Bob was his
favorite among the dancing girls, and she--or should it be he? The odd
thing about these girls was that a number of them were really boys--or
at least were boys at Christmas-time, which seemed to Tommy to be even
stranger than if they had been boys all the year round. A friend of
Bob's remarked to her one day, "You are to be a girl next winter, ain't
you, Bob?" and Bob shook her head scornfully.

"Do you see any green in my eye, my dear?" she inquired.

Her friend did not look, but Tommy looked, and there was none. He
assured her of this so earnestly that Bob fell in love with him on the
spot, and chucked him under the chin, first with her thumb and then with
her toe, which feat was duly reported to Shovel, who could do it by the
end of the week.

Did Tommy, Bob wanted to know, still think her a mere woman?

No, he withdrew the charge, but--but--She was wearing her outdoor
garments, and he pointed to them, "Why does yer wear them, then?" he
demanded.

"For the matter of that," she replied, pointing at his frock, "why do
you wear them?" Whereupon Tommy began to cry.

"I ain't not got no right ones," he blubbered. Harum-scarum Bob, who
was a trump, had him in her motherly arms immediately, and the upshot of
it was that a blue suit she had worn when she was Sam Something changed
owners. Mrs. Sandys "made it up," and that is how Tommy got into
trousers.

Many contingencies were considered in the making, but the suit would fit
Tommy by and by if he grew, or it shrunk, and they did not pass each
other in the night. When proud Tommy first put on his suit the most
unexpected shyness overcame him, and having set off vaingloriously he
stuck on the stair and wanted to hide. Shovel, who had been having an
argument with his old girl, came, all boastful bumps, to him, and Tommy
just stood still with a self-conscious simper on his face. And Shovel,
who could have damped him considerably, behaved in the most honorable
manner, initiating him gravely into the higher life, much as you show
the new member round your club.

It was very risky to go back to Reddy, whom he had not seen for many
weeks; but in trousers! He could not help it. He only meant to walk up
and down her street, so that she might see him from the window, and know
that this splendid thing was he; but though he went several times into
the street, Reddy never came to the window.

The reason he had to wait in vain at Reddy's door was that she was dead;