mpse of it. I stood a minute or two outside the station, hoping to
be left behind; but behold, no sooner had the tail of the race passed
me, when another, indeed two other train-loads of humanity swarmed down
upon me, and, hustling me as they swept by, fairly carried me along with
them.

One thing alarmed me prodigiously. It was not the crowd, or the noise,
or the cabs, or the omnibuses, or the newspaper-boys, or the shops, or
the policemen, or the chimney-pot hats. These all astonished me, as
well they might. But what terrified me was the number of boys like
myself who formed part of the procession, and who, every one of them as
I imagined, were hurrying towards Hawk Street.

My uncle had told me that I should find Hawk Street turning out at the
end of the street in which the station stood, and this was precisely the
direction in which these terrible boys were all going.

How knowing they all looked, and how confident! There was not one of
them, I was certain, but was more intelligent than I, and quicker at
figures. How I hated them as they swaggered along, laughing and joking
with one another, looking familiarly on the scene around them, crossing
the road in the very teeth of the cab-horses, and not one of them caring
or thinking a bit about me. What chance had I among all these?

There was not much conceit left in me, I assure you, as I followed
meekly in their wake towards Hawk Street that morning.

My uncle's directions had been so simple that I had never calculated on
having any difficulty in finding my destination. But it's all very well
in a quiet country town to find one street that turns out of another,
but in London, between nine and ten in the morning, it's quite a
different matter. At least so I found it. Half a dozen streets turned
out of the one which I and the stream descended, and though I carefully
studied the name of each in turn, no Hawk Street was there.

"Can you tell me where Hawk Street is?" I inquired at last of a fellow-
passenger after a great inward struggle.

"Hawk Street? Yes. Go through Popman's Alley, and up the second court
to the left--that'll bring you to Hawk Street."

"But uncle said it turned--" My guide had vanished!

I diligently sought for Popman's Alley, which I found to be a long paved
passage between two high blocks of buildings, and leading apparently
nowhere; at least I could discover no outlet, either at the end or
either side. Every one was in such a