her's certificate-case was returned to him, the officers expressed a
hope that he might be some day accepted, if he could learn.

He went forward, much dejected, to find Bill Hudson; for this was but
small consolation to him. How could he learn to read and write, when
all his strength would be required to obtain food for his subsistence?
So he thought.

Bill heard his account of what had happened.

"If you had said that you couldn't read and write, I could have told you
what would happen. But, don't be cast down, Ned. Little more than
three years ago, I couldn't read nor write, and hadn't shoes to my feet,
and scarce a rag on my back. I was a poor outcast boy, without father
or mother--no shelter for my head, and often no food to eat. I picked
up a living as I could, holding horses, running errands, when anybody
would trust me. I didn't steal, but I was often and often very near
doing so, as I passed the butchers', and fruiterers', and bakers'
shops--just to fill my empty stomach. It wasn't so much because I
wouldn't do it, as because I knew that they kept a sharp look-out, and I
should have been caught. At last I thought I would try it on; and I
didn't care if I was sent to prison, for I should have been fed, at all
events: but that very day a gentleman passing, saw me watching a stall,
the owner of which had just left it, as if I was going to take whatever
I could grab; and so I was. And he asked me if I was hungry; and he
gave me a roll from his pocket, and then he asked me where I lived, and
I said `Nowhere;' and then he told me that if I would follow him he
would show me where I could get food and shelter, and, might be,
clothing and instruction, and means, too, of gaining my livelihood.
Though I didn't much credit him, I went; and he took me to the Field
Lane Ragged School, as it is called; and there I found all he told me,
and more. I soon showed them that I didn't want to eat the bread of
idleness, and they got me employment in the day, and in the evening I
used to go regularly to the school, and sleep in the Refuge, till I
earned enough, by working four days, to go to the day-school for two
days; and I soon learned to read and write; and more than that, Ned, I
learned what made me a Christian, which I wasn't before I went there.
For, I tell you, Ned, I was a heathen; I knew no more about God and his
love for man than a block of stone; and I thought that he hated poor
people, and sent them all to hel