en all colour, he wearily
dragged himself barefoot from door to door, meeting with many a harsh
repulse, and but few kindly responses to his appeals.

His eyes alone showed any sign of spirit. They were of a deep blue
tint, and in spite of his sufferings, held a strange sparkle that
sometimes startled those who caught it.

At night, in company with some other street arabs of his own age, he
found shelter in a wretched cellar kept by a villainous old hag, who
made her lodgers pay nearly all they had, with such difficulty, begged
during the day, for the privilege of sleeping upon mouldy straw
pallets. The miserable place was draughty, damp and pestilential, but
it was the only lodging the poor boys could afford, and offered at
least some protection from the merciless cold of winter.

In that cellar there would only too often be heard through the hours of
darkness heart-breaking sobs that refused to be suppressed, or the
piteous moan, "I am so hungry, oh, I am so hungry!"

And sometimes in the morning, when the old hag would seek to clear her
cellar of its occupants, screaming at them and striking them with her
broom, there would be one who paid no heed to either screams or blows,
but remained motionless on his pallet, for he had passed into the sleep
that knows no waking.

Each day Michel grew paler, thinner, feebler, a cruel cough racking his
slender frame as he shivered in his rags and tatters. Every limb
ached, and sometimes it seemed to him as if he must lie down on the
snow to die.

Late one afternoon, crouched in the corner of the doorway of the Duke's
palace, and waiting for some one to pass by of whom he might beg alms,
he wept bitterly. He was starving and freezing, but nothing came his
way; yet to return to the cellar he did not dare. The old hag had a
flinty heart which nothing save money could soften, and he was without
a sou.

Overcome with despair at his condition, and horror at the thought of
spending the night in the street, he fell on his knees and, lifting his
tear-filled eyes to the darkening sky, put forth this pathetic prayer:

"O God in Heaven, take me to my mother!"

Just then a deep growl came from somewhere behind him and interrupted
his prayer. He sprang up and looked about him.

The street was silent and deserted. The snow fell softly. A grating
near the ground attracted his attention, and without stopping to
consider, he said to himself that possibly if he passed through it