og--the street-Arab--lay.

"Hallo! Bobby, wot's wrong with 'ee? You ain't used to come to grief,"
said the father, laying his hand on the boy's shoulder, and giving him a
rough shake.

Things oftentimes "are not what they seem." The shake was the man's
mode of expressing sympathy, for he was fond of his son, regarding him,
with some reason, as a most hopeful pupil in the ways of wickedness.

"It's o' no use, father," said the boy, drawing his breath quickly and
knitting his brows, "you can't stir me up with a long pole now. I'm
past that."

"What! have 'ee bin runned over?"

"No--on'y run down, or knocked down."

"Who did it? On'y give me his name an' address, an' as sure as my
name's Ned I'll--"

He finished the sentence with a sufficiently expressive scowl and
clenching of a huge fist, which had many a time done great execution in
the prize ring.

"It wasn't a he, father, it was a she."

"Well, no matter, if I on'y had my fingers on her windpipe I'd squeeze
it summat."

"If you did I'd bang your nose! She didn't go for to do it a-purpose,
you old grampus," retorted Bobby, intending the remark to be taken as a
gentle yet affectionate reproof. "A doctor's bin an' set my leg,"
continued the boy, "an' made it as stiff as a poker wi' what 'e calls
splints. He says I won't be able to go about for ever so many weeks."

"An' who's to feed you, I wonder, doorin' them weeks? An' who sent for
the doctor? Was it him as supplied the fire an' candle to-night?"

"No, father, it was me," answered Hetty, who was engaged in stirring
something in a small saucepan, the loose handle of which was attached to
its battered body by only one rivet; the other rivet had given way on an
occasion when Ned Frog sent it flying through the doorway after his
retreating wife. "You see I was paid my wages to-night, so I could
afford it, as well as to buy some coal and a candle, for the doctor said
Bobby must be kept warm."

"Afford it!" exclaimed Ned, in rising wrath, "how can 'ee say you can
afford it w'en I 'aven't had enough grog to _half_ screw me, an' not a
brown left. Did the doctor ask a fee?"

"No, father, I offered him one, but he wouldn't take it."

"Ah--very good on 'im! I wonder them fellows has the cheek to ask fees
for on'y givin' advice. W'y, I'd give advice myself all day long at a
penny an hour, an' think myself well off too if I got that--better off
than them as got the advice anyhow. What are you sitt