Captain Bayley's Heir:

ed in again at the Holls'. It was a bright day, and H

sir, how much good you have done him. The boy has generally wonderful good spirits, considering his condition; still, though he don't say

y must have cheated Evan altogether, for it ain't a new un, but an old, brown, dirty-looking thing, as looks as if it had been made nigh fifty years; and they goes and charges

on't know, though I do allow it ain't so squeaky as the other; and sometimes when Harry is playing soft

ou know there are some fiddles two or three hundred years old whi

e or four hundred pounds for such a thing

rank said, changing the subject; "a regular genius I sh

p, is Harry. But he ain't no son of mine, Mr. Norris, though h

, Mrs. Holl, if it is not

relation at all, sir,

ing him up, Mrs. Holl?"

ow it happened." And, leaning against the mantelpiece, with the red light of the fire thrown up into

ohn, who was just come home from work-John is my husband, you see, sir-when we heard a noise outside in the street. We went

or my heart yearned towards the poor young thing-'bring her in here; mayn't we, John?' says I. Well, sir, John did not say nothing, but he took the baby out of her arms and gave it

know what about, for it were some foreign language. She were very gentle and quiet like, but I don't think she ever knew where she was, or anything about it. She were very fond of baby, and would take it in he

't 'ee send the little baby to the workhouse; He has taken away our own little one, and may be He has sent this one for us to love in his place. Let us take him as our own.' John, he did not say nothing, but he up and gived me a great kiss, and

it, simply, and as a matter of course, all unconscious of the good part she h

d furtively across his eyes, and then shook Mrs. Holl warmly by the ha

, my heart went out to the poor little thing, and it seemed sent natural like, to fill up the place of the little angel who was gone from us. Bless your heart, sir, there weren't nothing out of the way in that, n

iginally lame, Mrs.

pened; but never shall I forget when they brought him in, and said that a cart had run over him. John, he was in-which was lucky, for I think I lost my head like, and went clean out of my mind for a bit, for I loved him just like my o

complained, and his chief trouble was for my sake. At last he got well; but the doctors said he would never walk again, for they thought

e neighbours, they lent him their schoolbooks, and taught him what they knew, and in a short time, bless you,

must be going now, or else I shall be late for school. Tell Harry I am sorry I missed him,

st thank you hisself; except when he is playing on his fiddle he is always reading at them, and it is as much as I can do to get him outside the doors. He was never very fond of it, for he thinks peop

" and Frank, putting on his hat, made off at a sharp ru

of the importance of his position as a Sixth town boy and head of Richards'. Between him and Frank there was no cordiality, for it irritated him that the latter was upon all occasions appealed to, and his advice asked in everything relating to games, and all matters of dispute referred to him. Frank, on the other hand, although he at all times gave way to Johnstone in ho

sed Frank's study almost as much as their own; one or other would generally come in to work with him in the eve

wasn't out of bounds,"

in Frank's room before turning into bed. Frank was sitting in a rickety

ish so, Harri

rly every day. Thompson, the home boarder, told me he saw a regular

en we may go along the other way, by the new Houses of Parliament, to Westminster Bridge, and across the bridge to baths; but we may not go out from Dean's Yard and walk across in front of the Abbey to the Bridge. I expect when the rules were made there were no houses built beyond us, and there were fields

aid; "it would be shocking bad luck to run

r tail-coats. Of course the jackets for the fellows under the Upper 'Shell' are all right, but one cannot go on wearing jackets higher than that; still, I do think they might let us wear cutaways; tail-coats were

w Johnstone would lose his importance without

s a gene

I don't think there is any chance of our getting to see the fun in Trafalgar Square. I should like to go to one of the halls where those fellows spout, and to get up and say something the other way. Of cour

be the trouble of gett

over that," Harris replied;

f that sort only one of our fags must know it. I can trust young Phillpot to ho

bounds, but it was strictly against the rules for any boy to enter a public-house; nevertheless, a good many of the Westminster boys had learned boxing from this worthy. There was a private entrance behind the house into what Perkins called his "saloon," and the boys strove t

een's Scholars and the Sixth Form town boys, and these kept a far more rigorous hand over the younger boys than the masters could possibly have done. A vigorous thrashing was the punishment for shirking fields,

se of smoking and drinking. But these did so at hours when there was no chance of finding Perkins at work with his pupils, for

as one of Perkins's best pupils, and the latter had more than once been heard

ed me off my pins. I'd back him now for fifty pounds against any novice in England; and as for pluck, I have never seen him wince, hit him as hard as you will he always comes up smiling. Barkley, he is a good boxer too, but he ain't got temper, sir; he gets nasty if he has a sharp counter; and though he keeps cool enough, there is an ugly look a

id, as Frank, after entering the saloon, rang a bell which sounded in the bar

d therefore have only five minutes to stay. I just dropped in

s; anything I can do for

lark to go up to one of those halls where those C

ny lark in it," Perkins replied, "

t to get up a row; but if there w

side of the water, not far from the New Cut, where they meet. Bill Lowe, him as comes here to spar twice a week, yer know, he goes there; he takes up with them Chartist notions, which I don't hold with no ways. I don't see nothing in them seven pints as would do anything for the ring

e always great hands for jaw, them tailors and shoemakers, but I never seed one as I would put five pound on in a twelve-foot ring. Poor undersi

mind was now

t School lately, and three or four of us have set our minds on it.

ted it; he had strict orders to take his place at an upper window at eleven o'clock and watch for their return. If when they made their appearance the house was quiet and the lights out, he wa

public-house, the prize-fi

down over yer faces. Now mind, young gents, if there's a row

kins, but there

Cut; past the New Houses of Parliament-still in the hands of the builders-over Wes

of fruit, vegetables, and shell-fish, mingled with the Babel of voices from the throng of people who loitered about the street, which was regarded as the promenade of the neighb

nce, no posters with huge letters and sensational headings invited the public to enter; one solitary lamp hung over the d

Lor' bless you! the police don't trouble about them. When these chaps gets to making rows in the street, and to kicking up a rumpus, then they will have some

oloured by smoke and dirt, that the whole were reduced to a dingy brown. At the end at which they entered was a gallery extending some fifteen feet into the room, at the other end was a raised platform, with a drop curtain. The latter was now raised, and displayed a table with half a dozen chairs. The chairman for the evening was seated in the centre of the table.

low-workmen, your cheers are evidence how deeply you have been moved by the noble words of my friend Mr. Duggins, and how your blood boils at the

OF THE CHAR

f boot-closing; his eyes were small, and sunken in his head; his nose wide and flat, as if in his early youth he had fallen on t

as the British Constitution will be rent and trampled under foot, when the myrmidons of power will flee before an uprisen people. They know it, these oppressors of ours; they tremble in their palaces and mansions

suddenly stilled by the sound of the emphatic "Bosh!" which Frank shouted at the top of his voice. Every one turned rou

ntruded upon the deliberations of this a

to press upon the little group standing at the back of the room

d no mistake," Perkins said; "the so

e; the crowd had already inter

d we don't want to hurt any one. Some of you may know me: I am Perkins

, had imbibed sufficient to render them va

ll red-haired fellow who had singled out Frank, was met by a blow which knocked him off his feet, and he fell backward as if shot. Their vigo

oor; they are breaking up the chairs, an

l opposition, to the door, Perkins leading, while Bill

re in high glee over their adventure, which all agreed had been a splendid lark, and was the more satisfactory as all had escaped without any mark which would testify against them. It was still early, and they had for two hours to walk the streets until the whistle of