lived."

"I am sure he is by what I have heard of him, and I shall be only too
glad, after the service he has rendered me, to do everything in my
power to push him forward. His friend, I hear, has not had the same
advantages. At the time I first saw him he looked a regular young
arab."

"So he was, sir; but he is a fine young fellow. He was very kind to my
boy when he was alone in London, and gave up his former life to be
with him. George taught him to read before I came here, and he has
worked hard ever since. No one could be nicer in the house than he is,
and had I been his own mother he could not be more dutiful or anxious
to please. Indeed I may say that I am indebted for my home here as
much to him as to my own boy."

"I am glad to hear you say so, Mrs. Andrews, for of course I should
wish to do something for him too. At any rate, I will give him, like
your son, every opportunity of learning the business, and he will in
time be fit for a position of foreman of a shop--by no means a bad one
for a lad who has had such a beginning as he has had. After that, of
course, it must depend upon himself. I think, if you will allow me to
suggest, it would be as well that you should not tell them the nature
of our conversation. Of course it is for you to decide; but, however
steady boys they are, it might make them a little less able to get on
well with their associates in a shop if they know that they are going
to be advanced."

"I don't think it would make any difference to them, sir; but at the
same time I do think it would be as well not to tell them."

One day Bill was out by himself as the men were coming out of the
shop, and he stopped to speak to Bob Grimstone.

"Oh! I am glad to find you without George," Bob said; "'cause I want
to talk to you. Look here! the men in all the shops have made a
subscription to give you and George a present. Everyone feels that
it's your doing that we have not got to idle all this winter, and when
someone started the idea there wasn't a man in the two shops that
didn't agree with him. I am the treasurer, I am, and it's come to
just thirty pounds. Now I don't know what you two boys would like,
whether you would like it in money, or whether you would like it in
something else, so I thought I would ask you first. I thought you
would know what George would like, seeing what friends you are, and
then you know it would come as a surprise to him. Now, what do you
say?"

"Its very kind