he air, the frame was again infolded in the sound part of
the parchment, the rags and rottenness of the law were cast away, and
up they rose to bend their steps homeward to the little hovel where
Peggy lived, she having invited the others to tea, that they might
talk yet more fully over the wonderful good luck that had befallen
them.

"Why, if there isn't a man's head in the canal!" suddenly cried little
Jem. "Looky there!--isn't that a man's head?--Yes; it's a drownded
man!"

"A drownded man, as I live!" ejaculated old Doubleyear.

"Let's get him out, and see!" cried Peggy. "Perhaps the poor soul's
not quite gone."

Little Jem scuttled off to the edge of the canal, followed by the two
old people. As soon as the body had floated nearer, Jem got down into
the water, and stood breast-high, vainly measuring his distance, with
one arm out, to see if he could reach some part of the body as it was
passing. As the attempt was evidently without a chance, old Doubleyear
Managed to get down into the water behind aim, and holding him by one
hand, the boy was thus enabled to make a plunge forward as the body
was floating by. He succeeded in reaching it, but the jerk was too
much for his aged companion, who was pulled forward into the canal. A
loud cry burst from both of them, which was yet more loudly echoed by
Peggy on the bank. Doubleyear and the boy were now struggling almost
in the middle of the canal, with the body of the man twirling about
between them. They would inevitably have been drowned, had not old
Peggy caught up a long dust-rake that was close at hand--scrambled
down up to her knees in the canal--clawed hold of the struggling group
with the teeth of the rake, and fairly brought the whole to land. Jem
was first up the bank, and helped up his two heroic companions; after
which, with no small difficulty, they contrived to haul the body
of the stranger out of the water. Jem at once recognized in him the
forlorn figure of the man who had passed by in the morning, looking so
sadly into the canal as he walked along.

It is a fact well known to those who work in the vicinity of these
great Dust-heaps, that when the ashes have been warmed by the sun,
cats and kittens that have been taken out of the canal and buried a
few inches beneath the surface, have usually revived; and the same has
often occurred in the case of men. Accordingly, the three, without a
moment's hesitation, dragged the body along to the Dust-heap, wher