ourpence a pound!"

"Oh, thank you, thank you, ma'am!" cried Pollie, holding up her face to
kiss the kind woman, who, totally unused to such affectionate gratitude
in the poor little waifs about Drury Lane, bent down and returned the
caress with a feeling of unwonted tenderness tugging at her heart.

"And now, please, I should like a bunch of water-cresses for Mrs.
Flanagan," said the child. "I know she is very fond of them with her
tea."

"What are you going to buy for yourself?" asked the shopkeeper, as,
after handing Pollie the freshest bunch in the basket, she stood
watching her tiny customer.

The little girl hesitated; at length she said--

"Well, if I don't get something, mother will want me to eat this meat,
and I mean her to have it all; so I'll buy two little pies in Russell
Court,--one for me, and one for poor little crippled Jimmy."

"You're a good gal," exclaimed the woman. "Here, put these taters in
your basket; maybe your mother would like 'em with the meat, they boil
nice and mealy."

Pollie was so grateful to Mrs. Smith for the kind thought, and held out
her money to pay for this luxury; but to her surprise she told her to
put it back into her pocket--the "taters" were a gift for her mother,
and patting her cheek, bade her run home quickly, and always "be a good
gal."

CHAPTER IV.

MRS FLANAGAN.

As Pollie reached her mother's door at last, after all this amount of
shopping had been accomplished, she heard a well-known voice inside, and
knew that Mrs. Flanagan had returned from work, and was now having her
usual little chat with Mrs. Turner.

Good Mrs. Flanagan, who had been so kind to the widow and her child from
the first moment they came to lodge in the room opposite to hers--good
old woman, with a heart as noble and true as the finest lady's in the
land--a gentlewoman in every sense, though not of the form or manner in
which we are accustomed to associate that word. Years ago she had been a
servant in a farmhouse, where she was valued and esteemed by all as a
sincere though humble friend; but Mike Flanagan won her heart, and she
joined her fate to his, leaving the sweet, fresh country in which she
had always lived, and cheerfully giving up all the old familiar ties of
home and kindred for his dear sake.

Mike had constant work in London, with good wages too, as a carpenter,
so though at first London and London ways sadly puzzled her, yet she
soon became used to the change, an