e once, ever so many years ago, when I was a little girl. You'll
like 'em ever so!'

'Do we know the road?' asked Robin doubtfully.

'I should think so!' replied Meg; 'and if we didn't, there's the
police. What's the police good for, if they couldn't tell a person
like me the road to Temple Gardens? We'll have such a nice day!'

The children trotted along briskly till they reached the broad
thoroughfares and handsome shops of the main streets which traverse
London, where a constant rush of foot passengers upon the pavement, and
of conveyances in the roadway, hurry to and fro from morning to
midnight. Poor little Meg stood for a few minutes aghast and stunned,
almost fearful of committing herself and her children to the mighty
stream; but Robin pulled her on impatiently. He had been once as far
as the Mansion House, before the time when their mother's long illness
had made them almost prisoners in their lonely attic; and Meg herself
had wandered several times as far as the great church of St Paul.
After the first dread was over, she found a trembling, anxious
enjoyment in the sight of the shops, and of the well-dressed people in
the streets. At one of the windows she was arrested by a full-size
vision of herself, and Robin, and the baby, reflected in a great glass,
a hundred times larger than the little square in the box-lid at home.
She could not quite keep down a sigh after her own red frock and best
bonnet; but she comforted herself quickly with the thought that people
would look upon her as the nurse of Robin and baby, sent out to take
them a walk.

They did not make very rapid progress, for they stopped to look in at
many shop windows, especially where there were baby-clothes for sale,
or where there were waxen figures of little boys, life-size, dressed in
the newest fashions, with large eyes of glass beads, not unlike Robin's
own black ones. The passage of the crossings was also long and
perilous. Meg ran first with the baby, and put her down safely on the
other side in some corner of a doorway; then with a sinking and
troubled heart, least any evil person should pick her up, and run away
with her as a priceless treasure, she returned for Robin. In this way
she got over several crossings, until they reached the bottom of
Ludgate Hill, where she stood shivering and doubting for a long time,
till she fairly made up her mind to speak to the majestic policeman
looking on calmly at the tumult about him.