Harding's luck

l her heart that she had just such a little boy of her own; and when Dickie awoke and looked in

lf, "not the way she's got up; nor y

ked him, stroking his hair w

treat,"

bed comf

ever I felt of anythink quite as soft without it was t

eathers," she said, and Dickie

e boy?" he asked, pursuing

clothes. As it is, we shall have to put you int

ather 'e bought me a little coat for w

out?

il, but the lady said after breakfast, and now it was time for our bath. And sure enough there was a bath of steaming water before the fireplace, which

lady, turning bac

hout his crutch. It was not because he thought she would make fun of him; perhaps it was because he knew she would not. A

were round him

ever is it?" she asked;

t it. Anything 'ud do-if 'twas only an old broom cut down to me 'eight

re was scented soap, there was a

ravesend," said Dickie, and

when,

day," said Di

in silver dishes, and the very eggs had silver cups to sit in, and all the spoons and forks had dogs scratched on them like the one that was carved on the foot

oyous recognition, "my Tinkler's got this o

kissed her, and said, How were we this morning, Dickie had to tell about Tinkler all over again; and then the lady said

suddenly bursting all down one side and running over into the salt, which, of cours

eat the egg-cup," he said. "We shal

, he thought, not to know the difference between licking and eating. And as if

e, and then turned and gazed out of the window. So Dickie had a good look at the room and the furniture-it was all different from anything he ever remembered seeing, and yet he couldn't help thinking he had seen them before, these high-backed chairs covered with flowers, like on carpets; the carved bookcases with rows on rows of golden-beaded books; the bow-fronted, shining sideboard, with handles

ws, when the lady turned suddenly, knelt down, pu

would you like to stay he

gh," said he, "only I g

ather say

with certainty, "an' be

y till we find out where father is. We shall l

d in horror. "Why, father

olice know all sorts of things-about where people are, I know

olly sight too much,"

hom he called father; the man who had been kind to him, had wheeled him in a perambulator for miles and miles through enchanted country; the man who had bought him a li

ost imagined that he remembered. The lady was better than beautiful, she was dear. Her eyes were the eyes to which it is good

o had been kind, wh

ith pictures of things that had happened and been since the days of Hereward himself.

to find out "where he was and what he was doing?". . . Somehow or other Dickie must get to Gravesend, to that house where there had bee

he laws of fair play there ought

He no longer cared for it. All he cared for was to find a friend who woul

ho, unseen by Dickie, had brought the bath-water and the bat

self in," she

't," s

in't I got clever brothers and sisters?"

nd nobody ain't makin' a

t e'er a shirt to their backs and makes fools of their betters. That's t

said

l stay. But if I'm expected to call you Master Whatever-your-si

stay," said Dic

mpatiently, and left him, without havi

fect dream of a pony, and the lady allowed him to hold the reins. But even amid this delight he rememb

ands when the drive was over, and Markham was

ng the soap and silver and marble

difference. It ain't my work neither, and I ain't so u

ed him, not

nto me," he said as the towel was plie

u littl

I should be ashamed to show my face 'ere, if I was you, after last night. There, you're dry now. Cut alo

icture-books, a clockwork bear, a musical box, and a doll's house almost as big as a small villa, an idea kept on hammering at the other side of a locked

ep well, darling," said the lady; and with the idea very ne

e good. I do love you." The

e milk Dickie said, "You

aid she d

m I to get away-

run if you was the same as

said

nick an

omin' thin

, "you've got a spir

ckie, "I wants to

said Markham, qui

out? Once I was outside t

d Markham; "don't you say anothe

sleep quite satisfied with the last words that had

him and his crutch down the back stairs and into that very butler's pantry through whose

o the station 'fore any one's up. They'd only go to waste if 'e wasn't to sell 'em. See? An' he's a particular f

. And Markham lifted Dickie to the

'm sorry I was so short. An' you d

I'll never split about him sel

ment he was through the window, and Joe was laying him in

in the train you just cut the string with this 'ere little knife I'll make you a present of and out you ge

. He was used to the perambulator; and he ate as much as he wanted to eat, and when that was done he put the rest in his pocket and curled up comfortably in the straw, for there was still quite a lot left of what ordinary people consider night, and also there was quite a lot left of the sleepiness with which he had gone to bed at the end of the wonderful day. It

FACES LOOKED

ag

onger any need to cut the string of the hamper. Some one else had done that, and the lid of

at up. The little crutch, which was lying corner-wise abo

id another voice. "Come out,

s that were held out to him. A lady in black-her figure was as slender as her hand

here, showed him that he was in a sh

ender lady-"oh, do come here

, big-nosed man

slender lady, who had a pale, kind

id the dark man. "Our gardening friend wa

wriggling earnestly in his high chai

round him with que

e gardener's," he said, "but I was asleep. I don't know as ever I slep' so sound af

k; but I am afraid she was not very particular, and she may have thought it best to send Dickie to sle

n-"why put boyth in bathketth? Upthettin

don't want to go upsetting of people. If you'll

es would not hear

rg was a kind man or they would not have dared to speak so to him; "let's keep him til

ffect," as policemen call it when they are

rg, "only you muthn't let him in

nd they were very nice to Dickie. They gave him grapes, and a banan

. Because, however kind people were, there was one thing he had to do-to g

Dickie's honor, which made him uncomfortable, but duty is duty, and over the Gravesend lodging-house the star of duty shone and beckoned. The third young l

s saying-"cath down enth

g, "I am extremely sorry, si

the grapes and melons, holding on to the shelf on which they la

a sort of covered Arcade; turned its corner and found himself in a wilderness of baskets and carts and vegetables, threaded his way through them, in and out among the baskets, over fallen cabbage-leaves, under hors

forgotten to put it on? He did not know. All he knew was that the belt was not on him, and that he was alone in London,

ked the first good-natured-looking

" said the loafer; "don't

s the way?"

and then pointed with a gri

it's a yard," he sa

ckie. "My farver's t

man; "you don't

for anything except t

pulled his hand out of his pocket. "Ain't kiddi

" said

get a blue 'bus as'll take you to the 'Elephant.' That's a bit of the way. T

more than all the kisses of the young ladies in

error," he said. "Do the same

ging man

en you're a-ridin' in yer carriage an' pair

Dickie, quite seriously. A

d Gravesend. When he got out of the tram Dickie asked the way again, this time of a woman

said, in a tired voice;

familiar surroundings. For the Old Kent Road leads into the New Cross Road, and that runs right through the yellow brick wilderness where Dickie's aunt lived. H

one could get a lift? Dickie looked anxiously to right and left, in front and behind. There were woo

'S

ONLY

of the boxes-they did not rea

Or should he, if he could, climb up and hide on the boxes and take

voice surprisingly in

animal, and turned and faced a boy of his own age, a schoolfe

e said; "thought you was my aunt

n?" asked the

e answered vaguely. "D

The boy was quite contemptuo

No. Kno

says he don't remember where to. She g

, interest in his aunt's address swall

p to let apply Roberts 796 Broadway,"

ay from the van, which had abruptly bec

past your old

e you again some day. I got to

rabbit-hutch, the garden where he had sowed the parrot food, and where the moonflowers had come up so w

ite stone. Had his aunt found them and taken them away? If she hadn't and they were still there, would it not be wise to get them at once? Because of course some one else might take the house and find the tr

There are so many boys in the streets in that part of the world. And the

His hands found the soft bundle of rags that he knew held Tinkler and the seal. He put them inside the front of his shirt and shuffl

ll in the deepening dusk. He touched the stalk. It was dry and hard-th

had done when he saved the parrot seeds. One does not tramp the count

stalk of the moonflower, very carefully so that none of the seeds should be, and only a few were, lost.

LINES OF SILVERY SEE

ag

e floor. He spread a sheet of it out, kneeled by it and shook the moonflower head over it. The seeds came rattling out-dozens and dozens of t

s slide through his fingers. Have you ever played with mother-of-

the heap of seeds. And then knew quite suddenly th

w by experience that, as bed-clothes, newspapers are warm

. He did not feel afraid of sleeping in an empty house, only very lordly and magnificent because he had a whole house to himself. The food still l

ranged in patterns round them, circles and squares and oblongs. The seeds lay very flat and fitted close together. They were excel

e middle, and the light from the s

e lot," said Dickie Harding

the mag