not much to spare, however, for he had, among
other things, set himself energetically to the study of arithmetic and
navigation under the united guidance of old Jeph and Bluenose.

Lucy Burton paid a long visit to Mrs Foster, and roamed over the
Sandhills day after day with her friend Amy, until her father, the
missionary, came and claimed her and carried her back to Ramsgate.
During Lucy's stay, Guy Foster remained at the cottage, busily engaged
in various ways, but especially in making himself agreeable to Lucy, in
which effort he seemed to be very successful.

When the latter left, he suddenly discovered that he was wasting his
time sadly, and told his mother that he meant to look out for something
to do. With this end in view he set out for London, that mighty hive of
industry and idleness into which there is a ceaseless flow of men who
"want something to do," and of men who "don't know what to do."

And what of Denham, Crumps, and Company during this period?

The rats in and around Red Wharf Lane could have told you, had they been
able to speak, that things prospered with that firm. These jovial
creatures, that revelled so luxuriously in the slime and mud and
miscellaneous abominations of that locality, could have told you that,
every morning regularly, they were caught rioting in the lane and sent
squealing out of it, by a boy in blue (the successor of poor Peekins)
who opened the office and prepared it for the business of the day; that
about half an hour later they, the rats, were again disturbed by the
arrival of the head-clerk, closely followed by the juniors, who were
almost as closely followed by Crumps--he being a timid old man who stood
in awe of his senior partner; that, after this, they had a good long
period of comparative quiet, during which they held a riotous game of
hide-and-seek across the lane and down among sewers and dust holes, and
delightfully noisome and fetid places of a similar character;
interrupted at irregular intervals by a vagrant street boy, or a daring
cat, or an inquisitive cur; that this game was stopped at about ten
o'clock by the advent of Mr Denham, who generally gave them, the rats,
a smile of recognition as he passed to his office, concluding, no doubt,
by a natural process of ratiocination, that they were kindred spirits,
because they delighted in bad smells and filthy garbage, just as he
(Denham) rejoiced in Thames air and filthy lucre.

One fine morning, speaking from