her out of
the house and deposited her in the street, in spite of the incautious
attempt I made to effect a rescue. The moment I got outside the house
one of the bailiffs, turning round, seized me in a vice-like grasp, and
the other then entering, led out Mary, who saw that resistance was
hopeless. He next walked back, took the key from the door, and, having
locked it, released Nancy and re-entered the house with the chair.
Before Nancy could follow him he had shut himself in, while his
companion, letting me go with a shove which sent me staggering across
the street, walked off, I concluded to tell the lawyer who sent him and
his mate that they had got possession of the house.

Nancy was standing, with her fists clenched, too much astonished at the
way she had been treated to speak. Mary was in tears, trembling all
over.

"Oh, Peter, what are we to do?" she asked.

"I'll go to Lawyer Chalk and hear what he says," I answered. "If the
house and boat ought to be ours, he'll get them back; if not, I can't
say just now what we must do. Meantime do you and Nancy go to Widow
Simmons's, and wait there. She was always a friend of mother's, and
will be glad to help you."

Mary agreed, but Nancy, who at length found her tongue, declared that
she wasn't going to lose sight of the house, and that she would stay
where she was and watch and tell the folks who passed how we had been
treated. As nothing I could say would induce her to move, I accompanied
Mary to the widow's, where I left her, and hastened on to Mr Chalk's.
The lawyer made a long face when I told him how we had been treated.

"I told you that `possession is nine-tenths of the law,' my lad, and now
they are in and you are out," he answered. "It's a bad job--but we'll
see what can be done. We must obtain at all events your clothes, and
any other private property you may possess. Now go, my lad, and call
upon me in a week or two; I shall see Bob Fox in the meantime."

Soon after leaving the lawyer's I met Jim Pulley. Having seen Nancy, he
was fuming with indignation at our having been turned out of our home,
and proposed trying to break into the house to regain possession, but I
had sense enough to know that we must abide by the law, whichever way
that decided I found Nancy still keeping watch before the door, and
vehemently appealing to all who would stop to listen to her. It was
with some difficulty that I at length persuaded her to go with me to
Mrs S