instrument of delight consisted of a strong plank balanced on the trunk
of a noble tree which had been recently felled, with many others, to
thin the woods of the philanthropist's park. It was an enormous
see-saw! such as the ragged creatures had never before seen--perhaps
never conceived of, their experiences in such joys having been hitherto
confined to small bits of broken plank placed over empty beer barrels,
or back-yard fences. No fewer than eight children were able to find
accommodation on it at one and the same time, besides one of the bigger
boys to straddle in the centre; and it required the utmost vigilance on
the part of a young man teacher at one end of the machine, and Hetty
Frog at the other end, to prevent the little ragamuffins at either
extremity from being forced off.

Already the missionary's anticipation in regard to the undoing of their
labour had begun to be verified. There were at least four of the eight
whose nether garments had succumbed to the effort made in mounting the
plank, and various patches of flesh-colour revealed the fact that the
poor little wearers were innocent of flannels. But it was summer-time,
and the fact had little effect either on wearers or spectators. The
missionary, however, was not so absorbed in the present but that he felt
impelled to remark to Welland: "That is their winter as well as summer
clothing."

The bicyclist said nothing in reply, but the remark was not lost upon
him.

"Now, Dick Swiller," said the young man teacher, "I see what you're up
to. You mustn't do it!"

Richard Swiller, who was a particularly rugged as well as ragged boy of
about thirteen, not being in the habit of taking advice, did do it.
That is, he sent his end of the plank up with such violence that the
other end came to the ground with a shock which caused those who sat
there to gasp, while it all but unseated most of those who were on the
higher end. Indeed one very small and pinched but intelligent little
boy, named by his companions Blobby, who looked as if Time, through the
influence of privation and suffering, had been dwindling instead of
developing him,--actually did come off with a cry of alarm, which,
however, changed into a laugh of glee when he found himself in his
teacher's arms, instead of lying "busted on the ground," as he
afterwards expressed it when relating the incident to an admiring
audience of fellow ragamuffins in the slums of Spitalfields.

Blobby was immedi