ted we possessed such an
appendage."

Hartman bowed in silence.

"And now I suppose you would like to know how it happens that you find
poor little ragged, famished, sickly Sal's Kid, who used to live in Rat
Alley among thieves and tramps, here--well lodged, well dressed and in
good company?"

"Yes, I really would."

"Well, it was 'all along of' a grandfather."

"A grandfather!"

"Yes, a grandfather. I really had a grandfather! And I have him still.
And you have seen him, and his name is Dr. Beresford Jones. And,
moreover, I had a great-grandfather back of _him_; and also forefathers
behind _them_, and ancestors extending away back to antiquity. In fact,
I think they ran away back to Adam!"

"I dare say they did," answered Victor, with a smile; "but tell me about
that grandfather."

"Well, you must know that he was wealthy. He owned Beresford Manors. He
had one child, 'sole daughter of the house.' She married a poor young
Italian music-master against her father's will. Her father cast her off.
Her husband took her to New York, where they fell by degrees into the
deepest destitution. They both died of cholera, leaving me to the care
of the miserable beings who were their fellow-lodgers in the old
tenement house. I believe I was passed from the hands of one beggar to
those of another, until my identity was lost and my real name forgotten.
But I do not clearly remember any of my owners except Sal. And I was
called 'Sal's Kid.'"

"It was then I knew you," said Victor.

"So it was. Well, you know all about that period. It was soon after you
went to sea that Sal's husband, being mad with drink and jealousy,
struck his wife a fatal blow and killed her."

"Horrible!"

"Yes, horrible! I have heard since that the man died of _mania-a-potu_
in the Tombs, before his trial came on."

"And you?"

"I was taken by the Commissioners of Charity and put into the Orphan
Asylum at Randall's Island."

"And how did your grandfather ever find you there, where your very name
was lost?"

"You may well ask that. My name was lost. I suppose, hearing me called
Sal's Kid, they mistook that for Sal Kidd. Any way they registered my
name on the books of the Island as Sarah Kidd."

Victor laughed at this piece of ingenuity on the part of the
authorities, and again expressed wonder as to how her grandfather ever
found her.

"If I were a heathen, I should say he found me by chance. It looked
like it. You see, he had met with mis