's keeper
knew his business. I heard a gun go off; you can guess the rest. God
preserve me from ever feeling such misery again as I felt when I lay
down by Tommy, and took him, dead and bloody, in my arms! The keeper
attempted to part us; I bit him, like the wild animal I was. He tried
the stick on me next; he might as well have tried it on one of the
trees. The noise reached the ears of two young ladies riding near the
place--daughters of the gentleman on whose property I was a trespasser.
They were too well brought up to lift their voices against the sacred
right of preserving game, but they were kind-hearted girls, and they
pitied me, and took me home with them. I remember the gentlemen of the
house (keen sportsmen all of them) roaring with laughter as I went by
the windows, crying, with my little dead dog in my arms. Don't suppose
I complain of their laughter; it did me good service; it roused the
indignation of the two ladies. One of them took me into her own garden,
and showed me a place where I might bury my dog under the flowers, and
be sure that no other hands should ever disturb him again. The other
went to her father, and persuaded him to give the forlorn little
vagabond a chance in the house, under one of the upper servants. Yes!
you have been cruising in company with a man who was once a foot-boy.
I saw you look at me, when I amused Mr. Armadale by laying the cloth
on board the yacht. Now you know why I laid it so neatly, and forgot
nothing. It has been my good fortune to see something of society; I have
helped to fill its stomach and black its boots. My experience of the
servants' hall was not a long one. Before I had worn out my first suit
of livery, there was a scandal in the house. It was the old story; there
is no need to tell it over again for the thousandth time. Loose money
left on a table, and not found there again; all the servants with
characters to appeal to except the foot-boy, who had been rashly taken
on trial. Well! well! I was lucky in that house to the last; I was not
prosecuted for taking what I had not only never touched, but never even
seen: I was only turned out. One morning I went in my old clothes to the
grave where I had buried Tommy. I gave the place a kiss; I said good-by
to my little dead dog; and there I was, out in the world again, at the
ripe age of thirteen years!"

"In that friendless state, and at that tender age," said Mr. Brock, "did
no thought cross your mind of going ho