tiny hands in the great gnarled fists extended to him. Then with a
swing the man threw the child over his shoulder and on to his back,
staggering and nearly overbalancing himself in the act. But he kept his
feet, and growled savagely as his little burden uttered a whimpering
cry.

"Hold on," he said; and the next minute the pretty bare arms were
clinging tightly round his neck, the hands hidden in the man's grizzly
tangled beard; and, pig-a-back fashion, he bore him on along the road.

The sun beat down upon the fair curly head; the dust rose, shuffled up
by the tramp's uncertain step, while the chats and linnets twittered
among the furze, and the larks sang high overhead. This and the heat,
combined with the motion, sufficed to lull the tiny fellow to rest, and
before long his head drooped sidewise, and he was fast asleep.

But he did not fall. It was as if the natural instinct which enables
the young life to maintain its hold upon the old orang-outang was in
force here, so that the child clung tightly to the staggering man, who
seemed thenceforth oblivious of his existence.

The day passed on: the sun was setting fast, and the tramp continued to
stagger on like a drunken man, talking wildly all the time, now babbling
of green leaves, now muttering angrily, as if abusing some one near.

Then came the soft evening-time, as he tottered down a long slope
towards the houses lying in a hollow, indicating the existence of a
goodly town.

And now groups of people were passed, some of whom turned to gaze after
the coarse-looking object with disgust, others with wonder; while the
more thoughtless indulged in a grin, and made remarks indicating their
impressions of where the tramp had been last.

He did not seem to see them, however, but kept on the same incoherent
talking in a low growl, and his eyes glared strangely at objects unseen
by those he passed.

All at once, though, he paused as he reached the broad marketplace of
the town, and said to one of a group of idlers the one word--

"Workus?"

"Eh?"

"Workus!" said the tramp fiercely.

"Oh! Straight avore you. Zee a big wall zoon as yer get over the
bridge."

The man staggered on, and crossed the swift river running through the
town, and in due course reached the big wall, in which was a doorway
with a bell-pull at the side.

A few minutes later the door had been opened, and a stalwart porter
seemed disposed to refuse admission, but his experienced e