was pathos in the utterance of these words, and, somehow or other,
Tommy Taft's heart fluttered just a little and before he was aware of it
a tear was trickling down his cheek.

"Are you happy, young man," queried the elder. He drew himself up on the
wall.

"Well, I s'pose I am, though I ain't got nuthin'. But folks as haint got
nuthin' and enjoy it is a plagued sight richer than sich as has got
everything and don't enjoy it. Yes--I s'pose I'm happy."

"And where's the old woman?"

"Dead, I s'pose."

"Dead!"

"Or in the work-house where she might'nt have been, if you'd a stayed
round."

Jim Taft, for it was he, began to think, and the longer he thought, the
more troubled he looked.

"You won't say as you saw me loafin' around here, will you?" he asked at
length; "that is, if you won't give me a lift, me--your father?"

"How a lift?" inquired his interlocutor.

"A few shillings perhaps; or, perhaps you ain't got a pair o' boots as
has in 'em more leather 'n holes, or a pair of breeches as is good for
suthin'."

"Wait a bit!" said Tommy Taft. He disappeared; but he soon came back,
with an old pair of boots in one hand and a pair of pantaloons in the
other.

"There's suthin' in the nigh pocket," he remarked, as he handed the
pantaloons to his parent. "I've often s'posed you'd come back, and would
need the money what I saved for you."

The parent, however, had not the courtesy to return thanks. He was more
anxious to know something about Tom's employer and his whereabouts.

"He's a good one, he is," said Tommy Taft; "and no, he ain't to home.
He's in ----; and I've got to meet him to-night in the tavern there--."

"In Hog's Lane?"

"Yes."

"Hylton has a heap o' money, Tommy."

"If he have or no, I don't reckon its none o' your business, or mine
nuther."

The parent noticed the surly tone in which his son had just spoken, and
concluded to say "good day," and to be off.

Tommy Taft wondered what could be the cause of so sudden a departure;
and then he wondered whether, it really was his father that had so
unexpectedly accosted him. He went back to his spade, and next wondered
whether the man might not be an escaped convict. If so, how came he to
know John Hylton?

In obedience to orders, Tommy Taft set off to meet his employer
at the tavern in Hog's Lane. He supped that evening with the keeper.
Afterwards, he lighted his pipe, drew a chair up to the open fireplace,
and smoked in silence. Still la