small, nor is
yer looks _wery_ uncommon; but still, ef yer have a fancy for the name,
so be it. It _will_ be fun thinkin' of the beautiful, small-footed
Cinderella and looking at you. But so much the better, so come along,
Cinderella, fur Fryin'-pan 'ull catch us ef we don't make haste."

"Where are we to go?" asked the poor little newly made Cinderella, with
a piteous face.

"Now, yer needn't look like that. None but cheerful folks goes down wid
me. Where are yer to go to? Why, to mother, of course--where else?"

"Oh, have you got a mother?" asked Sue.

"Well, wot next? 'Ow did I happen ter be born? Yes, I has a mother, and
the wery best little woman in the world--so come along."

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE METROPOLITAN FIRE BRIGADE.

Pickles and Sue had to go a long way before they reached the destination
of "the best little woman in the world." They walked along by-streets
and all kinds of queer places, and presently reached a part of London
where Sue had never been before. They passed whole streets of
warehouses, and came then to poor-looking dwelling-houses, but all of an
immense height, and very old and dirty. It was the back slums of
Westminster over again, but it was a Westminster severed as far as one
pole is from another to Sue.

"We does a roaring trade yere," said Pickles, looking around him with
the air of a proprietor well satisfied with his property.

"Wot in?" asked Sue.

"Wot hin? Well, that may surprise yer. Hin fire, of course."

"Wot do yer mean?" asked Sue.

"Wot does I mean? I mean as we deals in that 'ere rampagious helement.
We belongs to the great London Fire Brigade. That his, my brother Will
does; and I have a cousin wot thinks hisself no end of a swell, and he's
beginning his drill. Do you suppose, you goose, as I'd have acted as I
did, wid that 'ere remarkable coolness jest now, when the fire wor
burning, and the man wor on the wery brink of destruction, ef fire had
not bin, so to speak, my native hair? But now, here we are at last, so
come along hup to mother!"

Taking Sue's hand, Pickles dragged her up flight after flight of stairs,
until they reached the top of one of the very tall, dirty houses. Here
he suddenly flung open a door, and pushing Sue in, sang out:

"Mother, yere I be! And let me introduce to you Cinderella. Her sisters
have bin that unkind and mean as cannot be told, and she have taken
refuge wid us until the Prince comes to tie on the glass slipper."

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