o it, was apparent from his reluctance to quit the
spot; from the tardy steps with which he often left it, still looking
over his shoulder at the same window; and from the precipitation with
which he as often returned, when a fancied noise or the changing and
imperfect light induced him to suppose it had been softly raised. At
length, he gave the matter up, as hopeless for that night, and suddenly
breaking into a run as though to force himself away, scampered off at
his utmost speed, nor once ventured to look behind him lest he should
be tempted back again.

Without relaxing his pace, or stopping to take breath, this mysterious
individual dashed on through a great many alleys and narrow ways until
he at length arrived in a square paved court, when he subsided into a
walk, and making for a small house from the window of which a light was
shining, lifted the latch of the door and passed in.

'Bless us!' cried a woman turning sharply round, 'who's that? Oh!
It's you, Kit!'

'Yes, mother, it's me.'

'Why, how tired you look, my dear!'

'Old master an't gone out to-night,' said Kit; 'and so she hasn't been
at the window at all.' With which words, he sat down by the fire and
looked very mournful and discontented.

The room in which Kit sat himself down, in this condition, was an
extremely poor and homely place, but with that air of comfort about it,
nevertheless, which--or the spot must be a wretched one
indeed--cleanliness and order can always impart in some degree. Late
as the Dutch clock' showed it to be, the poor woman was still hard at
work at an ironing-table; a young child lay sleeping in a cradle near
the fire; and another, a sturdy boy of two or three years old, very
wide awake, with a very tight night-cap on his head, and a night-gown
very much too small for him on his body, was sitting bolt upright in a
clothes-basket, staring over the rim with his great round eyes, and
looking as if he had thoroughly made up his mind never to go to sleep
any more; which, as he had already declined to take his natural rest
and had been brought out of bed in consequence, opened a cheerful
prospect for his relations and friends. It was rather a queer-looking
family: Kit, his mother, and the children, being all strongly alike.

Kit was disposed to be out of temper, as the best of us are too
often--but he looked at the youngest child who was sleeping soundly,
and from him to his other brother in the clothes-basket, and fro