o go to work was to s'arch his cupboards;
an' then quick as snuff he started 'pon yours, not sayin' a word to
anybody. Pretty clivver for four years' old--an' what's clivverer,
he found the money too!"

"Damn the young viper! . . . No, I asks your pardon. Bless his
tender heart, I s'pose I ought to say, seein' as how providential--"

"You can put it which way you like. I dessay God A'mighty has the
right an' wrong of it clear; an' 'Bert an' I allowed we'd leave
'Biades to a Higher Power after we'd made him sensible, on the seat
of his breeches, of the way his conduc' appealed to us. For I take
shame to own it, Mr Nanjivell, but at sight o' that boundless
gold Satan whispered in the poor mite's ear, an' he started priggin'.
. . . The way we found it out was, he came home from Mrs Pengelly's
stinkin' o' peppermints: an' when we nosed him an' asked how he came
to be favoured so, all he could say on the ground hop was that he'd
met a shinin' Angel unexpected in Cobb's Ally: an' the Angel had
stopped him and pulled out a purse an' said, 'Alcibiades Penhaligon,
the Lord has been much interested of late in your goin's-out an' your
comin's-in, an' what a good boy you've a-been. Here is 2d. for you
in gold o' the purest water. Go thou an' carry it to Our good friend
Missis Pengelly, who will doubtless reckernise and exchange it in
peppermint cushions.' Which was too thin. So we were forced to beat
him till the truth came out. An' then he brought us here, an' showed
what he'd a-found: an' with the furnitcher movin' an' mother so busy,
'Bert and I managed the rest. We weren't goin' to let that Pamphlett
snatch it. If you'll come around by Aun' Bunney's back-garden into
Mother's kitchen you shall count it out, every penny."

"'Bert," said Nicky-Nan after a pause, "you've done a Kind Action
this day, if you never do another."

"But the clivverness started with 'Biades," insisted 'Beida. "I hope
you'll bear that in mind, though I say nothing against the child's
sinfulness."

"You're the best friends, all three, I ever met in this world," said
Nicky-Nan gratefully.

On his homeward road, and half-way up the hill, Mr Pamphlett at the
same moment turned, looked aloft, and accused Providence.

"What blisters me," said Mr Pamphlett to the welkin, "is the thought
that I subscribed no less than two guineas to the Boy Scouts
Movement!"

CHAPTER XXIII.

ENLIGHTENMENT, AND RECRUITING.

"Was there ever a woman