ed period to gaze at
her as if in solemn wonder. Mrs Marrot declared baby's gaze to be one
of admiration, but John held that it was owing to the state of
exhaustion that resulted from an unusually long fit of yelling. While
he stared thus, Gertie, having completed a number of little operations
and put the finishing touches or _pats_ to them, became suddenly aware
that every one was laughing quietly.

"What is it?" she asked, relaxing the severity of her brow and
brightening up.

They all laughed still more at this, and Gertie, looking round for an
explanation, encountered baby's glaring eyes, whereupon, supposing that
she had found out the cause, she laughed too. But she quickly dismissed
her levity and recurred to her work with renewed diligence.

It was well for the engine-driver that he had been trained in a rough
school, for his powers of endurance were severely tested that night, by
the attentions of his numerous friends who called to inquire for him,
and in some cases insisted on seeing him.

Among others came one of the directors of the company, who, seeing how
matters stood, with much consideration said that he would not sit down,
but had merely looked in for a moment, to tell John Marrot that an
appointment had been found for his son Robert in the "Works," and that
if he would send him over in the morning he would be introduced to the
locomotive superintendent and initiated into the details of his new
sphere of action.

This was very gratifying to the engine-driver of course, but much more
so to Bob himself, whose highest earthly ambition was to become, as he
styled it, an engineer. When that aspiring youth came home that night
after cleaning his lamps, he wiped his oily hands on a bundle of waste,
and sat down beside his sire to inquire considerately into his state of
body, and to give him, as he expressed it, the noos of the line.

"You see, daddy," he said, "the doctor tells me you're to be kep' quiet,
an' not allowed to talk, so in course you've got nothin' to do but lie
still an' listen while I give 'ee the noos. So 'ere goes. An' don't
you sit too near baby, mother, else you'll wake 'im up, an' we'll have a
yell as'll put talkin' out o' the question. Well then--"

"Bob," said Loo, interrupting her brother as she sat down opposite, and
began to mend one of baby's pinafores--which by the way was already so
mended and patched as to have lost much of its original form and
appearance--"Bob, Mr A