ney if you ain't willin' to give it."

The little tremulous old lady was so pleased with this reply that she
took half-a-crown out of her purse and put it into the boy's hand. He
looked at her in silent surprise.

"It ain't a _copper_, marm!"

"I know that. It is half-a-crown, and I willingly give it you because
you are an honest boy."

"But, marm," said Bobby, still holding out the piece of silver on his
palm, "I _ain't_ a honest boy. I'm a thief!"

"Tut, tut, don't talk nonsense; I don't believe you."

"Vel now, this beats all that I ever did come across. 'Ere's a old
'ooman as I tells as plain as mud that I'm a thief, an' nobody's better
able to give a opinion on that pint than myself, yet she _won't_ believe
it!"

"No, I won't," said the old lady with a little nod and a smile, "so, put
the money in your pocket, for you're an honest boy."

"Vell, it's pleasant to 'ear that, any'ow," returned Bobby, placing the
silver coin in a vest pocket which was always kept in repair for coins
of smaller value.

"Where do you live, boy? I should like to come and see you."

"My residence, marm, ain't a mansion in the vest-end. No, nor yet a
willa in the subarbs. I'm afear'd, marm, that I live in a district that
ain't quite suitable for the likes of you to wisit. But--"

Here Bobby paused, for at the moment his little friend Tim Lumpy
recurred to his memory, and a bright thought struck him.

"Well, boy, why do you pause?"

"I was on'y thinkin', marm, that if you wants to befriend us poor boys--
they calls us waifs an' strays an' all sorts of unpurlite names--you've
on'y got to send a sov, or two to Miss Annie Macpherson, 'Ome of
Hindustry, Commercial Street, Spitalfields, an' you'll be the means o'
doin' a world o' good--as I 'eard a old gen'l'm with a white choker on
say the wery last time I was down there 'avin' a blow out o' bread an'
soup."

"I know the lady and the Institution well, my boy," said the old lady,
"and will act on your advice, but--"

Ere she finished the sentence Bobby Frog had turned and fled at the very
top of his speed.

"Stop! stop! stop!" exclaimed the old lady in a weakly shout.

But the "remarkable boy" would neither stop nor stay. He had suddenly
caught sight of a policeman turning into the lane, and forthwith took to
his heels, under a vague and not unnatural impression that if that limb
of the law found him in possession of a half-crown he would refuse to
believe his innoce