wo boys set out
house-hunting.

"If it's within a mile that will do," George said. "It doesn't matter
about our going home in the breakfast time. We can bring our grub in a
basket and our tea in a bottle, as several of the hands do; but if
it's over a mile we shall have to hurry to get there and back for
dinner. Still there are plenty of houses in a mile."

There were indeed plenty of houses, in long regular rows, bare and
hard-looking, but George wanted to find something more pleasant and
homelike than these. Late in the afternoon he came upon what he
wanted. It was just about a mile from the works and beyond the lines
of regular streets. Here he found a turning off the main road with but
eight houses in it, four on each side. It looked as if the man who
built them had intended to run a street down for some distance, but
had either been unable to obtain enough ground or had changed his
mind.

They stood in pairs, each with its garden in front, with a bow-window
and little portico. They appeared to be inhabited by a different class
to those who lived in the rows, chiefly by city clerks, for the
gardens were nicely kept, the blinds were clean and spotless, muslin
curtains hung in the windows, and fancy tables with pretty ornaments
stood between them. Fortunately one of them, the last on the left-hand
side, was to let.

"What do you think of this, Bill?"

"It seems to be just the thing; but how about the rent, George? I
should think they were awful dear."

"I don't suppose they are any more than the houses in the rows, Bill.
They are very small, you see, and I don't suppose they would suit
workmen as well as the others; at any rate we will see."

Whereupon George noted down on a scrap of paper the name of the agent
of whom inquiry was to be made.

"No. 8," he said; "but what's the name of the street? Oh, there it is.
Laburnum Villas. No. 8 Laburnum Villas; that sounds first-rate,
doesn't it? I will get Mrs. Grimstone to go round to the agent
to-morrow."

This Mrs. Grimstone agreed to do directly she was asked. After
speaking to her husband she said, "I will get the key from the agent's
and will be there just after twelve to-morrow, so if you go there
straight when you get out you will be able to see the rooms and what
state it's in."

"But how about Bob's dinner?" George asked.

"Oh, he will have it cold to-morrow, and I will set it out for him
before I start."

"That is very kind, Mrs. Grimstone, thank