Jonah

darkness. The two mates dropped silently over the fence, and, with the stealthy movements of cats, clambered through t

id Chook, yawning.

ave bin a fire by the way I see yer run. W'y was yer runnin' so 'ard?" Then his fa

ough ter give us away?"

ake the Ivy Street Push a p

next best thing," replied Choo

a dark patch on one toe. It looked as if he had kicked something wet.

t," he thought. "'O

ater, he washed it off carefully. And, as he rubbed, the whole scenes passed through his brain in rapid succession-the Angel, bright and alluring with the sin

ken in the stoushing, as his hunchback made him conspicuous. He wondered carelessly what had happened after the Push bolted. These affairs were so uncertain. Sometimes the victim could limp home, mottled with bruises; just as often he was taken to the hospital in a cab, and a magistrate

his tongue and paralysed his thoughts. His mind recoiled with terror as he saw where his lawless ways had carried him, feeling already branded with the mark of Cain, which the instinct of the people has singled out as the unpar

th a sudden cry of astonishment he remembered the baby. The affair of the bricklayer had driven it completely out of his mind. His thoughts returned to Card

e figure he cut when Chook appeared. He decided to look on the affair as a joke. But again his thoughts returned to the child, and he was surprised

nt separated the hunchback from his fellows. He thought with a fierce joy of his son's straight back and shapely limbs. This was his child, that he could claim and exhibit to the world. Then his delight changed to a vague terr

he Ivy Street Push, but released them for want of evidence. In the hospital the bricklayer professed a comple

e offenders to book, the magistrates, who seemed to regard these outrages as the playful excesses of wanton blood, would have let them off w

perate flight through avenues of silent, impassive streets that heard with indifference his cry for help. I

if he had discovered an unmanly taste for mud pies and dolls. But the imperious instinct was aroused, and he gratified it in secret, caressing the child by stealth as a miser runs to his hoard. I

shock. She was chopping wood in the yard. She swung the axe with a grunt, and the billet, split in two

at axe; I niver like te

had watched her grunt and sweat without stirring a fin

tive haste, when it caught sight of his familiar features. Jonah, off his guar

ter, Joe?" cried Mr

tongue, but he looked again at his

, reddening. "Me an' the kid took

sed a sin or had a tooth drawn. He took the child from Ada,

scornful at this development, jealous of the ch

For a moment she was too amazed to think; then, with a rapid change of

yer'd got a soft 'eart," she cried. "An' 'e's the very im

irred inanimate nature seemed to touch his pulse to a quicker and lighter beat. He sat for hours in the backyard, once a garden, screened from observation, with the child on his knees. The blood ran pleasantly in

er; he was considerate, even kind. Then he began to drop in on Monday or Tuesday instead of loafing with the Push at the corner. Ada was at the factory; but Mrs Yabsley, sorting piles of dirty line

in her arms, and regarded them with a puzzling smile. The baby lay on its back, staring into space with sole

d of 'im, if y'ain't caref

oublin' yer?" said

ine child 'e'd be in a few years. It'

looking up angrily. "W'ere do

w," said Mrs Yabsley. "There's tw

ught o' that," said Jo

ple do, worse luck

ey turned and poked the fire under the copper b

le in a ladder plain enough! Y

the fire and stoo

udlarks as can't look a p'liceman straight in the face. You an' yer pals are seein' life now all right; but wait till yer bones begin ter stiffen, an'

ake, missis," interrupt

'e wants a woman ter cook 'is meals. My idea is a man wants ter git married because 'e's found out a lot o' surprisin' things in the world 'e niver dreamt of before. An' it

edin' sure," crie

see everything. But I wasn't always so fat I 'ad ter squeeze through the door, an' I tell yer the best things in life are them yer can't see at all, an' tha

Can't a bloke git

ed, with an odd s

perplexed frown, and then

raight talk, I tell yer there's more in me than yer think, an' if it's u

An' don't say I ever put it inter yer 'ead ter git married. You've studied the matter, an' yer know it means 'a

a chance. There's Tom Mullins, that was after Ada before she ever took up wi' yous. Only last week 'e told Mrs Jones '

yer neck," cried Jona

one the trick, an' I want ter git ma

ent, but a wonderful

yer there's somethin' in me trembles w'en I touch this kid? I

," cried Mrs Yabsley, in ecstasy-"the sweetest cry

e got in the wide world, as far as I know. More than that, 'e's t

is deformity. A tremor in his voice made her look at him sharply. Tears

I wanted yer to do the straight thing by Ada, but I wasn't sure yer'd

e damned!"

said Mrs Yabsley.

ry to his usual habit, for Mrs Yabsley

ittin' married, Ada?" he said

iddin'!" she cried

nkum!" s

lmly as if she were accepti

was incorrigibly lazy and hated work, going through the round of mechanical toil in a slovenly

gittin' married, Joe?" inqu

enly remembering that he knew

se," said Ada. "Yer walk in an'

e understood vaguely that weddings were expensive

y. I know all about them. Yer sign a piece of paper, an' then the bloke tells yer ye're married. 'Ow does 'e know ye're married? 'E ai

the street would turn out to the wedding. And now, after years of planning and

skimmed milk," she reflected, a

er was genuine. And casting about in her mind for a parson who would marry them

iff-raff, and taught them elementary morality with the aid of boxing-gloves; and offended his congregation by treating the poor with the same consideration as themselves. And then, astonished by the number of mothers who were not wi

es, and a chorus that shook the windows. Well, such things were not to be, and she shut her mouth grimly. But she determined in secret to get in a dozen of beer, and invite a few friends after the ceremony to drink the healt