of these strays. They were the usual flotsam and jetsam,
but on the roadside near a hop garden he came upon a group of an aspect
so unusual that it attracted his attention. Its unusualness consisted in
its air of exceeding bustling cheerfulness. It was a domestic group of
the most luckless type, and ragged, dirty, and worn by an evidently long
tramp, might well have been expected to look forlorn, discouraged, and
out of spirits. A slouching father of five children, one plainly but
a few weeks old, and slung in a dirty shawl at its mother's breast, an
unhealthy looking slattern mother, two ancient perambulators, one piled
with dingy bundles and cooking utensils, the seven-year-old eldest
girl unpacking things and keeping an eye at the same time on the two
youngest, who were neither of them old enough to be steady on their
feet, the six-year-old gleefully aiding the slouching father to build
the wayside fire. The mother sat upon the grass nursing her baby and
staring about her with an expression at once stupefied and illuminated
by some temporary bliss. Even the slouching father was grinning, as if
good luck had befallen him, and the two youngest were tumbling about
with squeals of good cheer. This was not the humour in which such a
group usually dropped wearily on the grass at the wayside to eat its
meagre and uninviting meal and rest its dragging limbs. As he drew near,
Mount Dunstan saw that at the woman's side there stood a basket full of
food and a can full of milk.

Ordinarily he would have passed on, but, perhaps because of the human
glow the morning had brought him, he stopped and spoke.

"Have you come for the hopping?" he asked.

The man touched his forehead, apparently not conscious that the grin was
yet on his face.

"Yes, sir," he answered.

"How far have you walked?"

"A good fifty miles since we started, sir. It took us a good bit. We was
pretty done up when we stopped here. But we've 'ad a wonderful piece of
good luck." And his grin broadened immensely.

"I am glad to hear that," said Mount Dunstan. The good luck was plainly
of a nature to have excited them greatly. Chance good luck did not
happen to people like themselves. They were in the state of mind which
in their class can only be relieved by talk. The woman broke in, her
weak mouth and chin quite unsteady.

"Seems like it can't be true, sir," she said. "I'd only just come out
of the Union--after this one," signifying the new baby at her br