y;'
and a gigantic constable pounced on me with a broad grin, snatched the
barrow-handles out of my hands, and started off at a trot that made the
effigies rock in the most alarming manner.

"'Holler, bhoys!' shouted the grinning constable; and the 'bhoys'
complied with raucous enthusiasm.

"At the outskirts of the crowd Constable Moloney resigned in my favor,
and it was at this moment that I noticed a manifest plain-clothes
officer observing my exhibits with undue attention. But here fortune
favored me; for at the same instant I saw a man attempt to pick a pocket
under the officer's very nose. The pickpocket caught my eye and moved
off quickly. I pulled up, and, pointing at the thief, bawled out, 'Stop
that man! Stop him!' The pickpocket flung himself into the crowd and
made off. The startled loafers drew hastily away from him. Men shouted,
women screamed, and the plain-clothes officer started in pursuit; and in
the whirling confusion that followed, I trundled away briskly into
Middlesex Street and headed for Spitalfields.

"My progress through the squalid streets was quite triumphal. A large
juvenile crowd attended me, with appropriate vocal music, and adults
cheered from the pavements, though no one embarrassed me with gifts.
But, for all my outward gaiety, I was secretly anxious. It was barely
ten o'clock and many hours of the dreary November day had yet to run
before it would be safe for me to approach my destination. The prospect
of tramping the streets for some ten or twelve hours with this very
conspicuous appendage was far from agreeable, to say nothing of the
increasing risk of detection, and I looked forward to it with gloomy
forebodings. If a suspicion arose, I could be traced with the greatest
ease, and in any case I should be spent with fatigue before evening.
Reflecting on these difficulties, I had decided to seek some retired
spot where I could dismount the effigies, cover them with the tarpaulin
that was rolled up in the barrow and take a rest, when once more
circumstances befriended me.

"All through the night and morning the ordinary winter haze had hung
over the town; but now, by reason of a change of wind, the haze began
rapidly to thicken into a definite fog. I set down the barrow and
watched with thankfulness the mass of opaque yellow vapor filling the
street and blotting out the sky. As it thickened and the darkness
closed in, the children strayed away and only one solitary loafer
remained.