d in deep meditation on
the subject, he removed his smoky consoler from his mouth, and said,
"W'y not? Wants a babby to cuddle? All right! Let 'er 'ave it--w'y not?"

At these words Liz looked up hopefully through her tears, but Mother
Mawks darted forward in raving indignation.

"Yer great drunken fool!" she yelled to her besotted spouse, "aren't yer
ashamed of yerself? Wot! let out babby for a whole night for nuthin'?
It's lucky I've my wits about me, an' I say Liz sha'n't 'ave it! There,
now!"

The man looked at her, and a dogged resolution darkened his repulsive
countenance. He raised his big fist, clinched it, and hit straight out,
giving his infuriated wife a black eye in much less than a minute. "An'
I say she shall 'ave it. Where are ye now?"

In answer to the query Mother Mawks might have said that she was "all
there," for she returned her husband's blow with interest and force,
and in a couple of seconds the happy pair were engaged in a "stand-up"
fight, to the intense admiration and excitement of all the inhabitants
of the little alley. Every one in the place thronged to watch the
combatants, and to hear the blasphemous oaths and curses with which the
battle was accompanied.

In the midst of the affray a wizened, bent old man, who had been sitting
at his door sorting rags in a basket, and apparently taking no heed of
the clamour around him, made a sign to Liz.

"Take the kid now," he whispered. "Nobody'll notice. I'll see they don't
cry arter ye."

Liz thanked him mutely by a look, and rushing to the house where the
child still lay, seemingly inanimate, on the floor among the soiled
clothes, she caught it up eagerly, and hurried away to her own poor
garret in a tumble-down tenement at the farthest end of the alley. The
infant had been stunned by its fall, but under her tender care, and
rocked in the warmth of her caressing arms, it soon recovered, though
when its blue eyes opened they were full of a bewildered pain, such as
may be seen in the eyes of a shot bird.

"My pet! my poor little darling!" she murmured over and over again,
kissing its wee white face and soft hands; "I wish I was your
mother--Lord knows I do! As it is, you're all I've got to care for. And
you do love me, baby, don't you? just a little, little bit!" And as she
renewed her fondling embraces, the tiny, sad-visaged creature uttered
a low, crooning sound of baby satisfaction in response to her
endearments--a sound more sweet to he