+your tambourine."
+
+But here the untidy-looking girl who served behind the counter raised her
+shrill voice.
+
+"Ef you're looking for the red-faced young person what came with you into
+the shop, miss, she runned away some minutes since."
+
+"And I'm grieved to say taking the money with her," added the pawnbroker.
+"It seems provoking," he continued, "as of course if the money had been
+returned I might have given up the hat. As things now stands this here hat
+is mine."
+
+"Not quite so," interposed Waters; "you know quite well, sir, you had no
+right to buy a hat from a little lady like Miss Ascot. Here's seven
+shillings from my purse, sir, and I'd be thankful to you to restore me the
+hat."
+
+Of course the pawnbroker and Waters had a rather sharp quarrel upon the
+spot, but in the end the pawnbroker was the better of that morning's
+transaction to the tune of several shillings, and Waters rescued the pretty
+white hat, which, much bent out of shape, and with some black marks on its
+pure white trimmings, was carried home.
+
+"Not that you shall wear it, my dear--not that you shall attempt to put it
+on your head again, for nobody knows what the hat may have contracted, so
+to speak, in so horrid and dirty a shop, but that I didn't wish that man to
+have more of a victory than I could help. Oh, Miss Maggie, darling, you did
+give me a fright and no mistake!"
+
+"But how did you know where I was, Waters? I kept my secret so well."
+
+"Yes, my dearie; but somehow I got fidgety last night, and I kept thinking
+and thinking of your words, and the idea got hold of me that maybe the
+secret wasn't just between you and Master Ralph. This morning I woke
+earlier than my wont, and as I couldn't sleep, I got up. I had to put one
+or two little matters right with regard to my mistress' wardrobe, and then
+I thought I'd see, just when I had a quiet hour, whether you had everything
+right to go to the garden party. Your new dress was hung up in my mistress'
+room, and I took it out and saw that the tucker was fastened round the
+neck, and that your gloves were neat, and your little white French boots
+wanted no buttons, and then it occurred to me that I'd just curl up the
+feathers of the hat. The hat was not with the dress, so I ran up to your
+room to fetch it, thinking of course to see you, dearie, like a little bird
+asleep in your nest. Well, my dear, the poor little bird was flown, and the
+beautiful hat was nowhere, and, I must say, I was in a taking, and it
+flashed across me that was the secret. I put on my bonnet and flew into the
+street, only just in time to see you and Susy talking very earnestly
+together, and turning the corner. The street, as you know, is a long one,
+and I couldn't get up with you, run as I might, but thank God, I kept you
+in sight, and at last overtook you at the pawnshop. Oh, what a wicked girl
+Susy Aylmer is!"
+
+"She isn't," said Maggie, "Oh, poor Susy isn't wicked. Waters, I'm sorry
+you found us. I did want to do something for Susy and for Jo!"
+
+Here Maggie burst into such bitter weeping that Waters found it absolutely
+impossible to comfort her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+A GREAT FEAR.
+
+
+Nothing could exceed the fuss which was made over Maggie and her adventure.
+Mrs. Grenville turned quite pale when she heard of it--even Ralph, who was
+tranquilly eating his breakfast, and who, as a rule, did not disturb
+himself about anything, threw down his spoon, ceased to devour his
+porridge, and gazed at Maggie in some astonishment mingled with a tiny
+degree of envy and even a little shadow of respect. Mrs. Grenville took the
+little girl in her arms, and while she kissed and petted her, she also
+thought it necessary to chide her very gently. It was at this juncture that
+Ralph did an astonishing thing; he upset his mug of milk, he tossed his
+spoon with a great clatter on the floor, and dashing in the most headlong
+style round the table, caught Maggie's two hands and said impulsively:
+
+"She oughtn't to be scolded, really, mother. She didn't know anything about
+its being wrong, and I call it a downright plucky thing of her to do. She
+couldn't have done more even if she had been a boy--no, not even if she had
+been a boy," continued Ralph, nodding his head with intense earnestness. "I
+can say nothing better than that, can I, mother?"
+
+"According to your code you certainly cannot, Ralph," answered his mother.
+"Now go back to your seat, my boy, and pick up the spoon you have thrown on
+the floor. See what a mess you have made on the breakfast-table. Maggie,
+dear, you did not mean to do wrong, still you did wrong. But we will say
+nothing more on that subject for the present. Now, my darling, you shall
+have some breakfast, and then I have a surprise for you."
+
+Maggie could not help owning to her own little heart that Ralph's words had
+cheered her considerably; she thought a great deal more of Ralph's opinion
+than of any one else's, and it was an immense consolation to be compared
+to a boy, and to a plucky one. She accordingly ate her breakfast with
+considerable appetite, and was ready to receive the surprise which her aunt
+said awaited her at its close.
+
+This was no less joyful a piece of news than the fact that Lady Ascot's
+sister was much better, and that Sir John intended to come up to London for
+a few days.
+
+"After all, Maggie," said her aunt, "if you had shown a little patience,
+you could have asked your father for the money, instead of trying to sell
+your best hat. Now, dear, you can go up to the schoolroom with Ralph, and I
+hope that no bad consequences will arise from this morning's adventure."
+
+"I think, mother," here interrupted Ralph, "it would be a good plan for
+Maggie and me to go round and see how Jo is. Susy didn't act right, and I
+know Jo will be very unhappy, and Jo oughtn't to be blamed; ought she,
+mother?"
+
+"Certainly not, Ralph; Jo has done nothing wrong. Well, if Waters can spare
+the time, I don't mind you two little people going to see Jo, but
+remember, you must not stay long; for now I really must buy Maggie a new
+hat for the garden party."
+
+"Oh, auntie, but I brought my own hat back," exclaimed the little princess.
+
+"Yes, my love, but it is much injured, and there are other reasons why I
+should not care to see you wear it again. Now run away, children, and get
+your visit over, for we have plenty to do this afternoon."
+
+When Maggie, with her heart beating high, and one of her hands held tightly
+in Ralph's, entered Mrs. Aylmer's room, she was startled to find herself in
+a scene of much confusion. Mrs. Aylmer prided herself on keeping a very
+neat and orderly home, but there was certainly nothing orderly about that
+home to-day. Mrs. Aylmer herself was seated on a low, broken chair, her
+hands thrown down at her sides, her cap on crooked, and her face bearing
+signs of violent weeping. The two little boys stood one at each side of
+their mother: Ben had his finger in his mouth, and Bob's red hair seemed
+almost to stand on end. They kept gazing with solemn eyes at their mother,
+for tears on her face were a rare occurrence. Susy was nowhere to be seen;
+and most startling fact of all, Jo's little sofa was empty.
+
+It was Jo's absence from the room which Ralph first remarked. He rushed up
+to Mrs. Aylmer and clutched one of her hands.
+
+"What is the matter? Where's Jo? Where's our darling little Jo?" he
+exclaimed.
+
+"Oh, Master Ralph Grenville," exclaimed the poor woman, "you had better not
+come near me; you had better not, sir, it mightn't be safe. I'm just
+distraught with misery and terror. My little Jo, my little treasure, is tuk
+away from me; she's tuk bad with the fever, sir, and they've carried her
+off to the hospital. She's there now; I 'as just come from seeing her
+there."
+
+By this time Waters, panting and puffing hard, had reached the room, and
+had heard, with a sinking heart, the last of Mrs. Aylmer's words. She
+eagerly questioned the poor woman, who said that Jo had not been well for
+days, and yesterday the doctor had pronounced her case one of fever and
+had ordered her, for the sake of the other children, to be moved at once to
+the nearest fever hospital.
+
+"She was werry willing to go herself," continued the mother; "she wouldn't
+harm no one, not in life, nor in death, would my little Jo."
+
+"And Susy knew of this!" exclaimed Waters. "Oh, was there ever such a bad
+girl? Mrs. Aylmer, you'll forgive me if I hurries these dear children out
+of this infected air! I'll come back later in the day, ma'am, and do what I
+can for you; and if Susy comes home, you might do well to keep her in, for
+I can't help saying she is no credit to you. It sounds hard at such a
+moment, but I must out with my mind."
+
+"Susy!" here exclaimed Mrs. Aylmer, "I ain't seen nothing of Susy to-day."
+
+"No, ma'am, very like; but it's my duty to tell you she has been after no
+good. Now come away, darlings. I'll look in again presently, Mrs. Aylmer."
+
+Maggie could never make out why her aunt turned so pale and looked so
+anxiously at her when the news of Jo's dangerous illness was told to her.
+The pity which should have been expended on the sick and suffering little
+girl seemed, in some inexplicable way, to be showered upon her. A doctor
+even was sent for, who asked Maggie a lot of questions, and was
+particularly anxious to know if she held Susy's hand when she walked with
+her, and how long she and Ralph had been in the infected room. In
+conclusion, he said some words which seemed to Maggie to have no sense at
+all.
+
+"There is nothing whatever for us to do, Mrs. Grenville. If the children
+have imbibed the poison it is too late to stop matters. We must only hope
+for the best, and watch them. Nothing, of course, can be certainly known
+for several days."
+
+Maggie could not understand the doctor, and both she and Ralph thought Mrs.
+Grenville rather wanting in feeling not to let them go and inquire for Jo
+at the hospital. Under these circumstances the garden-party was a rather
+cheerless affair, and Maggie was glad to return home and to lay a very
+tired little head on her pillow.
+
+She was awakened from her first sleep by her father bending over her and
+kissing her passionately. Never had she seen Sir John's face so red, and
+his eyes quite looked--only of course that was impossible--as if he had
+been crying.
+
+"Oh, father, I am glad to see you," exclaimed Maggie, "only I wish you had
+come last night, for then I wouldn't have tried to sell my hat, and you'd
+have given me the money for the tambourine. I wish you had come last night,
+father, dear."
+
+"So do I, Mag-Mag," answered poor Sir John. "God knows it might have saved
+me from a broken heart."
+
+Maggie could not understand either her father or aunt.
+
+She began, perhaps, to have a certain glimmering as to the meaning of it
+all when, a few days later, she felt very hot, and languid, and heavy, when
+her throat ached, and her head ached, and although it was a warm summer's
+day, she was glad to lie with a shawl over her on the sofa. Then certain
+words of the doctor's, as he bent over her, penetrated her dull ears, and
+crept somehow down into her heart.
+
+"There is no doubt whatever that she has taken the fever from Susy Aylmer.
+Well, all we have to do now is to pull her through as quickly as possible,
+and of course, Mrs. Grenville, as Ralph is still quite well, and as he was
+not exposed to anything like the same amount of infection as Maggie, you
+will send him away."
+
+Mrs. Grenville responded in rather a choking voice, and she and the doctor
+left the room together.
+
+A few moments later Mrs. Grenville came back and bent over the sick child.
+
+"Is that you, Auntie Violet?" asked Maggie.
+
+"Yes, my darling," responded her aunt.
+
+"What's fever, auntie?"
+
+"An illness, dear."
+
+"And am I going to be very, very ill?"
+
+"I hope not very ill, Maggie. We are going to nurse you so well that we
+trust that will not be the case; but I am afraid my poor little girl will
+not feel comfortable for some time."
+
+"And did I take the fever that's to make me so sick from Susy--only Susy
+wasn't sick, auntie?"
+
+"No, dearest; but she carried the infection on her clothes, and there is no
+doubt you took it from her."
+
+"Then I'm 'fraid," continued Maggie, "you're very angry with her still."
+
+"I cannot say that I'm pleased with her, darling."
+
+"Oh, but, auntie, I want you to forgive her, and I want father to forgive
+her, 'cause she didn't know nothing about 'fection or fevers--and--and--do
+forgive her, Auntie Violet."
+
+Here poor sick little Maggie began to cry and Mrs. Grenville was glad to
+comfort her with any assurances, even of promises of forgiveness for the
+naughty Susy.
+
+After this there came very dark and anxious days for the people who loved
+the little princess. Ralph was sent back to Tower Hill, where he wandered
+about and was miserable, and thought a great deal about Maggie, and found
+out that after all he was very fond of her. He did not take the fever
+himself, but he was full of anxieties about Jo and Maggie; for both the
+little girls, one in the fever hospital and the other in his mother's
+luxurious home, were having a hard fight for their little lives.
+
+Lady Ascot and Sir John were always, day and night, one or another of them,
+to be found by Maggie's sick-bed, and of course there were professional
+nurses, and more than one doctor; but with all this care the sick child in
+the home seemed to have as hard a time of it as the other sick child who
+was away from those she loved and who was handed over to the tender mercies
+of strangers. It was very curious how, through all her ravings and through
+all the delirium of her fever, Maggie talked about Jo. She had only seen Jo
+once in her life, but although she mentioned her mother and her father, and
+her old nurse and Ralph, there was no one at all about whom she spoke so
+frequently, or with so keen an interest, as the lame child of the poor
+laundress. From the moment she heard that Susy was to be forgiven, that
+very mischievous little person seemed to have passed from her thoughts; but
+with Jo it was different, until at last Waters began to think that there
+was some mysterious link between the two sick children.
+
+This idea was confirmed, when one evening little Maggie awoke, cool and
+quiet, but with a weakness over her which was beyond any weakness she could
+ever have dreamed of undergoing. Her feeble voice could scarcely be heard,
+but her thoughts still ran on Jo.
+
+"Mother," she whispered, very, very low indeed in Lady Ascot's ear, "I
+thought Jo had got her day-dream."
+
+"Try not to talk, my precious one," whispered the mother back in reply.
+
+"But why not?" asked Maggie. "Jo often had day-dreams, Susy told me, and so
+did Ralph. She wanted to be in a cool place, where beautiful things are, in
+the country, or in--in heaven. And I want to be with Jo in the country--or
+in--heaven."
+
+Maggie looked very sweet as she spoke, and when the last words passed her
+pale little lips, she closed her eyes with their pretty curly lashes. The
+father and mother both felt, as they looked at her, that a very, very
+little more would take their darling away.
+
+"I wonder how the sick child in the hospital is," said Sir John Ascot to
+his wife. "I must own I have had no time to think about her, and she and
+hers have done mischief enough to us; but the little one's heart seems set
+on her--has been all through. It might be a good thing for our little
+Maggie if I could bring her word that the other child is better."
+
+"It would be the best thing in all the world for Maggie," answered Lady
+Ascot.
+
+"Then I will go round to the fever hospital now, and make inquiries," said
+Sir John.
+
+On his way downstairs he met Mrs. Grenville, and told her what he was
+doing. She said:
+
+"Wait one moment, John, and I will put on my bonnet and go with you."
+
+It was a lovely evening toward the end of July. The day had been intensely
+hot, but now a soft breeze began to stir the heated atmosphere, a breeze
+with a little touch of health and healing about it.
+
+"This night will be cooler than the last," said Mrs. Grenville, "and that
+will be another chance in our little one's favor."
+
+At this moment the lady's dress was plucked rather sharply from behind, and
+looking round Mrs. Grenville saw, for the first time since all their
+trouble, the excited and rough little figure of Susy Aylmer. Her first
+impulse was to shake herself free from the touch of so naughty a child, but
+then she remembered her promise to Maggie, and looked again at the little
+intruder.
+
+A great change had come over poor Susy; the confidence and assurance had
+all left her round face. It was round still, and was to a certain extent
+red still, but the eyes were so swollen with crying, and the poor face
+itself so disfigured by tear-channels, that only one who had seen her
+several times would have recognized her.
+
+"Oh, ma'am," she exclaimed, "I has been waiting here for hours and hours,
+and nobody will speak to me nor tell me nothing. Mrs. Cook won't speak,
+nor the housemaid, nor Mrs. Waters, nor nobody, and I feel as if my heart
+would burst, ma'am. Oh, Mrs. Grenville, how is Miss Maggie, and is she
+going away same as our little Jo is going away?"
+
+"Who is that child, Violet?" inquired Sir John. "Does she, too, know some
+one of the name of Jo, and what is she keeping you for? Do let us hurry
+on."
+
+"She is little Jo Aylmer's sister," whispered back Mrs. Grenville. "Susy,
+it is very hard to forgive you, for through your deceit we have all got
+into this terrible trouble; but I promised Maggie I would try, and I can
+not go back from my word to the dear little one. Maggie is a shade, just a
+shade better to-night, Susy, but she is still very, very ill. Pray for her,
+child, pray for that most precious little life. And now, what about Jo? It
+is not really true what you said about Jo, Susy?"
+
+"Yes, but it is, ma'am; they has just sent round a message to mother, and
+they say that our little Jo won't live through the night. It's quite true
+as she's going away to God, ma'am."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+GOING HOME.
+
+
+Sir John and Mrs. Grenville left poor Susy standing with her apron to her
+eyes at the corner of the street, and went on in the direction of the fever
+hospital. Their hearts had sunk very low at Susy's words, and they began to
+share in Waters' belief that there was a mysterious sympathy between the
+two sick children, and that if one went away perhaps the other would follow
+quickly.
+
+The fever hospital was some little distance off, but they both preferred
+walking to calling a cab. It was not the visiting hour when they got there,
+but Mrs. Grenville scribbled some words on a little card, and begged of the
+porter who admitted them into the cool stone hall to send a note with her
+card and Sir John's at once to the lady superintendent. This little note
+had the desired effect, and in a few moments they were both admitted to the
+good lady's private sanctum.
+
+Mrs. Grenville in a few low words explained the nature of their errand. The
+good lady nurse was all sympathy and interest, but when they mentioned the
+name of the child they had come to see her face became very grave and sad.
+
+"That little one!" she remarked; "I fear that God is going to take that
+sweet child away to himself. She is the sweetest and prettiest child in the
+hospital--she has gone through a terrible illness, and I don't think I have
+once heard her murmur. Poor little lamb! her sufferings are over at last,
+thank God; she is just quietly moment by moment passing away. It is a case
+of dying from exhaustion."
+
+"But, good madam, can nothing be done to rouse her?" asked Sir John, his
+face turning purple with agitation. "Has she the best and most expensive
+nourishment--can't her strength be supported? Perhaps, ma'am, you are not
+aware that a good deal depends on the life of that little girl. It is not
+an ordinary case--no, no, by no means an ordinary case. My purse is at your
+command, ma'am; get the best doctors, the best nurses, the best care--save
+the child's life at any cost."
+
+While Sir John was speaking the lady nurse looked sadder than ever.
+
+"We give of the best in this hospital," she said; "and there has been from
+the first no question of expense or money. Perhaps the worst symptom in the
+case of little Joanna Aylmer is in the fact that the child herself does not
+wish to recover. I confess I have no hope whatever, but it is a well-known
+saying that, in fever, as long as there is life there is hope. Would you
+like to see the child, Mrs. Grenville? It might comfort your own little
+darling afterward to know that you had gone to see her just at the end."
+
+Mrs. Grenville nodded in reply, but poor Sir John, overcome by an undefined
+terror, sank down by the table, and covered his face with his hands.
+
+Mrs. Grenville followed the nurse into the long cool ward, passing on her
+way many sick and suffering children. The child by whose little narrow
+white bed they at last stopped was certainly now not suffering. Her eyes
+were closed; through her parted lips only came the gentlest breathing; on
+her serene brow there rested a look of absolute peace. Little Jo Aylmer was
+alive, but she neither spoke nor moved. Mrs. Grenville stooped down and
+kissed her, leaving what she thought was a tear of farewell on her sweet
+little face.
+
+As she was walking home by Sir John's side, she said abruptly, after an
+interval of silence:
+
+"It is quite true, John--we must do what we can to keep Maggie, but little
+Jo is going home."
+
+"She must not die. We must keep her somehow," replied Sir John.
+
+That night it seemed to several people that two little children were about
+to be taken away to their heavenly home, for Maggie's feeble strength
+fluttered and failed, and, as the hours went by, the doctors shook their
+heads and looked very grave. She still talked in a half-delirious way
+about Jo, and still seemed to fancy that she and Jo were soon going
+somewhere away together.
+
+All through her illness no one had been more devoted in her attentions to
+the sick child than the faithful servant Waters. When the day began to
+break, Waters made up her mind to a certain line of action. Her mistress
+had told her how very ill little Jo Aylmer was--she had described fully her
+visit to the hospital--had told Waters that she herself had no hope
+whatever of Jo, and had further added that the child herself did not wish
+to live.
+
+"That's not to be wondered at," commented Waters. "What have she special to
+live for, pretty lamb? and there's much to delight one like her where she's
+going; but all the same, ma'am, it will be the death-knell of our little
+Miss Maggie if the other child is taken."
+
+When the morning broke, Waters felt that she could bear her present state
+of inaction no longer, and accordingly she tied on her bonnet and went
+out.
+
+First of all she wended her steps in the direction of the Aylmers' humble
+dwelling. She mounted the stairs to Mrs. Aylmer's door and knocked. The
+poor woman had not been in bed all night, and flew to the door now, fearing
+that Waters' knock was the dreaded message which she had been expecting
+from the hospital.
+
+"'Tis only me, ma'am," said Waters, "and you has no call to be frightened.
+I want you just to put on your bonnet and shawl, and come right away with
+me to the hospital. We has got to be let in somehow, for I must see Jo
+directly."
+
+"For aught I know," said Mrs. Aylmer, "little Jo may be singing with the
+angels now."
+
+"We must hope not, ma'am, for I want that little Jo of yours to live. She
+has got to live for our Miss Maggie's sake, and there is not a moment to
+lose; so come away, ma'am, at once."
+
+Mrs. Aylmer stared at Waters; then, because she felt very weak, and feeble,
+and wretched herself, she allowed the stronger woman to guide her, and the
+two went out without another word being said on either side.
+
+It was, of course, against all rules for visitors to be admitted at five
+o'clock in the morning; but in the case of mothers and dying children such
+rules are apt to become lax, and the two women presently found themselves
+behind the screen which sheltered little Jo from her companions.
+
+"She won't hear you now," said the nurse; "she has not noticed any one for
+many hours." Waters looked round her almost despairingly--the poor mother
+had sunk down by the bedside, and had covered her face with her hands.
+Waters, too, covered her face, and as she did so she prayed to her Father
+in heaven with great fervor and strong faith and hope. After this brief
+prayer she knelt by the little white cot, and took the cold little hand of
+the child who was every moment going further away from the shore of life.
+
+"Little Jo," she said, "you have got to live. I don't believe God wishes
+you to die, and you mustn't wish it either. You have got your work to do,
+Jo; do you hear me? Look at me, pretty one--you have got to live."
+
+Waters spoke clearly, and in a very decided voice. The little one's violet
+eyes opened for a brief instant and fixed themselves on the anxious,
+pleading woman; both the nurse and the mother came close to the bed in
+breathless astonishment.
+
+"Have you got a cordial?" said Waters, turning to the nurse. "Give it to
+me, and let me put it between her lips."
+
+The nurse gave her a few drops out of a bottle, and Waters wetted the
+parched lips of the child.
+
+"There's another little one, my pretty, and she's waiting for you. If you
+go I fear she'll go, but if you stay I think she'll stay. There are them
+who would break their hearts without her, and she ought to do a good work
+down on the earth. Will you stay for her sake, little Jo?" Here the sick
+child moved restlessly, and Waters continued.
+
+"Send her a message, Jo Aylmer," she said. "Tell her where you two are
+next to meet--in the country, where the grass is green, or in--heaven. Oh,
+Jo! do say you will meet Miss Maggie in the cool, shady, lovely country,
+and wait until by and by for heaven, my pretty lamb."
+
+Whether God really heard Waters' very earnest prayer, or whether little Jo
+was at that moment about to take a turn for the better, she certainly
+opened her eyes again full and bright and wide, and quite intelligible
+words came from her pretty lips.
+
+"My day-dream," said little Jo Aylmer; "tell her--tell her to meet me where
+the grass is green."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+IN THE WOOD.
+
+
+The little princess of Tower Hill and the child of the poor laundress were
+both pronounced out of danger. Death no longer with his terrible sickle
+hovered over these pretty flowers; they were to make beautiful the garden
+of earth for the present.
+
+Waters felt quite sure in her own heart that she, under God, had been the
+means of saving Maggie's life, for Maggie had smiled so sweetly and
+contentedly when Waters had brought her back the other child's message, and
+after that she had ceased to speak about meeting Jo in heaven.
+
+When the scales were turned and the children were pronounced out of danger,
+they both grew rapidly better, and at the end of a fortnight Maggie was
+able to sit up for a few moments at a time, and almost to fatigue those
+about her with her numerous inquiries about Jo.
+
+Every day Waters went to the hospital, and came back with reports of the
+sick child, whose progress toward recovery was satisfactory, only not quite
+so rapid as Maggie's.
+
+At last the doctor gave Sir John and Lady Ascot permission to take their
+little darling back to Tower Hill. Mrs. Grenville accompanied her brother
+and sister and little niece; and of course in the country Maggie would have
+the great happiness of meeting Ralph again.
+
+Ralph by this time had taken the hearts of Miss Grey and the numerous
+servants at Tower Hill by storm. He was thoroughly at home and thoroughly
+happy, assumed a good deal the airs of a little autocrat, and had more or
+less his own way in everything. He was delighted to see Maggie, and
+immediately drew her away from the rest to talk to her and consult her on
+various subjects.
+
+[Illustration: HE PUT HIS ARM AROUND HIS LITTLE COUSIN.--Page 158.]
+
+"You look rather white and peaky, Mag, but you'll soon brown up now you've
+got into the real country. You must run about a great deal, and forget that
+you were ever ill. You mustn't even mind being a little tottery upon your
+legs at first. I know you must be tottery, because I've been consulting
+Miss Grey about it, and she once had rheumatic fever, and she used to
+totter about after it awfully; but the great thing is not to be sentimental
+over it, but to determine that you will get back your muscle. Now what do
+you think I have found? Come round with me into the shrubbery and you shall
+see."
+
+Ralph's words were decidedly a little rough and tonicky, but his actions
+were more considerate, for he put his arm round his little cousin and led
+her quite gently away. Maggie found the sweet country air delicious; she
+was also very happy to feel Ralph's arm round her waist, and she could not
+help giving his little brown hand a squeeze.
+
+"I wish you'd kiss me, Ralph," she said. "I have thought of you so often
+when I was getting better; I know you must think me not much of a
+playfellow, and I am so sorry that I began by vexing you about the
+rabbits."
+
+"I'll kiss you, of course, Mag," said Ralph. "I don't think kisses are at
+all interesting things myself, but I'd do a great deal more than that to
+make you happy, for I was really, really sorry when you were ill. I don't
+think you're at all a bad sort of playfellow, Mag--I mean for a girl. And
+as to the rabbits, why, that was the best deed you ever did. You are coming
+to see my dear bunnies now."
+
+"Oh, Ralph, you don't mean Bianco and Lily?"
+
+"Yes, I mean my darling white beauties that Jo gave me. I found them again
+in the wood, and they have grown as friendly as possible. I don't shut them
+up in any hutch; they live in the wood and they come to me when I call
+them. Yesterday I found that they had made a nest, and the nest was full of
+little bunnies, all snow white, and with long hair like the father and
+mother. I'm going to show you the nest now."
+
+At the thought of this delightful sight Maggie's cheeks became very pink,
+her blue eyes danced, and she forgot that her legs were without muscle, and
+even tried to run in her excitement and pleasure.
+
+"Don't be silly, Mag!" laughed her cousin; "the bunnies aren't going to
+hide themselves, and we'll find them all in good time. You may walk with
+those tottery legs of yours, but you certainly cannot run. Here, now we're
+at the entrance to the wood; now I'll help you over the stile."
+
+The children found the nest of lovely white rabbits, and spent a very happy
+half-hour sitting on the ground gazing at them.
+
+Then Maggie began to confide a little care, which rested on her heart about
+Jo, to her cousin.
+
+"She has got well again, you know, Ralph, and I promised she should meet me
+in the country somewhere where the grass is green, and yet I don't know how
+she's to come. I have got no money, and Jo has got no money, and father and
+mother don't say any thing about it. It would be a dreadful thing for Jo to
+stay away from heaven--for she was very, very near going to heaven,
+Ralph--and then to find that I had broken my word to her, and that after
+all we were never to see each other where the grass is green."
+
+"It would be worse than dreadful," answered Ralph, "it would be downright
+cruel and wicked. Dear little Jo! she'd like to come here and look at the
+bunnies, wouldn't she? Well, I've got no money either, and she can't be got
+into the country without money; that I do know. Perhaps I'd better speak to
+mother about it."
+
+But Ralph, when he did question Mrs. Grenville on the subject, found her
+wonderfully silent, and in his opinion unsympathetic. She said that she
+could not possibly interfere with Sir John and Lady Ascot in their own
+place, and that if she were Ralph she would let things alone, and trust to
+the Ascots doing what was right in the matter.
+
+But Ralph was not inclined to take this advice.
+
+"I like Maggie for being good about Jo," he said, "and Jo shan't be
+disappointed. I'll go myself to Uncle John; he probably only needs to have
+the thing put plainly to him."
+
+Sir John listened to the little boy's somewhat excited remarks with an
+amused twinkle in his eyes.
+
+"So the princess has sent you to me, my lad?" he said. "You tell her to
+keep her little mind tranquil, and to try to trust her old father."
+
+Little Jo Aylmer came very slowly back to health and strength, but at last
+there arrived a day when the hospital nurse pronounced her cured, and when
+her mother arrived in a cab to take her away.
+
+The hospital nurse had tears in her eyes when she kissed Jo, and the other
+sick children in the ward were extremely sorry to say good-by to her, for
+little Jo, without making any extraordinary efforts, indeed without making
+any efforts at all, had a wonderful faculty for inspiring love. No doubt
+she was sympathetic, and no doubt also she was self-forgetful, and her
+ready tact prevented her saying the words which might hurt or doing the
+deeds which might annoy, and these apparently trivial traits in her
+character may have helped to make her popular. On that particular sunshiny
+afternoon the preparations made by certain excited little people in
+Philmer's Buildings were great. From the day Jo was pronounced out of
+danger Susy had begun to recover her spirits, and at any rate to forgive
+herself for her conduct in the matter of the tambourine. She had not spent
+any of the seven shillings which the pawnbroker had given for poor Maggie's
+best hat; it had all been securely tucked away in her best white cotton
+pocket-handkerchief, and neither her mother nor the boys knew of its
+existence, for to purchase a tambourine while Jo was so ill, and Maggie
+supposed to be dying was beyond even thoughtless Susy's desires.
+
+After her own fashion, this rather heedless little girl had suffered a good
+deal during the past weeks, and suffering did her good, as it does all
+other creatures.
+
+Now, while the boys were very busy getting the room into a festive
+condition for Jo, Susy quietly and softly withdrew one shilling from her
+mysterious hoard, and went out to make purchases. A shilling means almost
+nothing to some people; they spend it on utter rubbish--they virtually
+throw it away. This was, however, by no means the case with Susy Aylmer;
+she knew a shilling's worth to the uttermost farthing, and it was
+surprising with what a number of parcels she returned home.
+
+"Now, Ben and Bob, we'll lay the tea-table," she said, addressing her
+excited little brothers. "Yere, put the cloth straight, do--you know as Jo
+can't abide nothing crooked. Now then, out comes the fresh loaf as mother
+bought; pop it on the cracked plate, and put it here, a little to one
+side--it looks more genteel--not right away in the very middle. Here goes
+the teapot--oh, my! ain't it a pity as the spout is cracked off?--and
+here's the little yaller jug for the milk! Here's butter, too--Dosset, but
+not bad. Now then, we begins on my purchases. A slice of 'am on this tiny
+plate for Jo; red herrings, which we'll toast up and make piping hot
+presently; a nice little bundle of radishes, creases ditto. Oh, my heyes! I
+do like creases, they're so nice and biting. Now then, what 'ave we
+'ere?--why, a big packet of lollipops; I got the second quality of
+lollipops, so I 'as quite a big parcel; and the man threw in two over,
+'cause I said they was for a gal just out of 'ospital. Shrimps is in this
+'ere bag. Now, boys, there ain't none of these 'ere for you, they're just
+for mother and Jo, and no one else--don't you be greedy, Ben and Bob, for
+ef you are, I'll give you something to remember. Yere's a real fresh egg,
+which must be boiled werry light--that's for Jo, of course--and 'ere's a
+penn'orth of dandy-o-lions to stick in the middle of the table. Yere they
+goes into this old brown cracked jug, and don't they look fine? Well, I'm
+sure I never see'd a more genteel board."
+
+The boys thoroughly agreed with Susy on this point, and while they were
+skipping and dancing about, and making many dives at the tempting eatables,
+and Susy was chasing them with loud whoops, half of anger, half of mirth,
+about the room, Mrs. Aylmer and the little pale, spiritual-looking sister
+arrived.
+
+At the sight of Jo the children felt their undue excitement
+subsiding--their happiness became peace, as it always did in her blessed
+little presence.
+
+There was no wrangling or quarreling over the tea-table--the look of pretty
+Jo lying on her sofa once again kept the boys from being over-greedy, and
+reduced Susy's excitement to due bounds.
+
+Mrs. Aylmer said several times, "I'm the werry happiest woman in London,"
+and her children seemed to think that they were the happiest children.
+
+The pleasant tea-hour came, however, to an end at last, and Susy was just
+washing up the cups and saucers and putting the remainder of the feast into
+the cupboard, when the whole family were roused into a condition of most
+alert attention by a sharp and somewhat imperative knock on the room door.
+
+"Dear heart alive!" exclaimed Mrs. Aylmer. "Whoever can that be? It sounds
+like the landlord, only I paid my bit of rent yesterday."
+
+"It's more likely to be some one after you as laundress, mother," remarked
+practical Susy; and then Ben flew across the room and, opening the door
+wide, admitted no less a person than Sir John Ascot himself.
+
+Mrs. Aylmer had never seen him, and of course did not know what an
+important visitor was now coming into her humble little room. Susy,
+however, knew Maggie's father, and felt herself turning very white, and
+took instant refuge behind Jo's sofa.
+
+"Now, which is little Jo?" said Sir John, coming forward and peering round
+him. "I've come here specially to-day to see a child whom my own little
+girl loves very much. I've something to say to that child, and also to her
+mother. My name is Ascot, and I dare say you all, good folks, have heard of
+my dear little girl Maggie."
+
+"Miss Maggie!" exclaimed Jo, a delicate pink coming into her face, and her
+sweet violet eyes becoming, not tearful, but misty. "Are you Miss Maggie's
+father, sir? I seems to be near to Miss Maggie somehow."
+
+"So you are, little lassie," said the baronet; and then he glanced from
+pretty Jo to the other children, and from her again to her mother, as
+though he could not quite account for such a fragile and pure little flower
+among these plants of sturdy and common growth.
+
+"My little Jo favors her father, Sir John," said Mrs. Aylmer, dropping a
+profound courtesy and dusting a chair with her apron for the baronet. "Will
+you be pleased to be seated, sir?" she went on. "We're all pleased to see
+you here--pleased and proud, and that's not saying a word too much. And how
+is the dear, beautiful little lady, Sir John, and Master Ralph, bless him?"
+
+"My little girl is well again, thank God, Mrs. Aylmer, and Ralph is as
+sturdy a little chap as any heart could desire. Yes, I will take a seat
+near Jo, if you please. I've a little plan to propose, which I hope she
+will like, and which you, Mrs. Aylmer, will also approve of. This is it."
+
+Then Sir John unfolded a deep-laid plot, which threw the Aylmer family into
+a state of unspeakable rapture. To describe their feelings would be beyond
+any ordinary pen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THANK GOD FOR ALL.
+
+
+On a certain lovely evening in the beginning of September, when the air was
+no longer too warm, and the whole world seemed bathed in absolute peace and
+rest, little Maggie Ascot and her Cousin Ralph might have been seen
+walking, with their arms round each other, in very deep consultation.
+Maggie was quite strong again, had got her roses back, and the bright light
+of health in her blue eyes. She and Ralph were pacing slowly up and down a
+shady path not far from the large entrance gates.
+
+"I can't think what it means," exclaimed Maggie; "it is the fourth time
+Aunt Violet has gone up there to-day, and Susan the scullery-maid has gone
+with her now, carrying an enormous basket. Susan let me peep into it, and
+it was full of all kinds of goodies. She said it was for the new laundress.
+I never knew such a fuss to make about a laundress."
+
+Here Ralph thought it well to administer a little reproof.
+
+"That's because you haven't been taught to consider the poor," he said.
+"Why shouldn't a laundress have nice things done for her? and if this is a
+poor lonely stranger coming from a long way off, it's quite right for
+mother to welcome her. Mother always thinks you can't do too much for
+lonely people, and she'll wash your dresses all the whiter if she thinks
+you're going to be kind and attentive. Why, Maggie, our little Jo's mother
+is a laundress, you forget that. Laundresses are most respectable people."
+
+At the mention of Jo's name Maggie sighed.
+
+"There's nothing at all been done about her, Ralph," she said. "Nobody
+seems to take any notice when I speak about her. She must be tired of
+waiting and watching by this time. She must be dreadfully sorry that she
+did not go away to heaven and God; for she must know now that I never
+meant anything when I wanted to meet her in the country--and yet I did,
+Ralph, I did!"
+
+Here Maggie's blue eyes grew full of tears.
+
+"Never mind, Mag," replied her little cousin soothingly; "it is very odd,
+and I don't understand it a bit, but mother says things are sure to come
+right, and you know Uncle John wished us to trust him."
+
+"But the time is going on," said Maggie; "the summer days will go, and Jo
+won't have seen the lovely country where the grass is green. Oh! Ralph, we
+must do something."
+
+"If only Mrs. Aylmer were the new laundress!" began Ralph. "You can't think
+what a nice cottage that is, Mag--four lovely rooms, and such a nice, nice
+kitchen, with those dear little lattice panes of glass in the window, and
+lots of jasmine and Virginia creeper peeping in from outside, and a green
+field for the laundress to dry her clothes in, just beyond. Poor laundress!
+she will like that field awfully, and it would be very unkind of us to wish
+to take it away from her and give it to Mrs. Aylmer, for of course Mrs.
+Aylmer knows nothing about it, and the new laundress has probably arrived,
+and set her heart on it by this time; and she may be a widow, too, with
+lots and lots of little children."
+
+"But none of the children could be like Jo," said Maggie.
+
+"Well, perhaps not," answered Ralph. "Oh, here comes mother; let's run to
+meet her. Mother darling, has the new laundress come?"
+
+"Yes, Ralph, she and her family arrived about an hour ago; they are
+settling down nicely into the cottage, and seem to be respectable people.
+They all think the cottage very comfortable."
+
+"And are you going to see them again to-night, Auntie Violet?" asked Maggie
+with rather a sorrowful look on her little face.
+
+"Why, yes, Maggie; they are all strangers here, you know, and I fancy they
+rather feel that, so it might be nice to walk up presently and take a cup
+of tea with them. There are some children, so you and Ralph might come
+too."
+
+"Didn't I tell you how mother considered the poor?" here whispered Ralph,
+poking the little princess rather violently in the side. "Oh, yes, mother,
+we'd like to go to tea with the little laundresses. Is there anything we
+could take them--anything they would like, to show that we sympathize with
+them for having come so far, and having left their old home?"
+
+"They don't seem at all melancholy, Ralph," said Mrs. Grenville, smiling,
+"and when they have seen you and Maggie, I fancy they will none of them
+have anything further to desire to-night. Why, Maggie dear, you look quite
+sad; what is the matter?"
+
+"I am thinking of little Jo," whispered Maggie. "Her mother is a laundress,
+too, and she's poor. Why couldn't you have considered the poor in the shape
+of Jo's mother, Aunt Violet?"
+
+Mrs. Grenville stooped down and kissed Maggie.
+
+"Here come your father and mother," she said, "and I know they too want to
+see the new people who have come to the pretty cottage. Now let us all set
+off. I told the laundress and her family that you were coming to have tea
+with them, Maggie and Ralph. Suppose you two run on in front; you know the
+cottage and you know the way."
+
+"Tell the good folks we'll look in on them presently," shouted Sir John
+Ascot, and then the children took each other's hands and ran across some
+fields to the laundress' cottage. They heard some sounds of mirth as they
+drew near, and saw two rather wild little boys tumbling about, turning
+somersaults and standing on their heads; they also heard a high-pitched
+voice, and caught a glimpse of a remarkably round and red face, and it
+seemed to Maggie that the voice and the face were both familiar, although
+she could not quite recall where she had seen them before.
+
+"We must introduce ourselves quite politely," said Ralph as they walked up
+the narrow garden path. "Now here we are; I'll knock with my knuckles. I
+wish I knew the laundress' name. It seems rude to say, 'Is the laundress
+in?' for of course she has got a name, and her name is just as valuable to
+her as ours are to us. How stupid not to have found out what she is really
+called. Perhaps we had better inquire for Mrs. Robbins; that's rather a
+common name, and yet not too common. It would never do to call her Mrs.
+Smith or Jones, for if she wasn't Smith or Jones, she wouldn't like it.
+Now, Maggie, I'll knock rather sharp, and when the new laundress opens the
+door you are to say, 'Please is Mrs. Robbins the laundress in?'"
+
+All this time the girl with the red face was making little darts to the
+lattice window and looking out, and there were some stifled sounds of mirth
+from the boys with the high-pitched voices.
+
+"The laundress' family are in good spirits," remarked Ralph, and then he
+gave a sharp little knock, and Maggie prepared her speech.
+
+"Please is the new--is Mrs. Rob--is, is--oh! Ralph, why, it's Mrs. Aylmer
+herself!"
+
+Nothing very coherent after this discovery was uttered by any one for
+several minutes. Maggie found herself kneeling by Jo, with her arms round
+Jo's neck, and two little cheeks, both wet with tears, were pressed
+together, and two pair of lips kissed each other. That kiss was a solemn
+one, for the two little hearts were full.
+
+In different ranks, belonging almost to two extremes, the child of riches
+and the child of poverty knew that they possessed kindred spirits, and that
+their friendship was such that circumstances were not likely again to
+divide them. Waters was right when she said there was a strong link between
+Maggie and Jo.
+
+That is the story, an episode, after all, in the life of the little
+princess, but an episode which was to influence all her future days.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+TOM, PEPPER, AND TRUSTY.
+
+    "Therefore, to this dog will I,
+    Tenderly, not scornfully,
+      Render praise and favor:
+    With my hand upon his head
+    Is my benediction said,
+      Therefore, and forever."
+
+          --E. B. BROWNING.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE THREE FRIENDS.
+
+
+A child and a dog sat very close to the fast-expiring embers of a small
+fire in a shabby London attic.
+
+The dog was very old, with palsied, shaking limbs, eyes half-blind, and an
+appearance about his whole person of almost disreputable ugliness and
+decrepitude, He was a large white-and-liver-colored dog, of no particular
+breed, and certainly of no particular beauty. Never, even in his best days,
+could this dog have been at all good-looking. The child who crouched close
+to him was small and thin. He was a pale child, with big, sorrowful eyes,
+and that shrunken appearance of the whole little frame which proclaims but
+too clearly that bread-and-milk have not sufficiently nourished it.
+
+He sat very close to the old dog, half-supporting himself against him; his
+head was bent forward on his little chest--he was half-asleep.
+
+A little apart from the dog and the sleepy child stood a very bright boy, a
+boy with rosy cheeks and sparkling eye. He poised himself for a moment on
+one leg, kicked off the snow from his ragged trousers with the other, then
+flinging his cap and an old broom into a corner of the attic, he sang out
+in a clear, ringing tone:
+
+"Hillow! Pepper and Trusty, is that h'all the welcome yer 'ave to give to a
+feller?"
+
+At the first sound of his voice the dog feebly wagged his tail and the
+little child started to his feet.
+
+"Hillow!" he answered with a pitiful attempt at the elder boy's
+cheerfulness; "I 'opes as yer 'ave brought h'in some supper, Tom."
+
+"See yere," said Tom, just turning back a morsel of his ragged jacket to
+show what really was still a pocket. This pocket bunched out now in a most
+suggestive manner, and Pepper, thrusting in his tiny hand, pulled from it
+the following heterogeneous mixture: an old bone--very bare of even the
+pretense of meat; an orange; some nuts; a piece of moldy bread, and a nice
+little crisp loaf; also twopence and a halfpenny.
+
+"Ain't it prime, Pepper?" said the elder boy. "Yere's the bone for old
+Trusty, and the broken bread, and the pretty little loaf, and the nuts, and
+th' orange, for you and me."
+
+"Oh, Tom! where did you get the nuts?"
+
+"They were throwing 'em to a dancing monkey, and an old 'oman gave me a
+handful h'all to myself. I say, didn't I clutch 'em!"
+
+"Well, let's crunch 'em up now," said Pepper, whose face had grown quite
+bright with anticipation.
+
+"And give Trusty his bone," said Tom. "I picked it h'out o' the gutter, and
+washed it at the pump. 'Tis a real juicy bone--full o' marrow. Yere, old
+feller! Don't he move his lazy h'old sides quickly now, Pepper?"
+
+"Yes," said Pepper, clapping his tiny hands.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+WHY HE WAS CALLED TRUSTY.
+
+
+The two little boys and the dog ate their supper in perfect silence, the
+only noise to be heard during the meal being the crunching of three sets of
+busy teeth. Then, the fire being quite out, the children lay down on a
+dirty mattress in a corner of the room, and Trusty curled himself up at
+their feet.
+
+However lazy Trusty might be in the daytime while the fire was alight, at
+night he always assumed the character of a protector. Let the slightest
+sound arise, above, around, or beneath him, and he raised a bay, cracked it
+is true, but still full of unspeakable consolation to the timid heart of
+little Pepper.
+
+In the daytime Pepper was often guilty of very wicked and treacherous
+thoughts about Trusty. When he was so often hungry, and could seldom enjoy
+more than half a meal, why must Tom, however little money or food he
+brought in after his day's sweeping, always insist on Trusty having his
+full share? Why must Tom--on those rare occasions when he was a little
+cross and discontented--too cross and discontented to take much notice of
+him (Pepper), yet still put his arms so lovingly round the old dog's neck?
+and why, why above all things must Trusty be so very selfish about their
+tiny fire, sitting so close to it, and taking all its warmth into his own
+person, while poor little Pepper shivered by his side?
+
+Pepper was younger than Trusty, and he never remembered the day when the
+dog was not a great person in his home; he never remembered the day when
+his mother, however poor and pinched, had not managed, with all the
+good-will in the world, to pay the dog-tax for him.
+
+And when that mother--six months ago--died, she had enjoined on Tom, almost
+with her last breath, the necessity of continuing this, and whatever
+straits they were placed in, begged of them never to forsake the old dog in
+his need.
+
+Of course Pepper knew the reason of all this love and care for old Trusty;
+and the reason, notwithstanding those treacherous and discontented thoughts
+in which he now and then found himself indulging, filled him with not a
+little pride and pleasure. It was because of him--of him, poor little
+insignificant Pepper--that his mother and Tom loved Trusty so well. For
+when he was a baby Trusty had saved his life.
+
+How Pepper did love to hear that story! How he used to climb on his
+mother's knee, and curl in her arms, and get her to tell it to him over and
+over again; and then, as he listened, his big, dark eyes used to get bright
+and wondering, while he pictured to himself the country home with the roses
+growing about the porch; and the pretty room inside, and the cradle where
+he lay warm and sheltered. Then, how his heart did beat when his mother
+spoke of that dreadful day when she went out and left him in charge of a
+neighbor's daughter, paying no heed to his real caretaker, the large strong
+dog--young then, who lay under the table.
+
+How often his cheek had turned pale, as his mother went on to tell him how
+the neighbor's daughter first built up the fire, and then, growing tired of
+her dull occupation, went away and left him alone with no companion but the
+dog. And then, how his father, returning from his day's work, had rushed in
+with a cry of horror, to find the cradle burned and some of the other
+furniture on fire; but the baby himself lying, smiling and uninjured, in a
+corner of the room; for the brave dog had dragged him from his dangerous
+resting-place, and had himself put out the flames as they began to catch
+his little night-shirt. Trusty was severely burned, and for the rest of his
+days was blind of one eye and walked with a limp; but he earned the undying
+love and gratitude of the father and mother for his heroic conduct.
+
+After this adventure his name was changed from Jack to Trusty, and any
+member of the family would rather have starved than allow Trusty to want.
+Pepper never listened to this exciting tale without his chest beginning to
+heave, and a moisture of love and compunction filling his brown eyes.
+
+To-night, as he lay curled up as close as possible to Tom, with Trusty
+keeping his feet warm by lying on them, he thought of it all over again. As
+he thought, he felt even more than his usual sorrow, for he had certainly
+been very cross to Trusty to-day. These feelings and recollections so
+occupied him that he forgot to chatter away as usual, until, looking up
+suddenly, he felt that his brother's eyes were closing--in short, that Tom
+was going to sleep.
+
+Now, of all the twenty-four hours that comprised Pepper's day and night,
+there was none that compared with the hour when he lay in his brother's
+arms, and talked to him, and listened to his adventures. This hour made the
+remaining twenty-three endurable; in short, it was his golden hour--his
+hour marked with a red letter.
+
+"Oh, Tom!" he said now, rousing himself and speaking in a voice almost
+tearful, so keen was his disappointment, "yer never agoin' to get drowsy?"
+
+"Not I," answered Tom, awakened at once by the sorrowful tones, and
+half-sitting up. "Wot is it, Pepper? I'm as lively as a lark, I am."
+
+"Yer h'eyes were shut," said Pepper.
+
+"Well, and your mouth wor shut, Pepper, that wor wy I fastened h'up my
+h'eyes, to save time."
+
+"Tom," said Pepper, creeping very close to his big brother, "does yer
+really think as yer'll 'ave the money saved h'up for dear old Trusty's tax,
+wen the man comes fur it?"
+
+"Oh, yes! I 'opes so; there's three months yet."
+
+"'E's a dear old dog," said Pepper, in an emphatic voice, "and I won't mind
+wot Pat Finnahan says 'bout 'im."
+
+"Wot's that?" asked Tom.
+
+"Oh, Tom! 'e comes h'in, some days, wen 'tis bitter cold, and Trusty 'ave
+got hisself drawed in front o' the fire (Trusty do take h'up h'all the
+fire, Tom) and 'e says as Trusty is h'eatin' us h'out o' 'ouse and 'ome,
+and ef you pays the tax fur 'im, wy, yer'll be the biggest fool h'out."
+
+"Dear me," said Tom, "'e must be a nice 'un, 'e must! Why, Trusty's a sight
+better'n him, and a sight better worth lookin' arter."
+
+This remark of Tom's, uttered with great vehemence, startled Pepper so much
+that he lay perfectly silent, staring up at his big brother. The moonlight,
+which quite filled the attic, enabled him to see Tom's face very
+distinctly.
+
+A strongly marked face, and full of character at all times; it was now also
+so full of disgust that Pepper quite trembled.
+
+"Well, he is a mean 'un," continued Tom. "See if I don't lay it on him the
+next time I catches of him coming spyin' in yere; and, Pepper," he added,
+"I'm real consarned as yer should 'ave listened to such words."
+
+"'Ow could I 'elp it?" answered Pepper. "'E comed h'in, and 'e kicked at
+Trusty. I didn't want fur h'old Trusty not to be paid fur, Tom."
+
+"I should 'ope not, indeed," replied Tom; "that 'ud be a nice pass for us
+two boys to fursake Trusty. But look yere, Pepper. Yer never goin' to be
+untrue to yer name, be yer?"
+
+"Oh, Tom! 'ow so?"
+
+"Does yer know wy Trusty was called Trusty?"
+
+Now, of course, Pepper knew no story in the world half so well, but at this
+question of Tom's he nestled close so him, raised beseeching eyes, and
+said:
+
+"Tell us."
+
+"'E wor called Trusty," continued Tom, "'cause wen yer were a little 'un he
+wor faithful. Trusty means faithful; it means a kind of a body wot won't
+fursake another body what-h'ever 'appens. That wor wy father and mother
+changed 'is name from Jack to Trusty, 'cause 'e wor faithful to you,
+Pepper."
+
+"Yes," answered Pepper, half-sobbing, and feeling very gently with his toes
+the motion of Trusty's tail; for Trusty, hearing his name mentioned so
+often, was beating it softly up and down.
+
+"And does yer know wy you was called Pepper?" continued Tom, by no means
+intending to abate the point and the object of his lecture by the break in
+Pepper's voice.
+
+"Tell us," said the little child again.
+
+"You was christened Hen-e-ry [Henry]; but, lor! Pepper, that wor no name
+fur yer. That name meant some 'un soft and h'easy. But, bless yer, young
+'un! there wor nothink soft nor h'easy about yer. What a firebrand yer
+were--flying h'out at h'everybody--so touchy and sparky-like, that mother
+wor sure you 'ad got a taste o' the fire as poor Trusty saved yer from,
+until, at last, there wor no name 'ud suit yer but Pepper. Lor, lad, wot a
+spirrit yer 'ad then!"
+
+With these words Tom turned himself round on his pillow, and, having spoken
+his mind, and being in consequence quite comfortable, dropped quickly to
+sleep. But to poor little Pepper, listening breathlessly for another word,
+that first snore of Tom's was a very dreadful one. He knew then that there
+was no hope that night of any further words with Tom. He must lie all
+night under the heavy weight of Tom's displeasure; for, of course, Tom was
+angry, or he would never have turned away with such despairing and
+contemptuous words on his lips. As Pepper thought of this he could not
+quite keep down a rising sob, for the Tom who he felt was angry with him
+meant father, mother, conscience--everything--to the poor little fellow.
+
+And Tom had cause for his anger; this was what gave it its sting. There was
+no doubt that Pepper was not at all the spirited little boy he had been
+during his mother's lifetime--the brave little plucky fellow, who was
+afraid of no one, and who never would stoop to a mean act. How well he
+remembered that scene a few months ago, when a rough boy had flung a stone
+at Trusty--yes! and hit him, and made him howl with the cruel pain he had
+inflicted; and then how Pepper had fought for him, and given his cowardly
+assailant a black eye, and afterward how his mother and Tom had praised
+him. Oh, how different he was now from then! His tears flowed copiously as
+he thought of it all.
+
+But the times were also different. Since his mother's death he had spent
+his days so much alone, and those long days, spent in the old attic with no
+companion but Trusty, had depressed his spirit and undermined his nerves.
+The unselfish, affectionate little boy found new and strange thoughts
+filling his poor little heart--thoughts to which, during his mother's
+lifetime, he was altogether a stranger. He wished he was strong and big
+like Tom, and could go out and sweep a crossing. It was dreadful to stay at
+home all day doing nothing but thinking, and thinking, as he now knew, bad
+thoughts. For the idea suggested by that wild, queer Irish boy downstairs
+would not go away again.
+
+That boy had said with contempt, with even cutting sarcasm, how silly, how
+absurd it was of two poor little beggars like himself and Tom to have to
+support a great, large dog like Trusty; how hard it was to have to pay
+Trusty's tax; how worse than ridiculous to have to share their morsel of
+food with Trusty; and Pepper had pondered over these words so often that
+his heart had grown sour and bitter against the old dog who had once saved
+his life.
+
+But not to-night. To-night, as he lay in his bed and sobbed, that heart was
+rising up and saying hard things against itself. Tom, with rough kindness,
+had torn the veil from his eyes, and he saw that he had gone down several
+pegs in the moral scale since his mother's death. Could his mother come
+back to him now, would she recognize her own bright-spirited little Pepper
+in this poor, weak, selfish boy? He could bear his own thoughts no longer;
+he must not wake Tom, but he could at least make it up with Trusty. He
+crept softly down in the bed until he reached the place where the old dog
+lay, and then he put his arms round him and half-strangled him with hugs
+and kisses.
+
+"Oh, Trusty!" he said, "I does love yer, and I 'opes as God 'ull always let
+me be a real sperrited little 'un. I means h'always to stand up fur yer,
+Trusty; and I'll be as fiery as red pepper to any 'un as says a word agen
+yer, Trusty."
+
+To this fervent speech Trusty replied by raising a sleepy head and licking
+Pepper's face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+TOM AT WORK.
+
+
+Early the next morning, long before Pepper was awake, Tom got up, washed
+his face and hands in the old cracked hand-basin in one corner of the room,
+laid a small fire in the grate, and put some matches near it, ready for
+Pepper to strike when he chose to rise. These preparations concluded, he
+thrust his hands into his ragged trousers pocket and pulled from thence
+twopence and a halfpenny. The pence he laid on the three-legged stool, by
+the side of the matches, the halfpenny he put for safety into his mouth.
+Then, with a nod of farewell at the sleeping Pepper, and a pat of Trusty's
+head, he shouldered his broom and ran downstairs. The month was January,
+and at this early hour, for it was not yet eight o'clock, the outside world
+gave to the little sweeper no warm welcome. There was a fog and thaw, and
+Tom, though he ran and whistled and blew his hot breath against his cold
+fingers, could not get himself warm. With his halfpenny he bought himself a
+cup of steaming coffee at the first coffee-stall he came to, then he ran to
+his crossing, and began to sweep away with all the good-will in the world.
+
+The day, dismal as it was, promised to be a good one for his trade, and Tom
+hoped to have a fine harvest to carry home to Pepper and Trusty to-night.
+This thought made his bright face look still brighter. Perhaps, in all
+London, there was not to be found a braver boy than this little
+crossing-sweeper. He was only twelve years old, but he had family cares on
+his young shoulders. For six months now--ever since his mother's death--he
+had managed, he scarcely himself knew how, to keep a home for his little
+brother, the old dog, and himself. He had proudly resolved that
+Pepper--poor little tender Pepper--should never see the inside of a
+workhouse. As long as he had hands, and wit, and strength, Pepper should
+live with him. Not for worlds would he allow himself to be parted from his
+little brother. In some wonderful way he kept his resolve. Pepper certainly
+grew very white, and weak, and thin; old Trusty's ribs stuck out more and
+more, his one remaining eye looked more longingly every day at the morsel
+of food with which he was provided; and Tom himself knew but too well what
+hunger was. Still they, none of them, quite died of starvation; and the
+rent of the attic in which they lived was paid week by week. This state of
+things had gone on for months, Tom just managing, by the most intense
+industry, to keep all their heads above water. As he swept away now at his
+crossing, his thoughts were busy, and his thoughts, poor brave little boy!
+were anxious ones.
+
+How very ill Pepper was beginning to look, and how strangely he had spoken
+the night before about Trusty! Was it possible that his poor life of
+semi-starvation was beginning to tell not only on Pepper's weak body, but
+on his kind heart? Was Tom, while working almost beyond his strength, in
+reality only doing harm by keeping Pepper out of the workhouse? Would that
+dreadful workhouse after all be the best place for Pepper? and would his
+fine brave spirit revive again if he had enough food and warmth? These
+questions passed often through Tom's mind as he swept his crossing, but he
+had another thought which engrossed him even more. He had spoken
+confidently to Pepper about his ability to pay the tax for Trusty when the
+time came round, but in reality he had great anxiety on that point. The
+time when Trusty's tax would be due was still three months away--but three
+months would not be long going by, and Tom had not a penny--not a farthing
+toward the large sum which must then be demanded of him. It was beginning
+to rest like a nightmare on his bright spirit, the fact that he might have
+to break his word to his dying mother, that in three months' time the dear
+old dog might have to go. After all, he, not Pepper, might be the one
+faithless to their dear old Trusty.
+
+As he swept and cleaned the road so thoroughly that the finest lady might
+pass by without a speck on her dainty boots, he resolved, suffer what
+hunger he might, to put by one halfpenny a day toward the necessary money
+which much be paid to save Trusty's life. With this resolve bright in his
+eyes and firm on his rosy lips, he touched his cap to many a passer-by. But
+what ailed the men and women, the boys and girls, who walked quickly over
+Tom's clean crossing? They were all either too busy, or too happy, or too
+careless, to throw a coin, even the smallest coin, to the hungry,
+industrious little fellow. His luck was all against him; not a halfpenny
+did he earn. No one read his story in his eyes, no one saw the invisible
+arms of Pepper round his neck, nor felt the melting gaze of Trusty fixed on
+his face. No one knew that he was working for them as well as for himself.
+By noon the wind again changed and fresh snow began to fall.
+
+Tom knew that now his chance was worse than ever, for surely now no one
+would stop to pull out a penny or a halfpenny--the cold was much too
+intense. Tom knew by instinct that nothing makes people so selfish as
+intense cold.
+
+When he left home that morning he had only a halfpenny in his pocket,
+consequently he could get himself no better breakfast than a small cup of
+coffee. The cold, and the exercise he had been going through since early
+morning, had raised his healthy appetite to a ravenous pitch, and this,
+joined to his anxiety, induced him at last to depart from his invariable
+custom of simply touching his cap, and made him raise an imploring voice,
+to beseech for the coins which he had honestly earned.
+
+"Please, sir, I'm h'awful cold and 'ungry--give us a penny--do, for pity's
+sake," he said, addressing an elderly gentleman who was hurrying quickly to
+his home in a square close by.
+
+Would the gentleman stop, pause, look at him? Would he slacken his pace the
+least morsel in the world, or would he pass quickly on like those cross old
+ladies whom he had last addressed? His heart, began to beat a trifle more
+hopefully, for the old gentleman certainly did pause, pushed back his hat,
+and gave him--not a penny, but a quick, sharp glance from under two shaggy
+brows.
+
+"I hate giving to beggars," he muttered, preparing to hurry off again. But
+Tom was not to be so easily repressed.
+
+"Please, sir, I ain't a beggar. I works real 'ard, and I'm h'awful 'ungry,
+please, sir."
+
+He was now following the old gentleman, who was walking on, but slowly, and
+as though meditating with himself.
+
+"That's a likely story!" he said, throwing his words contemptuously at poor
+Tom: "you, hungry! go and feed. You have your pocket full of pennies this
+moment, which folks threw to you for doing nothing. I hate that idle work."
+
+"Oh! h'indeed, sir, I ain't nothink in 'em--look, please, sir."
+
+A very soiled pocket, attached to a ragged trouser, was turned out for the
+old gentleman's benefit.
+
+"You have 'em in your mouth," replied the man. "I'm up to some of your
+dodges."
+
+At this remark Tom grinned from ear to ear. His teeth were white and
+regular. They gleamed in his pretty mouth like little pearls; thus the
+heart-whole smile he threw up at the old gentleman did more for him than
+all the tears in the world.
+
+"Well, little fellow," he said, smiling back, for he could not help
+himself, "'tis much too cold now to pull out my purse--for I know you have
+pence about you--but if you like to call at my house to-morrow
+morning,--Russell Square, you shall have a penny."
+
+"Please, sir, mayn't I call to-day?"
+
+"No, I shan't be home until ten o'clock this evening."
+
+"Give us a penny, please, now, sir, for I'm real, real 'ungry." This time
+poor Tom very nearly cried.
+
+"Well, well! what a troublesome, pertinacious boy! I suppose I'd better get
+rid of him--see, here goes----"
+
+He pulled his purse out of his pocket--how Tom hoped he would give him
+twopence!
+
+"There, boy. Oh, I can't, I say. I have no smaller change than a shilling.
+I can't help you, boy; I have not got a penny."
+
+"Please, please, sir, let me run and fetch the the change."
+
+"Well, I like that! How do I know that you won't keep the whole shilling?"
+
+"Indeed, yer may trust me, sir. Indeed, I'll bring the eleven-pence
+to--Russell Square to-morrer mornin'."
+
+The old gentleman half-smiled, and again Tom showed his white teeth. If
+there was any honesty left in the world it surely dwelt in that anxious,
+pleading face. The old gentleman, looking down at it, suddenly felt his
+heart beginning to thaw and his interest to be aroused.
+
+"Oh, yes; I'm the greatest, biggest fool in the world. Still--No, I won't;
+I hate being taken in; and yet he's a pleasant little chap. Well, I'll try
+it, just as an experiment. See here, young 'un; if I trust you with my
+shilling, when am I to see the change?"
+
+"At eight o'clock to-morrer mornin', sir."
+
+"Well, I'm going to trust you. I never trusted a crossing-sweeper before."
+
+"H'all right, sir," answered Tom, taking off his cap and throwing back his
+head.
+
+"There, then, you may spend twopence; bring me back tenpence. God bless
+me, what a fool I am!" as he hurried away.
+
+This was not the only favor Tom got that day; but soon the lamps were
+lighted, sleet and rain began to fall, and no more business could be
+expected.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+IN TROUBLE.
+
+
+When Tom returned home that night, he had not only the old gentleman's
+shilling unbroken in his pocket, but three pennies which had been given to
+him since then, and which jingled and made a very nice sound against the
+shilling. But though this was a pleasant state of affairs, there was
+nothing pleasant in poor little Tom's face; its bright look had left it, it
+was white and drawn, and he limped along in evident pain and difficulty.
+The fact was, Tom had fallen in the snow, and had sprained his ankle very
+badly. When he entered the house his pain was so great that he could
+scarcely hobble upstairs.
+
+On the first landing he was greeted by the rough, rude tones of Pat
+Finnahan, who stopped him with a loud exclamation, then shouted to his
+mother that Tom had arrived.
+
+Mrs. Finnahan was Tom's Irish landlady, but as he did not owe her any rent
+he was not afraid of her.
+
+She called to him now, however, and he stood still to listen to what she
+had to say.
+
+"Ah, then, wisha, Tom, and when am I to see me own agen?" she demanded,
+with a very strong Irish brogue.
+
+"Wot does yer mean?" asked Tom, staring at her. "I pays my rent reg'lar. I
+owes yer nothink."
+
+"Oh, glory!" said Mrs. Finnahan, throwing up her hands, "the boy have the
+imperence to ax me to my face what I manes. I manes the shilling as I lent
+to yer mother, young man, and that I wants back agen; that's what I manes."
+
+At these words Tom felt himself turning very pale. He remembered perfectly
+how, in a moment of generosity, Mrs. Finnahan had once lent his mother a
+shilling, but he was quite under the impression that it had been paid back
+some time ago.
+
+"I thought as my mother give it back to yer afore she died," he said, but
+a great fear took possession of his heart while he spoke.
+
+Mrs. Finnahan pushed him from her, her red face growing purple.
+
+"Listen to the likes of him," she said; "he tells me to me face as 'tis
+lies I'm afther telling. Oh, musha! but he's a black-hearted schoundrel. I
+must have me shilling to-morrow, young man, or out you goes."
+
+With these words Mrs. Finnahan retired into her private apartment, slamming
+the door behind her.
+
+"Tom," whispered Pat, who during this colloquy had stood by his side, "can
+yer give mother that 'ere shilling to-morrer?"
+
+"Yer knows I can't," answered Tom.
+
+"Well, she'll turn yer h'out, as sure as I'm Pat Finnahan."
+
+"I can't help her," answered Tom, preparing once more, as well as his
+painful ankle would allow him, to mount the stairs.
+
+"Yes; but I say?" continued Pat, "maybe I can do somethink."
+
+With these words the Irish boy began fumbling violently in his pocket, and
+in a moment or two produced from a heterogeneous group a dull, battered
+shilling. This shilling he exhibited in the palm of his hand, looking up at
+Tom as he showed it, with an expression of pride and cunning in his small,
+deep-set eyes.
+
+"Look yere, Tom. I really feels fur yer, fur mother's h'awful when she says
+a thing. There's no hope of mother letting of yer off, Tom. No, not the
+ghost of a hope. But see yere--this is my h'own. I got it--no matter 'ow I
+got it, and I'll give it to yer fur yer h'old dog. The dog ain't nothink
+but a burden on yer, Tom, and I'd like him. I'd give yer the shilling for
+h'old Trusty, Tom."
+
+But at these words all the color rushed back to Tom's face.
+
+"Take that instead of Trusty," he said, aiming a blow with all his might
+and main at Pat, and sending him and his shilling rolling downstairs. The
+false strength with which his sudden indignation had inspired him enabled
+him to get up the remaining stairs to his attic; but when once there, the
+poor little sweeper nearly fainted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE TEMPTATION.
+
+
+Perhaps on this dark evening there could scarcely be found in all London
+three more unhappy creatures than those who crouched round the empty grate
+in Tom's attic. In truth, over this poor attic rested a cloud too heavy for
+man to lift, and good and bad angels were drawing near to witness the
+issues of victory or defeat.
+
+"We'll get into bed," said Tom, looking drearily round the supperless,
+fireless room. "Pepper," he continued as he pressed his arms round his
+little brother, "should yer mind werry much going to the work'us arter
+h'all?"
+
+"Oh, yes, yes, Tom! Oh, Tom! ef they took me from yer, I'd die."
+
+"But ef we both went, Pepper?"
+
+"What 'ud come o' Trusty?" asked Pepper.
+
+"I doesn't know the ways of work'uses," said Tom, speaking half to himself.
+"Maybe they'll take h'in the h'old dog. Ef you and I were to beg of 'em a
+little 'ard, they might take h'in old Trusty, Pepper."
+
+"But I doesn't want to go to no work'us," whispered Pepper.
+
+"I only says perhaps, Pepper," answered poor Tom. "I'd 'ate to go."
+
+"Well, don't let's think of it," said Pepper, putting up his lips to kiss
+Tom. "Yer'll be better in the morning, Tom; and, Tom," he added,
+half-timidly, half-exultantly, "I've been real sperrited h'all day. Pat
+came in and began to talk 'bout dear Trusty, but I flew at him, I boxed im
+right up h'in the ear, Tom."
+
+"Did yer really?" answered Tom, laughing, and forgetting the pain in his
+ankle for the moment.
+
+"Yes, and 'e's nothink but a coward, Tom, fur 'e just runned away. I'll
+never be a Hen-e-ry to him no more," added the little boy with strong
+emphasis.
+
+"No; yer a real nice, peppery young 'un," said Tom, "and I'm proud o' yer;
+but now go to sleep, young 'un, for I 'as a deal to think about."
+
+"'Ow's the pain, Tom?"
+
+"Werry 'ot and fiery like; but maybe 'twill be better in the morning."
+
+"Good-night, Tom," said Pepper, creeping closer into his arms.
+
+Under the sweet influence of Tom's praise, resting in peace in the
+delicious words that Tom was proud of him, poor hungry little Pepper was
+soon enjoying dreamless slumber. But not so Tom himself.
+
+Tom had gone through a hard day's work. He was tired, aching in every limb,
+but no kind sleep would visit that weary little body or troubled mind. His
+sprained ankle hurt him sadly, but his mental anxiety made him almost
+forget his bodily suffering. Dark indeed was the cloud that rested on Tom.
+
+His sprained ankle was bad enough--for how, with that swollen and aching
+foot, could he go out to sweep his crossing to-morrow? And if the little
+breadwinner was not at his crossing, where would the food come from for
+Pepper and Trusty? This was a dark cloud, but, dark as it was, it might be
+got over. Tom knew nothing of the tedious and lingering pain which a sprain
+may cause; he quite believed that a day's rest in bed would make his foot
+all right, and for that one day while he was in bed, they three--he,
+Pepper, and Trusty--might manage not quite to starve, on the pence which
+were over from that day's earnings. Yes, through this cloud could be seen a
+possible glimmer of light. But the cloud that rested behind it! Oh, was
+there any possible loophole of escape out of that difficulty?
+
+Tom had told nothing of this greater anxiety to Pepper. Nay, while Pepper
+was awake he tried to push it away even from his own mental vision. But
+now, in the night watches, he pulled it forward and looked at it steadily.
+In truth, as the poor little boy looked, he felt almost in despair. Since
+his mother's death he had managed to support his little household, and not
+only to support them, but to keep them out of debt. No honorable man of
+the world could keep more faithfully the maxim, "Owe no man anything, but
+to love one another," than did this little crossing sweeper. But now,
+suddenly, a debt, a debt the existence of which he had never suspected,
+stared him in the face.
+
+His mother had borrowed a shilling from Mrs. Finnahan. Mrs. Finnahan
+required that shilling back again.
+
+If that enormous sum--twelve whole pennies--was not forthcoming by
+to-morrow, he and Pepper and Trusty would find themselves
+homeless--homeless in mid-winter in the London streets. Tom knew well that
+Mrs. Finnahan would keep her word; that nothing, no pleading language, no
+entreating eyes, would induce Mrs. Finnahan to alter her cruel resolve. No;
+into the streets they three must go. Tom did not mind the streets so very
+much for himself, he was accustomed to them, at least all day long. But
+poor little, tender, delicate Pepper, and old broken-down Trusty! Very,
+very soon, those friendless, cold, desolate streets would kill Pepper and
+Trusty.
+
+As Tom thought of it scalding drops filled his brave, bright eyes and
+rolled down his cheeks. It was a moonlight night, and its full radiance had
+filled the little attic for an hour or more; but now the moon was hidden
+behind a bank of cloud, and in the dark came to little Tom the darker
+temptation. No way out of his difficulty? Yes, there were two ways. He
+might sell Trusty to Pat Finnahan for a shilling--it was far, far better to
+part with Trusty than to let Pepper die in the London streets; or he might
+keep the old gentleman's shilling and never bring him back the tenpence he
+had promised to return to-morrow morning.
+
+By one or other of these plans he might save Pepper from either dying or
+going to the workhouse. As he thought over them both, the latter plan
+presented itself as decidedly the most feasible. Both his pride and his
+love revolted against the first. Part with Trusty? How he had blamed Pepper
+when he had even hinted at Trusty being in the way! How very, very much his
+mother had loved Trusty! how, even when she was dying, she had begged of
+them both never to forsake the faithful old dog! Oh, he could not part with
+the dog! if for no other reason, he loved him too much himself.
+
+At this moment, as though to strengthen him in his resolve, Trusty, who
+from hunger and cold was by no means sleeping well, left his place at the
+little boy's feet and came up close to Tom; lying down by Tom's side, he
+put his paws on his shoulders and licked his face with his rough tongue;
+and also, just then, as though further to help Trusty in his unconscious
+pleading for his own safety, the moon came out from behind the cloud,
+shedding its white light full on the boy and the dog; and oh! how pleading,
+how melting, how full of tenderness did that one remaining eye of Trusty's
+look to Tom as he gazed at him. Clasping his arms tightly round the old
+dog's neck, Tom firmly determined that happen what would, he must never
+part from Trusty.
+
+He turned his mind now resolutely to the other plan, the one remaining
+loophole out of his despair. Need he give back that change to the old man?
+
+That was the question.
+
+The money he had pleaded so earnestly for still lay unbroken in his pocket;
+for immediately after it had been given to him, fortune seemed to turn in
+his favor, and other people had become not quite so stony-hearted, and a
+few pence had fallen to his share. With two or three pence he had bought
+himself some dinner, and he had brought threepence back, for Pepper's use
+and his own.
+
+Yes, the shilling was still unbroken--and that shilling, just that one
+shilling, would save them all.
+
+But--the old gentleman had trusted him--the old gentleman had said:
+
+"I never trusted a crossing-sweeper before. I am going to trust you."
+
+And Tom had promised him. Tom had pledged his word to bring him back
+tenpence to-morrow morning.
+
+Strange as it may seem--incomprehensible to many who judge them by no high
+standard--here was a little crossing-sweeper who had never told a lie in
+his life. Here, lying on this trundle-bed, in this poor room, rested as
+honorable a little heart as ever beat in human breast; he could not do a
+mean act; he could not betray his trust and break his word.
+
+What would his mother say could she look down from heaven and find out that
+her Tom had told a lie? No, not even to save Trusty and Pepper would he do
+this mean, mean thing. But he was very miserable, and in his misery and
+despair he longed so much for sympathy that he was fain at last to wake
+Pepper.
+
+"Pepper," he said, "we never said no prayers to-night; fold yer 'ands,
+Pepper, and say 'Our Father' right away."
+
+"Our Father chart heaven," began Pepper, folding his hands as he was
+bidden, and gazing up with his great dark eyes at the moon, "hallowed be
+thy name ... thy kingdom come ... thy will be done in earth h'as 'tis in
+heaven ... give us this day h'our daily bread ... and furgive us h'our
+trespasses h'as we furgive ... h'and lead us not into temptation----"
+
+"Yer may shut up there, Pepper," interrupted Tom; "go to sleep now, young
+'un. I doesn't want no more."
+
+"Yes," added Tom, a few moments later, "that was wot I needed. I won't do
+neither o' them things. Our Father, lead us not inter temptation. Our
+Father, please take care on me, and Pepper, and Trusty."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+TRUE TO HIS NAME.
+
+
+It was apparently the merest chance in the world that brought the old
+gentleman, who lived in--Russell Square, to his hall-door the next morning,
+to answer, in his own person, a very small and insignificant-sounding ring.
+When he opened the door he saw standing outside a very tiny boy, and by the
+boy's side a most disreputable-looking dog.
+
+"Well," said the old gentleman, for he hated beggars, "what do you want?
+Some mischief, I warrant."
+
+"Please, sir," piped Pepper's small treble, "Tom 'ud come hisself, but 'e
+'ave hurt 'is foot h'awful bad, so 'e 'ave sent me and Trusty wid the
+tenpence, please, sir.'
+
+"What tenpence?" asked the old man, who had really forgotten the
+circumstance of yesterday.
+
+"Please, sir," continued Pepper, holding out sixpence and four dirty
+pennies, "'tis the change from the shilling as yer lent to Tom."
+
+At these words the old gentleman got very red in the face, and stared with
+all his might at Pepper. "Bless me!" he said suddenly; then he took hold of
+Pepper's ragged coat-sleeve and drew him into the hall. "Wife," he called
+out, "I say, wife, come here. Bless me! I never heard of anything so
+strange. I have actually found an honest crossing-sweeper at last."
+
+But that is the story--for the old gentleman was as kind as he was
+eccentric--and he failed not quickly to inquire into all particulars with
+regard to Tom, Pepper, and Trusty; and then as promptly to help and raise
+the three. Yes, that is the story.
+
+But in the lives of two prosperous men--for Tom and Pepper are men
+now--there is never forgotten that dark night, when the little
+crossing-sweeper risked everything rather than tell a lie or break a trust.
+And Trusty was true to his name to the last.
+
+
+
+
+BILLY ANDERSEN AND HIS TROUBLES.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+BILLY'S BABY.
+
+
+Billy was a small boy of ten; he was thin and wiry, had a freckled face,
+and a good deal of short, rather stumpy red hair.
+
+He was by no means young-looking for his ten years; and only that his
+figure was small, his shoulders narrow, and his little legs sadly like
+spindles, he might have passed for a boy of twelve or thirteen.
+
+Billy had a weight of care upon his shoulders--he had the entire charge of
+a baby.
+
+The baby was a year old, fairly heavy, fairly well grown; she was cutting
+her teeth badly, and in consequence was often cross and unmanageable.
+
+Billy had to do with her night and day, and no one who saw the two
+together could for a moment wonder at the premature lines of care about his
+small thin face.
+
+A year ago, on a certain January morning, Billy had been called away from a
+delightful game of hop-scotch. A red-faced woman had come to the door of a
+tall house, which over-looked the alley where Billy was playing so
+contentedly, and beckoned him mysteriously to follow her.
+
+"Yer'd better make no noise, and take off those heavy clumps of shoes," she
+remarked.
+
+Billy looked down at his small feet, on which some very large and
+much-battered specimens of the shoemaker's craft were hanging loosely.
+
+"I can shuffle of 'em off right there, under the stairs," he remarked,
+raising his blue eyes in a confident manner to the red-faced woman.
+
+She nodded, but did not trouble to speak further, and barefooted Billy
+crept up the stairs; up and up, until he came to an attic room, which he
+knew well, for it represented his home.
+
+He was still fresh from his hop-scotch, and eager to go back to his game;
+and when a thin, rather rasping woman's voice called him, he ran up eagerly
+to a bedside.
+
+"Wot is it, mother? I want to go back to punch Tom Jones."
+
+Alas! for poor Billy--his fate was fixed from that moment, and the wild
+bird was caged.
+
+"Another time, Billy," said his mother; "you 'as got other work to see to
+now. Pull down the bedclothes, and look wot's under 'em."
+
+Billy eagerly drew aside the dirty counterpane and sheet, and saw a very
+small and pink morsel of humanity--a morsel of humanity which greeted his
+rough intrusion on her privacy with several contortions of the tiny
+features, and some piercing screams.
+
+"Why, sakes alive, ef it ain't a baby," said Billy, falling back a step or
+two in astonishment.
+
+"Yes, Billy," replied his mother, "and she's to be your baby, for I can't
+do no charring and mind her as well, so set down by the fire, this minute
+and mind her right away."
+
+Billy did not dream of objecting; he seated himself patiently and
+instantly, and thought with a very faint sigh of Tom Jones, whose head he
+so ached to punch.
+
+Tom Jones would be victorious at hop-scotch, and he would not be present to
+abate his pride.
+
+Well, well, perhaps he could go to-morrow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+MORE TROUBLE.
+
+
+Day after day passed, and month after month, and Tom Jones, the bully of
+Aylmer's Court, quite ceased to fear any assaults from a certain plucky and
+wiry little fellow, who used to fly at him when he knocked down the girls,
+and who made himself generally unpleasant to Tom, when Tom too violently
+transgressed the principle of right and justice.
+
+Not that Billy Andersen knew anything of right and justice himself; he was
+mostly guided by an instinct which taught him to dislike everything that
+Tom did, and perhaps he was also a wee bit influenced by a sentiment which
+made him dislike to see any thing weaker or smaller than himself bullied.
+Since that January morning, however, Billy's head and heart and hands were
+all too full for him to have any time to waste upon Tom Jones.
+
+The girls and the very little ones of the court crowded round Billy the
+first time he went out with his charge. One of the biggest of them, indeed,
+carried the little thing right up into her own home, followed by a noisy
+crowd eager to make friends with the little arrival. Billy was flattered by
+their attentions, but he preferred to keep his charge entirely to himself.
+
+At first, it was his head and hands alone which were occupied over the
+baby, but as she progressed under his small brotherly care, and wrinkled up
+her tiny features with an ugly attempt at a smile, and stretched out her
+limbs and cooed at him, he began gradually to discover that the baby was
+getting into his heart. From the moment he became certain on this point,
+all the irksomeness of his duties faded out of sight, and he did not mind
+what care or trouble he expended over Sarah Ann.
+
+Mrs. Andersen, true to her word, had given Billy the entire charge of this
+last addition to her family. Her husband had deserted her some months
+before the birth of the baby, and the poor woman had about as much as she
+could do, in earning bread to put into her own mouth and those of her two
+children.
+
+Now, it is grievous to relate that notwithstanding all Billy's devotion and
+good nature, Sarah Ann was by no means a nice baby. In the first place, she
+was very ugly--not even Billy could see any beauty in her rather old and
+yellow face; in the next place, she had a temper, which the neighbors were
+fond of describing as "vicious." Sarah Ann seemed already to have studied
+human nature for the purpose of annoying it. She cried at the wrong
+moments, she cut her teeth at the most inopportune times, she slept by day
+and stayed awake at night, in a manner enough to try the patience of an
+angel; she tyrannized over any one who had anything to do with her, and in
+particular she tyrannized over Billy.
+
+Night after night had Billy to pace up and down the attic, with Sarah Ann
+in his arms, for nothing would induce the infant to spend her waking
+moments except in a state of perpetual motion.
+
+In vain Billy tried darkness, and his mother tried scolding. Sarah Ann,
+when placed in her cot, screamed so loud that all the neighbors were
+aroused.
+
+When once, however, this strange and wayward little child had got into
+Billy's heart, he was wonderfully patient with all her caprices, and
+treasured the rare and far-between smiles she gave him, as worth going
+through a great deal to obtain.
+
+On fine days Billy took Sarah Ann for a walk; and even once or twice he
+went with her as far as Kensington Gardens, where they both enjoyed
+themselves vastly, under the shadow of a huge elm tree.
+
+It was on the last of these occasions, just before the second winter of
+Sarah Ann's existence, that that small adventure occurred which was to land
+poor Billy in such hot water and such perplexity.
+
+Sarah Ann was quite nice that afternoon; she cooed and smiled, and allowed
+her brother to stroke her face, and even to play tenderly with the tiny
+rings of soft flaxen hair which were beginning to show round her forehead.
+
+Billy's heart and head were quite absorbed with her, when a harsh, mocking
+laugh and a loud "Hulloa, you youngster," caused him to raise his head, and
+see, to his unutterable aversion, the well-remembered form of Tom Jones.
+
+"Well, I never; and so that's the reason you've bin a-shunnin' of me
+lately; and so you've been obliged to go and turn nursemaid;
+well--well--and you call yourself a manly boy."
+
+"So I be manly," retorted Billy, glaring angrily and defiantly at his
+adversary. "I don't want none of your cheek, Tom Jones, and I'd a sight
+rayther be taking care of a cute little baby like this than idling and
+loafing about and getting into trouble all day long--like yourself."
+
+"Oh! we has turned nice and good," said Tom Jones, trying to affect a fine
+lady's accent; "ain't it edifying--ain't it delicious--to hear us speaking
+so well of ourselves? Now then, Billy, where's that punched head you
+promised me a year ago now? I ain't forgot it, and I'd like to see you at
+it; you're afeard, that's wot you are; you're a coward, arter all, Billy
+Andersen."
+
+"No, I ain't," said Billy, "and I'll give it yer this 'ere blessed minute,
+if you like. Yere, Sarah Ann darling, you set easy with yer back up agin'
+the tree, and I'll soon settle Tom Jones for him."
+
+Sarah Ann strongly objected to being removed from Billy's lap to the
+ground; all her sunshiny good temper deserted her on the spot; she
+screamed, she wriggled, she made such violent contortions, and altogether
+behaved in such an excited and extraordinary manner, that Tom, who by no
+means in his heart wished to test Billy's powers, found a ready excuse for
+postponing the moment when his head must be punched, in her remarkable
+behavior.
+
+"Well, I never did see such a baby," he began; "now, I likes that sort of a
+baby; why, she have a sperrit. No, no, Billy, I ain't going to punch you;
+now, I'd like to catch hold of that 'ere little one"--but here Billy
+frustrated his intention.
+
+"You shan't touch my baby; you shan't lay a hand on her," he exclaimed,
+snatching Sarah Ann up again in his arms, and covering her with kisses.
+
+"Well, see if I don't some day," said Tom; "you dare me, do you? Well, all
+right, we'll see."
+
+As Billy walked home that afternoon, he was a little troubled by Tom's
+words; he knew how vindictive Tom could be, and there was an ugly light in
+his green eyes when he, Billy, had refused to give him the baby.
+
+Tom was capable of mischief, of playing such a practical joke as might
+cause sad trouble and even danger to poor little Sarah Ann. Hitherto Billy
+had kept all knowledge of the baby's existence from Tom Jones. What evil
+chance had brought him to Kensington Gardens that day? Troubles, however,
+were not to fall singly on poor Billy Andersen that day. He was greeted on
+his return to his attic by eager words and excited ejaculations. It was
+some time before his poor little dazed head could take in the fact that his
+mother had broken her leg, and was taken to the hospital. He must then for
+the time being turn the baby's breadwinner as well as her caretaker.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+TOM JONES' TRICK.
+
+
+The neighbors were full of suggestions to Billy at this crisis of his fate.
+
+It was ascertained beyond all doubt that Mrs. Andersen would be six weeks,
+if not two months, away; and this being the case, the neighbors one and all
+declared roundly that there was nothing whatever for Sarah Ann but to
+become a workhouse baby. One of them would carry her to the house the very
+next morning, and of course she would be admitted without a moment's
+difficulty, and there would be an end of her.
+
+Billy might manage to earn a precarious living by running messages, by
+opening cab-doors, and by the thousand-and-one things an active boy could
+undertake, and so he might eke out a livelihood till his mother came back;
+but there was no hope whatever for Sarah Ann--there was no loophole for her
+but the workhouse.
+
+To these admonitions on the part of his friendly neighbors, Billy responded
+in a manner peculiar to himself. First of all, he raised two blue and very
+innocent eyes, and let them rest slowly and thoughtfully on each loquacious
+speaker's face; then he suddenly and without the slightest warning winked
+one of the said eyes in a manner that was so knowing as to be almost
+wicked, and then without the slightest word or comment he dashed into his
+attic and locked the door on himself and Sarah Ann.
+
+"Sarah Ann, darling," he said, placing the baby on the floor and kneeling
+down a few paces from her, "will yer go to the workhouse, or will yer stay
+with yer h'own Billy?"
+
+Sarah Ann's response to this was to wriggle as fast as possible up to her
+affectionate nurse, and rub her little dirty face against his equally dirty
+trousers.
+
+"That's settled, then," said Billy; "yer has chosen, Sarah Ann, and yer
+ain't one as could ever abear contradictions, so we 'as got to see how we
+two can live."
+
+This was a problem not so easily managed, for the neighbors took offense
+with Billy not following their advice, and it was almost impossible for him
+to leave Sarah Ann long at home by herself. True to this terrible infant's
+character, she now refused to sleep by day, as she had hitherto done, thus
+cutting off poor Billy's last loophole of earning his bread and her own
+with any comfort.
+
+Billy had two reasons which made it almost impossible for him to leave the
+baby in the attic; the first was his fear that Tom Jones, who still hovered
+dangerously about, might find her and carry her off; the second was the
+undoubted fact that if Sarah Ann was left to enjoy her own solitary
+company, she would undoubtedly scream herself into fits and the neighbors
+into distraction.
+
+There was nothing whatever for it but for Billy to carry the baby with him
+when he went in search of their daily bread.
+
+Poor little brave man, he had certainly a hard time during those next two
+months, and except for the undoubted fact that he and the baby were two of
+the sparrows whom our Father feeds, they both must have starved; but
+perhaps owing to a certain look in Billy's eyes, which were as blue as blue
+could be, in the midst of his freckled face, and also, perhaps, to a
+certain pathetic turn which the baby's ugliness had now assumed, the two
+always managed to secure attention.
+
+With attention, came invariably a few pence--fourpence one day--sixpence
+and even eightpence another. The greater portion of the food thus obtained
+was given to Sarah Ann, but neither of the two quite starved. Billy counted
+and counted and counted the days until his mother would be home again; and
+as, fortunately for him, Mrs. Andersen had paid the rent of their attic
+some weeks in advance, the children still had a shelter at night.
+
+All went tolerably well with the little pair until a certain bitter day in
+the beginning of November. Billy was very hopeful on the morning of that
+day, for his mother's time of captivity in the hospital had nearly expired,
+and soon now she would be back to take the burden of responsibility off his
+young shoulders.
+
+Sarah Ann had hitherto escaped cold; indeed, her life in the open air
+seemed to agree with her, and she slept better at nights, and was really
+becoming quite a nice tempered baby.
+
+Billy used to look at her with the most old fatherly admiration, and
+assured her that she was such a darling duck of a cherub that he could
+almost eat her up.
+
+No, Sarah Ann had never taken cold, but Billy felt a certain amount of
+uneasiness on this particular morning, which was as sleety, as gusty, as
+altogether melancholy a day as ever dawned on the great London world.
+
+There was no help for it, however, the daily bread must be found; and he
+and the baby must face the elements. He wrapped an old woolen comforter
+several times round Sarah Ann's throat, and beneath the comforter secured
+a very thin and worn Paisley shawl of his mother's, and then buttoning up
+his own ragged jacket, and shuffling along in his large and untidy boots,
+he set forth. Whether it was the insufficient food he had lately partaken
+of or that the baby was really growing very heavy, poor Billy almost
+staggered to-day under Sarah Ann's weight. He found himself obliged to lean
+for support against a pillar box, and then he discovered to his distress
+that the baby began to sneeze, that her tiny face was blue, and that her
+solemn black eyes had quite a weary and tearful look.
+
+"She's a-catchin' cold, the blessed, blessed babby," exclaimed poor Billy;
+"oh, Sairey Ann, darlin', don't you go and take the brownchitis, and break
+the heart of your h'own Billy. Oh! lady, lady, give us a 'ap'enny, or a
+penny. Give us a copper, please, kind lady."
+
+The lady so aprostrophized was good-natured enough to bestow a few pence on
+the starved-looking children, and after a certain miserable fashion the
+morning passed away.
+
+This was, however, Billy's only money success, and he was just making up
+his mind to go home, and to prefer starvation in his attic to running the
+feeble chance of securing any more charities.
+
+Sarah Ann still continued to sneeze and her eyes still looked watery, and
+Billy was sorrowfully giving up his hope of receiving any more coppers,
+when he came face to face with his old adversary and tormentor, Tom Jones.
+
+In the anxiety of these latter few weeks, Billy had lost his old fear of
+Tom, and he was now so spent and exhausted that he greeted him with almost
+pleasure.
+
+"Oh! Tom, do hold the babby just for one minute, just for me to get a wee
+bit of breath. I'm all blown like, and I'm afeard as Sarah Ann 'as taken
+cold; jest hold her for one minute--will yer?"
+
+Tom, who was looking rather white and shaken himself, just glanced into
+Billy's face, and some gibing words, which were on the tip of his tongue,
+were restrained.
+
+"Why, yer does look bad, Billy Andersen," he said, and then, without
+another word, he lifted the baby out of the little lad's trembling arms,
+and held her in an awkward but not altogether untender fashion.
+
+"Look you here, Billy," he said, "ef yer likes to round quick this 'ere
+corner, there are two cabs coming up to a house as I passed, and they are
+sure to want a boy to help in with the boxes, and you maybe earn sixpence
+or a bob; run round this yere minute--quick, Billy, quick."
+
+"I'd like to, awful well," said Billy, "and the run will warm me, and
+wouldn't the bob be fine--but, oh! Tom, will yer hold Sairey Ann? and will
+yer promise not to run away with her? will yer promise sure and faithful,
+Tom?"
+
+"What in the world should I do that for?" said Tom. "What good would yer
+Sairey Ann be to me? My h'eyes--I has work enough to get my h'own victuals.
+There, Billy, I'll not deprive you of the babby; you jest run round the
+corner, or yer'll lose the chance. There, Billy, be quick; you'll find
+Sairey Ann safe enough when yer comes back."
+
+The poor thin and cold baby gave a little cry as Billy ran off, but the
+chance was too good for him to lose; and, after all, what earthly use could
+Tom have with Sairey Ann?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+WHAT IT MEANT.
+
+
+Poor Billy! After all, Tom had told him a story, for there was no cab
+whatever waiting in the long and dreary street, into which he ran so
+eagerly. He ran up and down its entire length, and even stopped at the very
+number Tom had indicated. A little girl was coming slowly down the steps,
+and Billy could not help saying to her, "Oh, missy, am I too late, and have
+all the boxes been stowed away afore I come?"
+
+"There have been no boxes stowed away," said the little girl, stopping and
+staring in astonishment at the ragged boy.
+
+"Oh, but, missy, out of the two cabs, yer knows."
+
+"There have been no cabs here for many a day," replied the child in a
+sorrowful, dull kind of tone, which seemed to say that she only wished
+anything half so nice and interesting would arrive.
+
+Billy saw then that the whole thing had been a hoax, and he flew back down
+the long street, with a great terror in his heart. Oh! what did Tom mean,
+and was the baby safe?
+
+There was no Tom anywhere in sight when the poor little boy returned to the
+more crowded thoroughfare; but a policeman was stooping down and looking
+curiously at something on the pavement, and one or two people were
+beginning to collect round him.
+
+Billy arrived just in time to see the policeman pick up a little shivering,
+crying, half-naked baby. Yes, this baby was his own Sarah Ann, but her
+woolen comforter, and mother's old Paisley shawl, and even a little brown
+winsey frock had all disappeared.
+
+"Oh! give her to me, give her to me," sobbed poor Billy; "oh, Sairey Ann,
+Sairey Ann, yer'll have brownchitis and hinflammation now, sure and
+certain; oh, wot a wicked boy Tom Jones is."
+
+The policeman asked a few leading questions, and then finding that the baby
+was Billy's undoubted property, he was only too glad to deliver her into
+his arms. The poor baby was quiet at once, and laid her little head
+caressingly against Billy's cheek. Billy tore off his own ragged jacket and
+wrapped it round her, and then flew home, with the energy and terror of
+despair. A pitiless sleet shower overtook him, however, and the two were
+wet to the skin when they arrived at their attic.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+BILLY'S ILLNESS.
+
+
+All that day Billy anxiously watched the baby; he tore off her wet clothes,
+and wrapped the blanket and the sheet tightly round her, and then he coaxed
+a neighbor to expend one of his pennies on milk, which he warmed and gave
+with some broken bread to the little hungry creature. He forgot all about
+himself in his anxiety for Sarah Ann, and as the day passed on, and she did
+not sneeze any more, but sat quite warm and bright and chirrupy in his
+arms, he became more and more light-hearted, and more and more thankful. In
+his thankfulness he would have offered a little prayer to God, had he known
+how, for his mother was just sufficiently not a heathen to say to him, now
+and then, "Don't go out without saying your prayers, Billy, be sure you say
+your prayers," and once or twice she had even tried to teach him a clause
+out of Our Father. He only remembered the first two words now, and, looking
+at the baby, he repeated them solemnly several times. At last it was time
+to go to bed, and as Sarah Ann was quite nice and sleepy, Billy hoped they
+would have a comfortable night. So they might have had, as far as the baby
+was concerned, for she nestled off so peacefully, and laid her soft head on
+Billy's breast.
+
+But what ailed the poor little boy himself? His head ached, his pulse
+throbbed as he lay with the scanty blankets covering him; he shivered so
+violently that he almost feared he should wake Sarah Ann. Yes, he, not the
+baby, had taken cold. He, not the baby, was going to have brownchitis or
+that hinflammation which he dreaded.
+
+The mischief had been done when he tore off his jacket and ran home,
+through the pitiless sleet, in his ragged shirt-sleeves. Well, he was glad
+it was not Sairey Ann, and mother would soon be home now, and find her
+baby well, and not starved, and perhaps she would praise him a little bit,
+and tell him he was a good boy. He had certainly tried to be a good boy.
+
+All through the night--while his chest ached and ached, and his breath
+became more and more difficult, and the baby slumbered on, with her little
+downy head against his breast--he kept wondering, in a confused sort of
+way, what his mother would say to him, and if the Our Father, in the only
+prayer he ever knew, was anything like the father who had been cruel, and
+who had run away from him and his mother a year ago.
+
+All his thoughts, however, were very vague, and as the morning broke, and
+his suffering grew worse, he was too ill to think at all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE END OF HIS TROUBLES.
+
+
+Tom Jones, having secured the baby's comforter, the thin Paisley shawl, and
+the little winsey frock, ran as fast as he could to a pawnbroker's hard by.
+
+There he received a shilling on the articles, and with this shilling
+jingling pleasantly in his pocket he entered an eating-house which he knew,
+and prepared to enjoy some pea pudding and pork.
+
+Tom expended exactly the half of the shilling on his dinner; he ate it
+greedily, for he was very hungry indeed, and then he went back into the
+street, with sixpence still to the good in his trouser pocket.
+
+With sixpence in his pocket, and a comfortable dinner inside of him, Tom
+felt that his present circumstances were delightfully easy. He might walk
+about the streets with quite fine gentlemanly airs for an hour or two, if
+he so willed. Or he might flatten his nose against the shop windows, or he
+might play halfpenny pitch and toss. His circumstances were really
+affluent, and of course he ought to have been correspondingly happy. The
+odd thing was that he was not very happy; he could not get Billy's white
+face out of his head, and he could not altogether forget the icy cold feel
+of the baby's little arms, when he slipped off that brown winsey frock.
+
+Tom was as hard a boy as ever lived, and a year ago his conscience might
+not have troubled him, even for playing so wicked a prank as he had done
+that day. But since then he had met with a softening influence. Tom Jones
+had been very ill with a bad fever, and during that time had been taken
+care of in the London fever hospital.
+
+In that hospital, the wild, rough street boy had listened to many kind and
+gentle words and had witnessed many noble and self-denying actions.
+
+Two or three children had died while Tom was in the hospital, and the
+nurses had told the other children that this death only meant going home
+for the little ones, and that they were now safely housed, and free from
+any more sin and any more temptation.
+
+Tom had listened to the gentle words of the kind Sister nurse, without
+heeding them much.
+
+But the memory of the whole scene came back to him to-day, all mingled
+strangely with Billy's pale face and the baby's cold little form, until he
+became quite compunctious and unhappy, and finally felt that he could not
+spend that remaining sixpence, but must let it burn a hole in his pocket,
+and do anything, in short, rather than provide him with food and shelter.
+Tom was accustomed to spending his nights under archways and huddled up in
+any sheltered corner he could discover.
+
+This particular night he was lucky enough to find a cart half-full of hay,
+and here he would doubtless have had a delicious sleep, had not the baby
+and Billy come into his dreams. The baby and Billy between them managed to
+give poor Tom a horrible time of it, and at last he felt that he could bear
+it no longer: he must go and give Billy the sixpence which remained out of
+his shilling.
+
+He started tolerably early the next morning, and carefully turning his face
+away from the bakers' shops and coffee-stalls as he passed them, he found
+himself presently in Aylmer's Court.
+
+He had conquered himself in the matter of the bakers' shops and the coffee
+stalls, and in consequence he felt a good deal elated, his conscience
+became easier, and he began to say to himself that very few boys would
+restore even a stolen sixpence when they were starving. He ran up the
+stairs, calling out to a neighbor to know if Billy Andersen was within.
+
+"I believe yer," she replied; "jest listen to That 'ere blessed babby,
+a-screamin' of itself into fits; oh! bother her for as ill-mannered a child
+as ever I came across."
+
+Tom ran up the remainder of the stairs, and entered Billy's attic without
+knocking.
+
+There he saw a sight which made him draw in his breath with a little start
+of surprise and terror; the baby was sitting up in bed and crying lustily,
+and Billy was lying with his back to her, quite motionless, and apparently
+deaf to her most piteous wails.
+
+Billy's usual white face was flushed a fiery red, and his breathing, loud
+and labored, fell with solemn distinctness on Tom's ears.
+
+Tom knew these signs at a glance; he had seen them so often in the fever
+hospital.
+
+Shutting the door softly behind him, and first of all taking the baby in
+his arms and thrusting a sticky lollipop, which he happened to have in his
+waistcoat pocket, into her mouth:
+
+"Be yer werry bad, Billy Andersen?" he said, stooping down over the sick
+boy.
+
+"Our Father," replied Billy, raising his blue eyes and fixing them in a
+pathetic manner on Tom. "'Tis our Father I wants."
+
+"Why, he were a bad'un," said Tom; "he runned away from yer, he did; I
+wouldn't be fretting about him, if I was you, Billy lad."
+
+"'Tis the other one--'tis t'other one I means," said Billy in a weak
+gasping voice. "I has 'ad the words afore me all night long--our Father;
+tell us what it means, Tom, do."
+
+"I know all about it," said Tom in a tone of wisdom; "I larned about it in
+hospital. There, shut up, Sairey Ann, do; what a young 'un yer are for
+squallin'. Our Father lives in heaven, Billy, and he'll--he'll--oh! I am
+sure I forgets--look yere, wouldn't yer like some breakfast, old chap?"
+
+"Water," gasped Billy, "and some milk for the babby."
+
+Tom found himself, whether he wished it or not, installed as Billy's nurse.
+
+He had to run out and purchase a penny-worth of milk, and he had also the
+forethought to provide himself with a farthing's worth of bull's eyes, one
+of which he popped into Sarah Ann's mouth whenever she began to howl.
+
+Never had Tom Jones passed so strange a day. It did not occur to him that
+Billy was in any danger, but neither did it come into his wild, untutored,
+hard little heart to desert his sick comrade.
+
+By means of the lollipops, he managed to keep Sarah Ann quiet, and then he
+kindled a tiny fire in the grate, and sat down by Billy, and gave him
+plentiful drinks of cold water whenever he asked for them.
+
+Billy shivered and flushed alternately, and his blue eyes had a glassy
+look, and his breath came harder and faster as the slow sad day wore away.
+
+Tom, however, never deserted his post, satisfying his own hunger with a
+hunk of dry bread, and managing to keep Sarah Ann quiet.
+
+Toward evening, Billy seemed easier; the dreadful oppression of his
+breathing was not quite so intense, and the flush on his face had given way
+to pallor.
+
+Tom lit a morsel of candle and placed it in a tin sconce, and then he once
+more sat down by his little comrade. For the first time then Tom noticed
+that solemn and peculiar look which Billy's well-known features wore. He
+puzzled his brain to recall where he had last seen such an expression;
+then it came back to him--it was in the fever hospital, and the little ones
+who had worn it had soon gone home.
+
+Was Billy going home? The baby lay asleep in Tom's arms, and he looked from
+her to the sick child whose eyes were now closed, and whose breath was
+faint and light.
+
+"Shall I fetch a doctor, old chap?" he whispered.
+
+Billy shook his head.
+
+"Tell us wot yer knows about our Father," he said in a very low and feeble
+voice.
+
+"Our Father," began Tom. "He lives in heaven, he do. He's kind and he gives
+lots of good things to the young 'uns as lives with him in heaven. It
+sounds real fine," continued Tom, "the way as our Father treats them young
+'uns, only the worst of it is," he added with the air of a philosopher, "we
+'as to die first."
+
+"To die," said Billy, "yes, and wot then?"
+
+"I 'spect," continued Tom, "as our Father fetches us up 'ome somehow, but
+I'm very ignorant; I don't know nothing, but jest that there's a home and a
+Father somewheres. Look yere, Billy, old chap, you ain't going to die, be
+yer?"
+
+"I 'spect I be," said Billy; "a home somewheres, and our Father there, it
+sounds werry nice."
+
+Then he closed his eyes again, and his breath came a little quicker and a
+little weaker, and the solemn look grew and deepened on his white face.
+
+"Give me my babby," he said an hour later; "lay her alongside o' me; oh! my
+darling, darling Sairey Ann; and I'll tell mother when she comes in."
+
+But mother never got her message, for when next Billy spoke, it was in the
+safe home of our Father.
+
+Billy's baby grew up by and by, but no one ever loved her better than Billy
+did.
+
+
+
+
+THE OLD ORGAN-MAN.
+
+    "The world goes up and the world goes down,
+    And the sunshine follows the rain."
+
+    CHARLES KINGSLEY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+PLAYING FOR LOVE.
+
+
+He was always called old Antonio, and though he doubtless possessed a
+surname of some sort, no one seemed to know anything about it. He had white
+hair, and a bronzed face, and kindly soft brown eyes, and he got his living
+by pacing up and down the streets and turning a hurdy-gurdy.
+
+This instrument was a rather good one of its class--it could play six
+different airs, and all the airs were Italian, and even played by the
+hurdy-gurdy had a little of the sweet cadence and soft pathetic melody of
+that land of music.
+
+Antonio lived in an attic all by himself, and the grown people wondered at
+him and asked each other what his history could be, but the children loved
+him and his music, and were to be seen about him wherever he went.
+
+He looked like a man with a story, but no one had ever troubled themselves
+to find it out or to ask him any questions. He did, however, receive stray
+pennies enough to keep him alive, and the street children loved him, and
+whenever they had a chance danced merrily to his music.
+
+One cold and snowy afternoon, about a week before Christmas Day, old
+Antonio sat up in his attic and looked gloomily out at the snow-laden
+clouds.
+
+Nothing but the fact that there was no oil for his stove, and no pennies in
+his pockets, would have induced the old Italian to brave such inclement
+weather. But no fire and no food will make a man do harder things than
+Antonio was now thinking about. He must get something to eat and some fire
+to warm himself by. He shouldered his hurdy-gurdy and went out.
+
+"Poor Marcia," he said to himself as he trudged along. "Well, well, we of
+the south are mistaken in the generous land of England. The milk and
+honey-bah, they are nowhere. The inhabitants--they freeze like their frozen
+skies. Poor Marcia, no doubt she has long ceased to look for the footfall
+of her Antonio."
+
+The old man, feeling very melancholy and depressed, walked down several
+streets without once pausing or attempting to commence his music. At last
+he stopped at the entrance of a very dull square. He had never yet received
+a penny in this square, and had often said to himself that its inhabitants
+had not a note of music among them. He took the square now as a short cut,
+meaning to strike out toward Holborn and the neighborhood of the shops.
+
+Half-way through the square he stopped. A house which used to be all over
+placards and notices to let presented a different appearance. It was no
+longer dead and lifeless. From its windows lights gleamed, and lie could
+see people flitting to and fro.
+
+He stopped for a moment to look at the house and comment on its changed
+appearance, then with a slight little start, and a look of pleased
+expectation, he put down his hurdy-gurdy and began softly to turn the
+handle and to bring out one by one his beloved Italian melodies.
+
+The first, a well-known air from "Il Trovatore," was scarcely finished
+before a little dark head was popped up from behind a window-blind, and two
+soft eyes gazed eagerly across the street at the old organ-grinder.
+
+"Bless her! what a depth of color, what eyes, what hair! she comes from the
+south, the pretty one."
+
+Antonio nodded his head to her as he made these remarks, and the child,
+with her face pressed against the pane, gazed steadily back at him, now and
+then smiling in an appreciative manner.
+
+The six airs were all played out and repeated a second time, and then
+Antonio, looking up at the sky, from which the snow was still steadily
+falling, began to think of moving on. In his pleasure at playing for the
+child he had forgotten all about the money part of his profession. He was
+indeed indulging in a happy dream, in which Marcia, and a certain little
+Marcia, who had long ago gone back to God, were again by his side.
+
+He threw a cloth over his hurdy-gurdy and prepared to mount it on his
+shoulder.
+
+The moment he did so the child disappeared from the window. There was a
+quick, eager patter of little feet in the hall, the front door was opened,
+and the next moment the little dark child was standing by his side.
+
+"Here's sixpence of my very own, and you shall have it, poor man, and thank
+you for your lovely, lovely music."
+
+"You liked it, dearie?" said Antonio, not touching the sixpence, but
+looking down at the pretty child with reverence.
+
+"Oh! didn't I just? I used to hear those airs in Italy, and they remind me
+of my dear mamma."
+
+"Little missy has got eyes dark and long like almonds; perhaps she comes
+from our sunny south?" said Antonio eagerly.
+
+"No, I am a little English girl; but my mamma was ill, and they took her to
+Italy, and Marcia nursed her. God has taken my mamma away, and now I am in
+England, and I don't like it; but I shall only stay here until my father
+comes home."
+
+"Missy, you make my heart beat when you talk of Italy and of Marcia--but
+your Marcia, was she young?--the name is a common one, and mine, if the
+good Lord has not removed her, must be very old now."
+
+"My Marcia was young and good," said the little girl. "I loved her, and I
+cry for her still. I am so sorry your Marcia is old, poor man. Thank you
+for the music. I must run in now, or Janet will scold. Good-by. Here's your
+sixpence."
+
+"No, no, missy. I'll get some pence in the other streets. Let me feel that
+I played the old airs for you only for love."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+A FRIEND IN NEED.
+
+
+Antonio did not stay out much longer in the snow. This enterprise of his
+had not turned out a profitable one; no one on such a miserable day felt
+inclined to listen to his Italian airs, the snow seemed to be locking up
+people's hearts, and he went back to his attic hungry and cold, and quite
+as penniless as when he started on his expedition. Still there was a glow
+in his heart, and he was not at all sorry that he had played for the pretty
+child for love.
+
+He sat down in an old broken arm-chair and wrapped a tattered cloak about
+him, and indulged in what he called a reverie of Italy and old times. This
+reverie, as he said afterward, quite warmed him and took away his desire
+for food.
+
+"The child has brought all back to me like a golden dream," he murmured.
+"Poor, poor Marcia! why do I think of her so much to-night? and there's no
+money in the little box, and no hope of going back to her, and it's fifteen
+years ago now."
+
+The next day Antonio went back to the quiet square off Bloomsbury, and
+played all his Italian airs opposite the house where he had played them
+yesterday; but though he looked longingly from one window to another, he
+could not get any glimpse of the child who reminded him of Italy. As he
+walked through the square on his way home he could see the people passing
+to the week-night service at the church, which stood in the center. But no
+trace of the little one could he catch. As far as money was concerned, he
+had had a much better day than yesterday, but he went home, nevertheless,
+disappointed and with quite a blank at his old heart. The next day he hoped
+he would see the child, and he again went slowly through the square, but he
+could not catch a glimpse of her, and after doing this every day in vain
+he soon came to the conclusion that she had gone.
+
+"Her father has come for the pretty one, and she has gone back to the fair
+south," he murmured. "Ah, well! I never saw such eyes as hers on an English
+maiden before."
+
+On Christmas Day Antonio shouldered his organ, as usual, and went out.
+
+On this morning he made quite a little harvest; people were so merry and so
+bright and so happy that even those who did not want his Italian airs gave
+him a penny to get rid of him.
+
+Quite early in the afternoon he turned his steps homeward. On his way he
+bought half a pound of sausages and a small bottle of thin and sour claret.
+
+"Now," he said to himself, "I shall have a feast worthy of my Italy," and
+he trudged cheerfully back, feeling all the better for his walk through the
+pleasant frosty air.
+
+Antonio never indulged in fires, but he had a small paraffin stove in his
+attic, and this he now lit, and spread out his thin hands before the poor
+little attempt at a fire. Then he drank his claret and ate his sausages and
+bread, and tried to believe that he was having quite a bright little
+Christmas feast.
+
+There were many voices in the room below, and cheerful sounds coming up now
+and then from the court, and altogether there was a festive air about
+everything, and Antonio tried to believe himself one with a merry
+multitude. But, poor old man, he failed to do so. He was a lonely and very
+old man--he was an exile from his native country. No one in all this great
+world of London cared anything at all about him, and he was parted from his
+good wife Marcia.
+
+Fifteen years ago now they had agreed to part; they both supposed that this
+parting would be a matter of months, or a year at most.
+
+"The good land of England is paved with gold," said Antonio. "I will go
+there and collect some of the treasure and then come back for you and
+little Marcia."
+
+"And in the mean time the good God will give me money enough to keep on
+the little fruit stall and to support our little sweet one," said Marcia,
+bravely keeping back her tears.
+
+Antonio came to England, and quickly discovered that the streets paved with
+gold and the abundant wealth lived only in his dreams. The little money he
+had brought with him was quickly spent, and he had no means to enable him
+to return to Italy. Neither he nor his wife could write, and under these
+circumstances it was only too easy for the couple to lose sight of each
+other.
+
+Once, a few years back, an Italian had brought him word that little Marcia
+was dead, and that his wife was having a very poor time of it. When Antonio
+heard this he came home in a fit of desperation, and finding a small box,
+bored a hole in the lid, and into this hole he religiously dropped half of
+all he earned, hoping by this means to secure a little fund to enable him
+to return to Naples and to Marcia.
+
+The winter, however, set in with unusual severity, and the contents of the
+little box had to be spent, and poor Antonio seemed no nearer to the only
+longing he now had in his old heart.
+
+On this particular Christmas Day, after his vain attempt at being merry and
+Christmas-like, he dropped his head into his hands and gave way to some
+very gloomy thoughts.
+
+There was no hope now of his ever seeing his old wife again. How tired she
+must be of standing by that fruit stall and watching in vain for him to
+turn the corner of the gay and picturesque street!
+
+There she would stand day after day, with her crimson petticoat, and her
+tidy bodice, and the bright yellow handkerchief twisted round her head. Her
+dark eyes would look out softly and longingly for the old man who was never
+coming back. Yes, since the child had gone back to God, Marcia must be a
+very lonely woman.
+
+After thinking thus for some time, until all the short daylight had faded
+and the lamps were lit one by one in the street below, Antonio began to
+pace up and down his little attic.
+
+He was feeling almost fierce in his longing and despair; the patient
+submission to what he believed an inevitable fate, which at most times
+characterized him, gave place to passionate utterances, the natural outcome
+of his warm southern nature.
+
+"Oh, God! give me back Marcia--let me see my old wife Marcia once again
+before I die," he pleaded several times.
+
+After a little he thought he would change the current of his sad musings,
+and go out into the street with his hurdy-gurdy. As I have said before, he
+was always a favorite with the children, and they now crowded round him and
+begged for that merry Italian air to which they could dance. Antonio was
+feeling too unhappy to care about money, and it afforded him a passing
+pleasure to gratify the children, so he set down his barrel-organ in the
+dirty crowded street, and began to turn the handle.
+
+The children, waiting for their own favorite air, collected closely round
+the old man; now it was coming, and they could dance, oh! so merrily, to
+the strains they loved.
+
+But--what was the matter? Antonio was looking straight before him, and
+turning the handle slowly and mechanically. Suddenly his whole face lit up
+with an expression of wonder, of pleasure, of astonishment. He let go the
+handle of the barrel organ, and the music went out with a little crash, and
+the next instant he was pushing his way through the crowd of dirty
+children, and was bending over a little girl, with dark hair and dark,
+sweet, troubled eyes, who was standing without either bonnet or jacket
+spell-bound by the notes of the old hurdy-gurdy.
+
+"Why, my little one--my little sweet one from the south, however did you
+come to a dreadful place like this?" said old Antonio.
+
+At the sound of his voice, the child seemed to be roused out of a spell of
+terror; she trembled violently, she clasped her arms round his knees, and
+burst into sobs and cries.
+
+"You are my organ-man--you are my own darling organ-man. Oh! I knew it must
+be you, and now you will take me home to my father."
+
+"But however did you come here, my dear little missy?"
+
+"My name is Mona. I am Mona Sinclair, and Janet my maid--oh! how cruel she
+is; she was jealous of the dear Marcia I used to have in Italy, and she
+said she would punish me, and she would do it on Christmas Day. Father has
+not come home yet, and I have been so unhappy waiting for him, and Janet
+said she was tired of my always crying and missing my mamma, and she took
+me for a walk this afternoon, and she met some grandly dressed people, and
+they wanted her to go with them, and she said she would for a little, and
+she told me to stand at the street corner, and she would be back in ten
+minutes, but it seemed like hours and hours," continued the child
+excitedly, "and I was so cold, and so miserable, and I could not wait any
+longer, and I thought I would find my own way home, and I have been looking
+for it ever since, and I cannot find it. I asked one woman to tell me, but
+all she did was to hurry me into a corner and take off my fur cap and my
+warm jacket, and she looked so wicked, and I've been afraid to ask any one
+since; but now you will take me home, you won't be unkind to me, my dear
+organ-man."
+
+"Yes, I will take you home, my darling," said Antonio, and he lifted the
+little child tenderly into his arms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+GLAD TIDINGS.
+
+
+"I must not leave my barrel-organ in the street," said Antonio to the
+child; "will you let me take it home first, missy? and then I can take you
+back to your father."
+
+Little Mona, holding Antonio's hand, and walking by his side in the midst
+of the rabble, was a totally different child from Mona, standing by herself
+under the street lamp.
+
+"I shall like to see your home, organ-man," she said in her sweet voice.
+"Do you really live in an attic? Marcia and her mother live in an attic in
+Italy, too, and Marcia likes it."
+
+Then they walked through the streets together, and Mona went upstairs with
+Antonio. She seemed quite contented in the funny little place, and sat down
+on a low seat with a sigh of satisfaction.
+
+"I am so glad I met you, organ-man, and I like your home. I would much
+rather live here with you than go back to Janet. I am dreadfully afraid of
+Janet, and I sometimes think my father will never come. I wish I could live
+with you, organ-man," continued little Mona in a piteous voice, "for you
+could talk to me about Italy, where my dear mamma died, and oh! organ-man,
+you do remind me of Marcia."
+
+"I once had two Marcias," said old Antonio in a grave and troubled voice;
+"the little one is with God, and the wife whom I love, I don't know what
+shelter she is finding for her gray hairs. It troubles me to hear you speak
+of Marcia, missy. It brings back painful memories."
+
+The child had a thoughtful and serious face; she now fixed her eyes on old
+Antonio, and did not speak.
+
+"And I must take you home," continued the old man. "I should like to keep
+you with me, my little bright missy, but suppose your good father has
+returned, fancy his agony."
+
+"If I could think my father had come, how glad I should be!" said little
+Mona, and she went over to Antonio and took his hand. It was not a very
+long way from Antonio's attic to the house in B---- Square.
+
+Antonio was too old and too feeble to carry the little girl all the way. He
+would have liked to do so, for the feel of her little arms round his neck,
+and her soft brown cheek pressed to his, brought the strangest peace and
+comfort to his heart.
+
+Antonio had not had such a good time since he left Italy, and he could not
+help feeling, in some inexplicable way, that he was going back to Marcia.
+
+At last they reached the house, and the old organ-man's ring was speedily
+answered. Immediately there was a shout of delight and a great bustle, and
+little Mona was almost torn from her companion and carried into a
+dining-room, which was very bright with firelight and gaslight.
+
+Antonio, standing on the hall-door steps, heard some very tender and loving
+words addressed in a manly voice to the little girl.
+
+Then he said to himself, "The dear little one's father has come and her
+heart will be at rest." And he began slowly to go down the steps, and to
+turn back to a world which was once more quite sunless and cold.
+
+But this was not to be, for little Mona's voice arrested him, and both she
+and her father brought him into the house and into the warm dining-room.
+There Mr. Sinclair shook his hand, and thanked him many times, and tried to
+explain to him something of the agony he had undergone when he had listened
+to the terrified Janet's confession, and had discovered that his only child
+was gone.
+
+"I too have lost a child," said old Antonio. "I can sympathize with your
+feelings, sir."
+
+"But you have got to tell my father all that story of the Marcia with gray
+hair," said little Mona. She was a totally different child now, her
+timidity and fear were gone, she danced about, and put Antonio into a snug
+chair, and insisted once more on his telling his story.
+
+When he had finished, Mr. Sinclair said a few words: "I believe God's
+providence sent you here to-night in a double sense, and I begin to see my
+way to pay you back in some measure for what you have done for me. The
+young girl who so devotedly nursed my wife during her long illness was
+called Marcia. We wished to bring her to England, for my child loved her
+much, but we could not induce her to go away from an old mother of the same
+name. She often told us what hard times this mother had undergone, and how
+her heart was almost broken for her husband, who had gone away to England
+to seek his fortune, but had never come back. Now, can it be possible that
+these two Marcias are yours, and that the man who said your child was dead
+was mistaken?"
+
+"It may be so," said old Antonio, whose face had grown very white. "Oh!
+sir, if ever you go back to Naples could you find out from that Marcia with
+gray hairs if the husband she laments was one Antonio, an old man, who
+played Italian airs?"
+
+"My child and I are going back to Naples next week," said Mr. Sinclair,
+"and suppose you come with us and find out for yourself, Antonio."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+AT LAST.
+
+
+There came a warm day, full of light, and life, and color; a day over which
+the blue sky of Italy smiled. Beside an artistically arranged fruit stall a
+slender and handsome Italian girl stood. Behind the stall, on a low seat,
+sat an old woman; she was knitting, but her restless eyes took eager count
+of every passer-by.
+
+"Did you observe that old man, Marcia?" she said in her rapid Italian to
+the young girl.
+
+The girl turned her beautiful and pitying eyes full on the old woman. "He
+was not my father, mother. Ah! dear mother, can you not rest content that
+the good God has taken my father to himself?"
+
+"Fifteen years," muttered the old Italian woman. "Fifteen years, with the
+love growing stronger, and the heart emptier, and the longing sorer. No, I
+have not given him up. Oh! my merciful Father in heaven, what--who is
+that?" A little group was coming up to the fruit stall, a child who danced
+merrily, an old man with a bent white head, and a gentleman on whose arm he
+leaned.
+
+They came up close. The child flew to the younger Marcia, the old couple
+gazed at each other with that sudden trembling which great and wonderful
+heart-joy gives, they came a little nearer, and then their arms were round
+each other's necks.
+
+"At last, Marcia," said old Antonio--"at last!"
+
+
+THE END.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A. L. BURT'S PUBLICATIONS
+
+For Young People
+
+BY POPULAR WRITERS.
+
+52-58 Duane Street, New York.
+
+
+Bonnie Prince Charlie: A Tale of Fontenoy and Culloden. By G. A. HENTY.
+With 12 full-page Illustrations by GORDON BROWNE. 12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+The adventures of the son of a Scotch officer in French service. The boy,
+brought up by a Glasgow bailie, is arrested for aiding a Jacobite agent,
+escapes, is wrecked on the French coast, reaches Paris, and serves with the
+French army at Dettingen. He kills his father's foe in a duel, and escaping
+to the coast, shares the adventures of Prince Charlie, but finally settles
+happily in Scotland.
+
+     "Ronald, the hero, is very like the hero of 'Quentin
+     Durward.' The lad's journey across France, and his
+     hairbreadth escapes, make up as good a narrative of the
+     kind as we have ever read. For freshness of treatment
+     and variety of incident Mr. Henty has surpassed
+     himself."--Spectator.
+
+
+With Clive in India; or, the Beginnings of an Empire. By G. A. HENTY. With
+12 full-page Illustrations by GORDON BROWNE. 12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+The period between the landing of Clive as a young writer in India and the
+close of his career was critical and eventful in the extreme. At its
+commencement the English were traders existing on sufferance of the native
+princes. At its close they were masters of Bengal and of the greater part
+of Southern India. The author has given a full and accurate account of the
+events of that stirring time, and battles and sieges follow each other in
+rapid succession, while he combines with his narrative a tale of daring and
+adventure, which gives a lifelike interest to the volume.
+
+     "He has taken a period of Indian history of the most
+     vital importance, and he has embroidered on the
+     historical facts a story which of itself is deeply
+     interesting. Young people assuredly will be delighted
+     with the volume."--_Scotsman._
+
+
+The Lion of the North: A Tale of Gustavus Adolphus and the Wars of
+Religion. By G. A. HENTY. With full-page Illustrations by JOHN SCHOeNBERG.
+12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+In this story Mr. Henty gives the history of the first part of the Thirty
+Years' War. The issue had its importance, which has extended to the present
+day, as it established religious freedom in Germany. The army of the
+chivalrous king of Sweden was largely composed of Scotchmen, and among
+these was the hero of the story.
+
+     "The tale is a clever and instructive piece of history,
+     and as boys may be trusted to read it conscientiously,
+     they can hardly fail to be profited."--_Times._
+
+
+The Dragon and the Raven; or, The Days of King Alfred. By G. A. HENTY. With
+full-page Illustrations by C. J. STANILAND, R.I. 12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+In this story the author gives an account of the fierce struggle between
+Saxon and Dane for supremacy in England, and presents a vivid picture of
+the misery and ruin to which the country was reduced by the ravages of the
+sea-wolves. The hero, a young Saxon thane, takes part in all the battles
+fought by King Alfred. He is driven from his home, takes to the sea and
+resists the Danes on their own element, and being pursued by them up the
+Seine, is present at the long and desperate siege of Paris.
+
+     "Treated in a manner most attractive to the boyish
+     reader."--_Athenaeum._
+
+
+The Young Carthaginian: A Story of the Times of Hannibal. By G. A. HENTY.
+With full-page Illustrations by C. J. STANILAND, R.I. 12mo, cloth, price
+$1.00.
+
+Boys reading the history of the Punic Wars have seldom a keen appreciation
+of the merits of the contest. That it was at first a struggle for empire,
+and afterward for existence on the part of Carthage, that Hannibal was a
+great and skillful general, that he defeated the Romans at Trebia, Lake
+Trasimenus, and Cannae, and all but took Rome, represents pretty nearly the
+sum total of their knowledge. To let them know more about this momentous
+struggle for the empire of the world Mr. Henty has written this story,
+which not only gives in graphic style a brilliant description of a most
+interesting period of history, but is a tale of exciting adventure sure to
+secure the interest of the reader.
+
+     "Well constructed and vividly told. From first to last
+     nothing stays the interest of the narrative. It bears
+     us along as on a stream whose current varies in
+     direction, but never loses its force."--_Saturday
+     Review._
+
+
+In Freedom's Cause: A Story of Wallace and Bruce. By G. A. HENTY. With
+full-page Illustrations by GORDON BROWNE. 12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+In this story the author relates the stirring tale of the Scottish War of
+Independence. The extraordinary valor and personal prowess of Wallace and
+Bruce rival the deeds of the mythical heroes of chivalry, and indeed at one
+time Wallace was ranked with these legendary personages. The researches of
+modern historians have shown, however, that he was a living, breathing
+man--and a valiant champion. The hero of the tale fought under both Wallace
+and Bruce, and while the strictest historical accuracy has been maintained
+with respect to public events, the work is full of "hairbreadth 'scapes"
+and wild adventure.
+
+     "It is written in the author's best style. Full of the
+     wildest and most remarkable achievements, it is a tale
+     of great interest, which a boy, once he has begun it,
+     will not willingly put on one side."--The Schoolmaster.
+
+
+With Lee in Virginia: A Story of the American Civil War. By G. A. HENTY.
+With full-page Illustrations by GORDON BROWNE. 12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+The story of a young Virginian planter, who, after bravely proving his
+sympathy with the slaves of brutal masters, serves with no less courage and
+enthusiasm under Lee and Jackson through the most exciting events of the
+struggle. He has many hairbreadth escapes, is several times wounded and
+twice taken prisoner; but his courage and readiness and, in two cases, the
+devotion of a black servant and of a runaway slave whom he had assisted,
+bring him safely through all difficulties.
+
+     "One of the best stories for lads which Mr. Henty has
+     yet written. The picture is full of life and color, and
+     the stirring and romantic incidents are skillfully
+     blended with the personal interest and charm of the
+     story."--_Standard._
+
+
+By England's Aid; or, The Freeing of the Netherlands (1585-1604) By G. A.
+HENTY. With full-page Illustrations by ALFRED PEARSE, and Maps. 12mo,
+cloth, price $1.00.
+
+The story of two English lads who go to Holland as pages in the service of
+one of "the fighting Veres." After many adventures by sea and land, one of
+the lads finds himself on board a Spanish ship at the time of the defeat of
+the Armada, and escapes only to fall into the hands of the Corsairs. He is
+successful in getting back to Spain under the protection of a wealthy
+merchant, and regains his native country after the capture of Cadiz.
+
+     "It is an admirable book for youngsters. It overflows
+     with stirring incident and exciting adventure, and the
+     color of the era and of the scene are finely
+     reproduced. The illustrations add to its
+     attractiveness."--_Boston Gazette._
+
+
+By Right of Conquest; or, With Cortez in Mexico. By G. A. HENTY. With
+full-page Illustrations by W. S. STACEY, and Two Maps. 12mo, cloth, price
+$1.50.
+
+The conquest of Mexico by a small band of resolute men under the
+magnificent leadership of Cortez is always rightly ranked among the most
+romantic and daring exploits in history. With this as the groundwork of his
+story Mr. Henty has interwoven the adventures of an English youth, Roger
+Hawkshaw, the sole survivor of the good ship Swan, which had sailed from a
+Devon port to challenge the mercantile supremacy of the Spaniards in the
+New World. He is beset by many perils among the natives, but is saved by
+his own judgment and strength, and by the devotion of an Aztec princess. At
+last by a ruse he obtains the protection of the Spaniards, and after the
+fall of Mexico he succeeds in regaining his native shore, with a fortune
+and a charming Aztec bride.
+
+     "'By Right of Conquest' is the nearest approach to a
+     perfectly successful historical tale that Mr. Henty has
+     yet published."--_Academy._
+
+
+In the Reign of Terror: The Adventures of a Westminster Boy. By G. A.
+HENTY. With full-page Illustrations by J. SCHOeNBERG. 12mo, cloth, price
+$1.00.
+
+Harry Sandwith, a Westminster boy, becomes a resident at the chateau of a
+French marquis, and after various adventures accompanies the family to
+Paris at the crisis of the Revolution. Imprisonment and death reduce their
+number, and the hero finds himself beset by perils with the three young
+daughters of the house in his charge. After hairbreadth escapes they reach
+Nantes. There the girls are condemned to death in the coffin-ships, but are
+saved by the unfailing courage of their boy protector.
+
+     "Harry Sandwith, the Westminster boy, may fairly be
+     said to beat Mr. Henty's record. His adventures will
+     delight boys by the audacity and peril they depict....
+     The story is one of Mr. Henty's best."--_Saturday
+     Review._
+
+
+With Wolfe in Canada; or, The Winning of a Continent. By G. A. HENTY. With
+full-page Illustrations by GORDON BROWNE. 12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+In the present volume Mr. Henty gives an account of the struggle between
+Britain and France for supremacy in the North American continent. On the
+issue of this war depended not only the destinies of North America, but to
+a large extent those of the mother countries themselves. The fall of Quebec
+decided that the Anglo-Saxon race should predominate in the New World; that
+Britain, and not France, should take the lead among the nations of Europe;
+and that English and American commerce, the English language, and English
+literature, should spread right round the globe.
+
+     "It is not only a lesson in history as instructively as
+     it is graphically told, but also a deeply interesting
+     and often thrilling tale of adventure and peril by
+     flood and field."--_Illustrated London News._
+
+
+True to the Old Flag: A Tale of the American War of Independence. By G. A.
+HENTY. With full-page Illustrations by GORDON BROWNE. 12mo, cloth, price
+$1.00.
+
+In this story the author has gone to the accounts of officers who took part
+in the conflict, and lads will find that in no war in which American and
+British soldiers have been engaged did they behave with greater courage and
+good conduct. The historical portion of the book being accompanied with
+numerous thrilling adventures with the redskins on the shores of Lake
+Huron, a story of exciting interest is interwoven with the general
+narrative and carried through the book.
+
+     "Does justice to the pluck and determination of the
+     British soldiers during the unfortunate struggle
+     against American emancipation. The son of an American
+     loyalist, who remains true to our flag, falls among the
+     hostile redskins in that very Huron country which has
+     been endeared to us by the exploits of Hawkeye and
+     Chingachgook."--_The Times._
+
+
+The Lion of St. Mark: A Tale of Venice in the Fourteenth Century. By G. A.
+HENTY. With full-page Illustrations by GORDON BROWNE. 12mo, cloth, price
+$1.00.
+
+A story of Venice at a period when her strength and splendor were put to
+the severest tests. The hero displays a fine sense and manliness which
+carry him safely through an atmosphere of intrigue, crime, and bloodshed.
+He contributes largely to the victories of the Venetians at Porto d'Anzo
+and Chioggia, and finally wins the hand of the daughter of one of the chief
+men of Venice.
+
+     "Every boy should read 'The Lion of St. Mark.' Mr.
+     Henty has never produced a story more delightful, more
+     wholesome, or more vivacious."--_Saturday Review._
+
+
+A Final Reckoning: A Tale of Bush Life in Australia. By G. A. HENTY. With
+full-page Illustrations by W. B. WOLLEN. 12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+The hero, a young English lad, after rather a stormy boyhood emigrates to
+Australia, and gets employment as an officer in the mounted police. A few
+years of active work on the frontier, where he has many a brush with both
+natives and bushrangers, gain him promotion to a captaincy, and he
+eventually settles down to the peaceful life of a squatter.
+
+     "Mr. Henty has never published a more readable, a more
+     carefully constructed, or a better written story than
+     this."--_Spectator._
+
+
+Under Drake's Flag: A Tale of the Spanish Main. By G. A. HENTY. With
+full-page Illustrations by GORDON BROWNE. 12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+A story of the days when England and Spain struggled for the supremacy of
+the sea. The heroes sail as lads with Drake in the Pacific expedition, and
+in his great voyage of circumnavigation. The historical portion of the
+story is absolutely to be relied upon, but this will perhaps be less
+attractive than the great variety of exciting adventure through which the
+young heroes pass in the course of their voyages.
+
+     "A book of adventure, where the hero meets with
+     experience enough, one would think, to turn his hair
+     gray."--_Harper's Monthly Magazine._
+
+By Sheer Pluck: A Tale of the Ashanti War. By G. A. HENTY. With full-page
+Illustrations by GORDON BROWNE. 12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+The author has woven, in a tale of thrilling interest, all the details of
+the Ashanti campaign, of which he was himself a witness. His hero, after
+many exciting adventures in the interior, is detained a prisoner by the
+king just before the outbreak of the war, but escapes, and accompanies the
+English expedition on their march to Coomassie.
+
+     "Mr. Henty keeps up his reputation as a writer of boys'
+     stories. 'By Sheer Pluck' will be eagerly
+     read."--_Athenaeum._
+
+
+By Pike and Dyke: A Tale of the Rise of the Dutch Republic By G. A. HENTY.
+With full-page Illustrations by MAYNARD BROWN, and 4 Maps. 12mo, cloth,
+price $1.00.
+
+In this story Mr. Henty traces the adventures and brave deeds of an English
+boy in the household of the ablest man of his age--William the Silent.
+Edward Martin, the son of an English sea-captain, enters the service of the
+Prince as a volunteer, and is employed by him in many dangerous and
+responsible missions, in the discharge of which he passes through the great
+sieges of the time. He ultimately settles down as Sir Edward Martin.
+
+     "Boys with a turn for historical research will be
+     enchanted with the book, while the rest who only care
+     for adventure will be students in spite of
+     themselves."--_St. James' Gazette._
+
+
+St. George for England: A Tale of Cressy and Poitiers. By G. A. HENTY. With
+full-page Illustrations by GORDON BROWNE. 12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+No portion of English history is more crowded with great events than that
+of the reign of Edward III. Cressy and Poitiers; the destruction of the
+Spanish fleet; the plague of the Black Death; the Jacquerie rising; these
+are treated by the author in "St. George for England." The hero of the
+story, although of good family, begins life as a London apprentice, but
+after countless adventures and perils becomes by valor and good conduct the
+squire, and at last the trusted friend of the Black Prince.
+
+     "Mr. Henty has developed for himself a type of
+     historical novel for boys which bids fair to
+     supplement, on their behalf, the historical labors of
+     Sir Walter Scott in the land of fiction."--_The
+     Standard._
+
+
+Captain's Kidd's Gold: The True Story of an Adventurous Sailor Boy. By
+JAMES FRANKLIN FITTS. 12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+There is something fascinating to the average youth in the very idea of
+buried treasure. A vision arises before his eyes of swarthy Portuguese and
+Spanish rascals, with black beards and gleaming eyes--sinister-looking
+fellows who once on a time haunted the Spanish Main, sneaking out from some
+hidden creek in their long, low schooner, of picaroonish rake and sheer, to
+attack an unsuspecting trading craft. There were many famous sea rovers in
+their day, but none more celebrated than Capt. Kidd. Perhaps the most
+fascinating tale of all is Mr. Fitts' true story of an adventurous American
+boy, who receives from his dying father an ancient bit of vellum, which the
+latter obtained in a curious way. The document bears obscure directions
+purporting to locate a certain island in the Bahama group, and a
+considerable treasure buried there by two of Kidd's crew. The hero of this
+book, Paul Jones Garry, is an ambitious, persevering lad, of salt-water New
+England ancestry, and his efforts to reach the island and secure the money
+form one of the most absorbing tales for our youth that has come from the
+press.
+
+
+Captain Bayley's Heir: A Tale of the Gold Fields of California By G. A.
+HENTY. With full-page Illustrations by H. M. PAGET. 12mo, cloth, price
+$1.00.
+
+A frank, manly lad and his cousin are rivals in the heirship of a
+considerable property. The former falls into a trap laid by the latter, and
+while under a false accusation of theft foolishly leaves England for
+America. He works his passage before the mast, joins a small band of
+hunters, crosses a tract of country infested with Indians to the
+Californian gold diggings, and is successful both as digger and trader.
+
+     "Mr. Henty is careful to mingle instruction with
+     entertainment; and the humorous touches, especially in
+     the sketch of John Holl, the Westminster dustman,
+     Dickens himself could hardly have
+     excelled."--_Christian Leader._
+
+
+For Name and Fame; or, Through Afghan Passes. By G. A. HENTY. With
+full-page Illustrations by GORDON BROWNE. 12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+An interesting story of the last war in Afghanistan. The hero, after being
+wrecked and going through many stirring adventures among the Malays, finds
+his way to Calcutta and enlists in a regiment proceeding to join the army
+at the Afghan passes. He accompanies the force under General Roberts to the
+Peiwar Kotal, is wounded, taken prisoner, carried to Cabul, whence he is
+transferred to Candahar, and takes part in the final defeat of the army of
+Ayoub Khan.
+
+     "The best feature of the book--apart from the interest
+     of its scenes of adventure--is its honest effort to do
+     justice to the patriotism of the Afghan
+     people."--_Daily News._
+
+
+Captured by Apes: The Wonderful Adventures of a Young Animal Trainer. By
+HARRY PRENTICE. 12mo, cloth, $1.00.
+
+The scene of this tale is laid on an island in the Malay Archipelago.
+Philip Garland, a young animal collector and trainer, of New York, sets
+sail for Eastern seas in quest of a new stock of living curiosities. The
+vessel is wrecked off the coast of Borneo and young Garland, the sole
+survivor of the disaster, is cast ashore on a small island, and captured by
+the apes that overrun the place. The lad discovers that the ruling spirit
+of the monkey tribe is a gigantic and vicious baboon, whom he identifies as
+Goliah, an animal at one time in his possession and with whose instruction
+he had been especially diligent. The brute recognizes him, and with a kind
+of malignant satisfaction puts his former master through the same course of
+training he had himself experienced with a faithfulness of detail which
+shows how astonishing is monkey recollection. Very novel indeed is the way
+by which the young man escapes death. Mr. Prentice has certainly worked a
+new vein on juvenile fiction, and the ability with which he handles a
+difficult subject stamps him as a writer of undoubted skill.
+
+
+The Bravest of the Brave; or, With Peterborough in Spain. By G. A. HENTY.
+With full-page Illustrations by H. M. PAGET. 12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+There are few great leaders whose lives and actions have so completely
+fallen into oblivion as those of the Earl of Peterborough. This is largely
+due to the fact that they were over-shadowed by the glory and successes of
+Marlborough. His career as general extended over little more than a year,
+and yet, in that time, he showed a genius for warfare which has never been
+surpassed.
+
+     "Mr. Henty never loses sight of the moral purpose of
+     his work--to enforce the doctrine of courage and truth.
+     Lads will read 'The Bravest of the Brave' with pleasure
+     and profit; of that we are quite sure."--_Daily
+     Telegraph._
+
+
+The Cat of Bubastes: A Story of Ancient Egypt. By G. A. HENTY. With
+full-page Illustrations. 12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+A story which will give young readers an unsurpassed insight into the
+customs of the Egyptian people. Amuba, a prince of the Rebu nation, is
+carried with his charioteer Jethro into slavery. They become inmates of the
+house of Ameres, the Egyptian high-priest, and are happy in his service
+until the priest's son accidentally kills the sacred cat of Bubastes. In an
+outburst of popular fury Ameres is killed, and it rests with Jethro and
+Amuba to secure the escape of the high-priest's son and daughter.
+
+     "The story, from the critical moment of the killing of
+     the sacred cat to the perilous exodus into Asia with
+     which it closes, is very skillfully constructed and
+     full of exciting adventures. It is admirably
+     illustrated."--_Saturday Review._
+
+
+With Washington at Monmouth: A Story of Three Philadelphia Boys. By JAMES
+OTIS. 12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+Three Philadelphia boys, Seth Graydon "whose mother conducted a
+boarding-house which was patronized by the British officers;" Enoch Ball,
+"son of that Mrs. Ball whose dancing school was situated on Letitia
+Street," and little Jacob, son of "Chris, the Baker," serve as the
+principal characters. The story is laid during the winter when Lord Howe
+held possession of the city, and the lads aid the cause by assisting the
+American spies who make regular and frequent visits from Valley Forge. One
+reads here of home life in the captive city when bread was scarce among the
+people of the lower classes, and a reckless prodigality shown by the
+British officers, who passed the winter in feasting and merry-making while
+the members of the patriot army but a few miles away were suffering from
+both cold and hunger. The story abounds with pictures of Colonial life
+skillfully drawn, and the glimpses of Washington's soldiers which are given
+show that the work has not been hastily done, or without considerable
+study.
+
+
+For the Temple: A Tale of the Fall of Jerusalem. By G. A. HENTY. With
+full-page Illustrations by S. J. SOLOMON. 12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+Mr. Henty here weaves into the record of Josephus an admirable and
+attractive story. The troubles in the district of Tiberias, the march of
+the legions, the sieges of Jotapata, of Gamala, and of Jerusalem, form the
+impressive and carefully studied historic setting to the figure of the lad
+who passes from the vineyard to the service of Josephus, becomes the leader
+of a guerrilla band of patriots, fights bravely for the Temple, and after a
+brief term of slavery at Alexandria, returns to his Galilean home with the
+favor of Titus.
+
+     "Mr. Henty's graphic prose pictures of the hopeless
+     Jewish resistance to Roman sway add another leaf to his
+     record of the famous wars of the world."--_Graphic._
+
+
+Facing Death; or, The Hero of the Vaughan Pit. A Tale of the Coal Mines. By
+G. A. HENTY. With full-page Illustrations by GORDON BROWNE. 12mo, cloth,
+price $1.00.
+
+"Facing Death" is a story with a purpose. It is intended to show that a lad
+who makes up his mind firmly and resolutely that he will rise in life, and
+who is prepared to face toil and ridicule and hardship to carry out his
+determination, is sure to succeed. The hero of the story is a typical
+British boy, dogged, earnest, generous, and though "shamefaced" to a
+degree, is ready to face death in the discharge of duty.
+
+     "The tale is well written and well illustrated, and
+     there is much reality in the characters. If any father,
+     clergyman, or schoolmaster is on the lookout for a good
+     book to give as a present to a boy who is worth his
+     salt, this is the book we would
+     recommend."--_Standard._
+
+
+Tom Temple's Career. By HORATIO ALGER. 12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+Tom Temple, a bright, self-reliant lad, by the death of his father becomes
+a boarder at the home of Nathan Middleton, a penurious insurance agent.
+Though well paid for keeping the boy, Nathan and his wife endeavor to bring
+Master Tom in line with their parsimonious habits. The lad ingeniously
+evades their efforts and revolutionizes the household. As Tom is heir to
+$40,000, he is regarded as a person of some importance until by an
+unfortunate combination of circumstances his fortune shrinks to a few
+hundreds. He leaves Plympton village to seek work in New York, whence he
+undertakes an important mission to California, around which center the most
+exciting incidents of his young career. Some of his adventures in the far
+west are so startling that the reader will scarcely close the book until
+the last page shall have been reached. The tale is written in Mr. Alger's
+most fascinating style, and is bound to please the very large class of boys
+who regard this popular author as a prime favorite.
+
+
+Maori and Settler: A Story of the New Zealand War. By G. A. HENTY. With
+full-page Illustrations by ALFRED PEARSE. 12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+The Renshaws emigrate to New Zealand during the period of the war with the
+natives. Wilfrid, a strong, self-reliant, courageous lad, is the mainstay
+of the household. He has for his friend Mr. Atherton, a botanist and
+naturalist of herculean strength and unfailing nerve and humor. In the
+adventures among the Maoris, there are many breathless moments in which the
+odds seem hopelessly against the party, but they succeed in establishing
+themselves happily in one of the pleasant New Zealand valleys.
+
+     "Brimful of adventure, of humorous and interesting
+     conversation, and vivid pictures of colonial
+     life."--_Schoolmaster._
+
+
+Julian Mortimer: A Brave Boy's Struggle for Home and Fortune. By HARRY
+CASTLEMON. 12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+Here is a story that will warm every boy's heart. There is mystery enough
+to keep any lad's imagination wound up to the highest pitch. The scene of
+the story lies west of the Mississippi River, in the days when emigrants
+made their perilous way across the great plains to the land of gold. One of
+the startling features of the book is the attack upon the wagon train by a
+large party of Indians. Our hero is a lad of uncommon nerve and pluck, a
+brave young American in every sense of the word. He enlists and holds the
+reader's sympathy from the outset. Surrounded by an unknown and constant
+peril, and assisted by the unswerving fidelity of a stalwart trapper, a
+real rough diamond, our hero achieves the most happy results. Harry
+Castlemon has written many entertaining stories for boys, and it would seem
+almost superfluous to say anything in his praise, for the youth of America
+regard him as a favorite author.
+
+
+"Carrots:" Just a Little Boy. By MRS. MOLESWORTH. With Illustrations by
+WALTER CRANE. 12mo, cloth, price 75 cents.
+
+     "One of the cleverest and most pleasing stories it has
+     been our good fortune to meet with for some time.
+     Carrots and his sister are delightful little beings,
+     whom to read about is at once to become very fond
+     of."--_Examiner._
+
+     "A genuine children's book; we've seen 'em seize it,
+     and read it greedily. Children are first-rate critics,
+     and thoroughly appreciate Walter Crane's
+     illustrations."--_Punch._
+
+
+Mopsa the Fairy. By JEAN INGELOW. With Eight page Illustrations. 12mo,
+cloth, price 75 cents.
+
+     "Mrs. Ingelow is, to our mind, the most charming of all
+     living writers for children, and 'Mopsa' alone ought to
+     give her a kind of pre-emptive right to the love and
+     gratitude of our young folks. It requires genius to
+     conceive a purely imaginary work which must of
+     necessity deal with the supernatural, without running
+     into a mere riot of fantastic absurdity; but genius
+     Miss Ingelow has and the story of 'Jack' is as careless
+     and joyous, but as delicate, as a picture of
+     childhood."--_Eclectic._
+
+
+A Jaunt Through Java: The Story of a Journey to the Sacred Mountain. By
+EDWARD S. ELLIS. 12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+The central interest of this story is found in the thrilling adventures of
+two cousins, Hermon and Eustace Hadley, on their trip across the island of
+Java, from Samarang to the Sacred Mountain. In a land where the Royal
+Bengal tiger runs at large; where the rhinoceros and other fierce beasts
+are to be met with at unexpected moments; it is but natural that the heroes
+of this book should have a lively experience. Hermon not only distinguishes
+himself by killing a full-grown tiger at short range, but meets with the
+most startling adventure of the journey. There is much in this narrative to
+instruct as well as entertain the reader, and so deftly has Mr. Ellis used
+his material that there is not a dull page in the book. The two heroes are
+brave, manly young fellows, bubbling over with boyish independence. They
+cope with the many difficulties that arise during the trip in a fearless
+way that is bound to win the admiration of every lad who is so fortunate as
+to read their adventures.
+
+
+Wrecked on Spider Island; or, How Ned Rogers Found the Treasure. By JAMES
+OTIS. 12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+A "down-east" plucky lad who ships as cabin boy, not from love of
+adventure, but because it is the only course remaining by which he can gain
+a livelihood. While in his bunk, seasick, Ned Rogers hears the captain and
+mate discussing their plans for the willful wreck of the brig in order to
+gain the insurance. Once it is known he is in possession of the secret the
+captain maroons him on Spider Island, explaining to the crew that the boy
+is afflicted with leprosy. While thus involuntarily playing the part of a
+Crusoe, Ned discovers a wreck submerged in the sand, and overhauling the
+timbers for the purpose of gathering material with which to build a hut,
+finds a considerable amount of treasure. Raising the wreck; a voyage to
+Havana under sail; shipping there a crew and running for Savannah; the
+attempt of the crew to seize the little craft after learning of the
+treasure on board, and, as a matter of course, the successful ending of the
+journey, all serve to make as entertaining a story of sea-life as the most
+captious boy could desire.
+
+
+Geoff and Jim: A Story of School Life. By ISMAY THORN. Illustrated by A. G.
+WALKER. 12mo, cloth, price 75 cents.
+
+     "This is a prettily told story of the life spent by two
+     motherless bairns at a small preparatory school. Both
+     Geoff and Jim are very lovable characters, only Jim is
+     the more so; and the scrapes he gets into and the
+     trials he endures will, no doubt, interest a large
+     circle of young readers."--_Church Times._
+
+     "This is a capital children's story, the characters
+     well portrayed, and the book tastefully bound and well
+     illustrated."--_Schoolmaster._
+
+     "The story can be heartily recommended as a present for
+     boys."--_Standard._
+
+
+The Castaways; or, On the Florida Reefs. By JAMES OTIS. 12mo, cloth, price
+$1.00.
+
+This tale smacks of the salt sea. It is just the kind of story that the
+majority of boys yearn for. From the moment that the Sea Queen dispenses
+with the services of the tug in lower New York bay till the breeze leaves
+her becalmed off the coast of Florida, one can almost hear the whistle of
+the wind through her rigging, the creak of her straining cordage as she
+heels to the leeward, and feel her rise to the snow-capped waves which her
+sharp bow cuts into twin streaks of foam. Off Marquesas Keys she floats in
+a dead calm. Ben Clark, the hero of the story, and Jake, the cook, spy a
+turtle asleep upon the glassy surface of the water. They determine to
+capture him, and take a boat for that purpose, and just as they succeed in
+catching him a thick fog cuts them off from the vessel, and then their
+troubles begin. They take refuge on board a drifting hulk, a storm arises
+and they are cast ashore upon a low sandy key. Their adventures from this
+point cannot fail to charm the reader. As a writer for young people Mr.
+Otis is a prime favorite. His style is captivating, and never for a moment
+does he allow the interest to flag. In "The Castaways" he is at his best.
+
+
+Tom Thatcher's Fortune. By HORATIO ALGER, JR. 12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+Like all of Mr. Alger's heroes, Tom Thatcher is a brave, ambitious,
+unselfish boy. He supports his mother and sister on meager wages earned as
+a shoe-pegger in John Simpson's factory. The story begins with Tom's
+discharge from the factory, because Mr. Simpson felt annoyed with the lad
+for interrogating him too closely about his missing father. A few days
+afterward Tom learns that which induces him to start overland for
+California with the view of probing the family mystery. He meets with many
+adventures. Ultimately he returns to his native village, bringing
+consternation to the soul of John Simpson, who only escapes the
+consequences of his villainy by making full restitution to the man whose
+friendship he had betrayed. The story is told in that entertaining way
+which has made Mr. Alger's name a household word in so many homes.
+
+
+Birdie: A Tale of Child Life. By H. L. CHILDE-PEMBERTON. Illustrated by H.
+W. RAINEY. 12mo, cloth, price 75 cents.
+
+     "The story is quaint and simple, but there is a
+     freshness about it that makes one hear again the
+     ringing laugh and the cheery shout of children at play
+     which charmed his earlier years."--_New York Express._
+
+
+Popular Fairy Tales. By the BROTHERS GRIMM. Profusely Illustrated, 12mo,
+cloth, price $1.00.
+
+     "From first to last, almost without exception, these
+     stories are delightful."--_Athenaeum._
+
+
+With Lafayette at Yorktown: A Story of How Two Boys Joined the Continental
+Army. By JAMES OTIS. 12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+The two boys are from Portsmouth, N. H., and are introduced in August,
+1781, when on the point of leaving home to enlist in Col. Scammell's
+regiment, then stationed near New York City. Their method of traveling is
+on horseback, and the author has given an interesting account of what was
+expected from boys in the Colonial days. The lads, after no slight amount
+of adventure, are sent as messengers--not soldiers--into the south to find
+the troops under Lafayette. Once with that youthful general they are given
+employment as spies, and enter the British camp, bringing away valuable
+information. The pictures of camp-life are carefully drawn, and the
+portrayal of Lafayette's character is thoroughly well done. The story is
+wholesome in tone, as are all of Mr. Otis' works. There is no lack of
+exciting incident which the youthful reader craves, but it is healthful
+excitement brimming with facts which every boy should be familiar with, and
+while the reader is following the adventures of Ben Jaffreys and Ned Allen
+he is acquiring a fund of historical lore which will remain in his memory
+long after that which he has memorized from text-books has been forgotten.
+
+
+Lost in the Canyon: Sam Willett's Adventures on the Great Colorado. By
+ALFRED R. CALHOUN. 12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+This story hinges on a fortune left to Sam Willett, the hero, and the fact
+that it will pass to a disreputable relative if the lad dies before he
+shall have reached his majority. The Vigilance Committee of Hurley's Gulch
+arrest Sam's father and an associate for the crime of murder. Their lives
+depend on the production of the receipt given for money paid. This is in
+Sam's possession at the camp on the other side of the canyon. A messenger is
+dispatched to get it. He reaches the lad in the midst of a fearful storm
+which floods the canyon. His father's peril urges Sam to action. A raft is
+built on which the boy and his friends essay to cross the torrent. They
+fail to do so, and a desperate trip down the stream ensues. How the party
+finally escape from the horrors of their situation and Sam reaches Hurley's
+Gulch in the very nick of time, is described in a graphic style that stamps
+Mr. Calhoun as a master of his art.
+
+
+Jack: A Topsy Turvy Story. By C. M. CRAWLEY-BOEVEY. With upward of Thirty
+Illustrations by H. J. A. MILES. 12mo, cloth, price 75 cents.
+
+     "The illustrations deserve particular mention, as they
+     add largely to the interest of this amusing volume for
+     children. Jack falls asleep with his mind full of the
+     subject of the fishpond, and is very much surprised
+     presently to find himself an inhabitant of Waterworld,
+     where he goes through wonderful and edifying
+     adventures. A handsome and pleasant book."--_Literary
+     World._
+
+
+Search for the Silver City: A Tale of Adventure in Yucatan. By JAMES OTIS.
+12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+Two American lads, Teddy Wright and Neal Emery, embark on the steam yacht
+Day Dream for a short summer cruise to the tropics. Homeward bound the
+yacht is destroyed by fire. All hands take to the boats, but during the
+night the boat is cast upon the coast of Yucatan. They come across a young
+American named Cummings, who entertains them with the story of the
+wonderful Silver City, of the Chan Santa Cruz Indians. Cummings proposes
+with the aid of a faithful Indian ally to brave the perils of the swamp and
+carry off a number of the golden images from the temples. Pursued with
+relentless vigor for days their situation is desperate. At last their
+escape is effected in an astonishing manner. Mr. Otis has built his story
+on an historical foundation. It is so full of exciting incidents that the
+reader is quite carried away with the novelty and realism of the narrative.
+
+
+Frank Fowler, the Cash Boy. By HORATIO ALGER, JR. 12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+Thrown upon his own resources Frank Fowler, a poor boy, bravely determines
+to make a living for himself and his foster-sister Grace. Going to New York
+he obtains a situation as cash boy in a dry goods store. He renders a
+service to a wealthy old gentleman named Wharton, who takes a fancy to the
+lad. Frank, after losing his place as cash boy, is enticed by an enemy to a
+lonesome part of New Jersey and held a prisoner. This move recoils upon the
+plotter, for it leads to a clue that enables the lad to establish his real
+identity. Mr. Alger's stories are not only unusually interesting, but they
+convey a useful lesson of pluck and manly independence.
+
+
+Budd Boyd's Triumph; or, the Boy Firm of Fox Island. By WILLIAM P. CHIPMAN.
+12mo, cloth, price $1.00.
+
+The scene of this story is laid on the upper part of Narragansett Bay, and
+the leading incidents have a strong salt-water flavor. Owing to the
+conviction of his father for forgery and theft, Budd Boyd is compelled to
+leave his home and strike out for himself. Chance brings Budd in contact
+with Judd Floyd. The two boys, being ambitious and clear sighted, form a
+partnership to catch and sell fish. The scheme is successfully launched,
+but the unexpected appearance on the scene of Thomas Bagsley, the man whom
+Budd believes guilty of the crimes attributed to his father, leads to
+several disagreeable complications that nearly caused the lad's ruin. His
+pluck and good sense, however, carry him through his troubles. In following
+the career of the boy firm of Boyd & Floyd, the youthful reader will find a
+useful lesson--that industry and perseverance are bound to lead to ultimate
+success.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Little Princess of Tower Hill, by L. T. Meade
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE PRINCESS OF TOWER HILL ***
+
+***** This file should be named 38771.txt or 38771.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/7/7/38771/
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Josephine Paolucci and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
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