a good education, help him towards being the great man
that I say he will one day become. You will have found a faithful,
loving, lifelong friend, something as faithful and devoted as the
friend whose life he himself mourns to-night.'

"'Poor old dog,' said Alderman Gold, 'I can't help him now, I wish I
could, but I'll help the other, by Jove, I will; of course I'll see he
has a good home, I'll see he's educated.'

"'I think he will repay you for all the money you will spend upon his
education,' said the Lion, significantly.

"'And I mean to spend money,' said the Alderman. 'I've been a beastly
miser, that's what I've been, but I shall never have that taunt flung
at me again.'

"'Good,' nodded the Lion. 'Help him bury his pet in the big garden of
your London house, and bury at the same time all the past you want to
forget.'

"'I will,' said the Alderman. 'Here, come along and get fed. Here,
what's your name?'

"'Skylark,' prompted the Lion.

"'Skylark? A very good name,' said the Alderman; 'it suggests Spring,
and--and----'

"'Going steadily upward,' prompted the Lion.

"'By Jove, Lal, you're wonderful,' exclaimed the Alderman. 'How can I
thank you for giving me my sight again, for making a different man of
me? and, good gracious, now I come to think of it clearly and
reasonably, every single thing you have told me has always been true.'

"'If you believe that,' said the Lion, 'listen attentively to the last
thing I tell you, even more upon account of it being the last time I
shall actually _speak_ to either of you.'

"'Say on, Lal, we cannot do without your help; I know I can't, and I
thought I could do most things.'

"'You may consider it most inconsequent of me to mention such a
childishly fabled person to you as Dick Whittington, and yet strangely
enough that hero of a nursery legend will have a great deal in common
with both of you in your future lives.'

"'Shall I be Lord Mayor of London three times?' laughed the Alderman,
who had appeared suddenly to have discovered how to laugh, and it
sounded strange to hear him.

"'I won't say _three_ times,' said the Lion, 'but you will be one of
the greatest Lord Mayors of London in about fourteen years from now;
you will be knighted, and you will become one of the most beloved and
benevolent men in the whole City of London.'

"'That sounds fine,' said the Alderman; 'how about Master Skylark?'

"'Too early to prophesy,' said the Lion, 'with certa