ave
regretted presently.

The chairman rose and announced that the. Rev. Mr. ----would open the
proceedings with prayer. The Rev. Mr. ---- rose to pray in a loud voice
for the waifs in the body of the hall. At the same moment rose Tommy,
and began to pray in a squeaky voice for the people on the platform.

He had many Biblical phrases, mostly picked up in Thrums Street, and
what he said was distinctly heard in the stillness, the clergyman being
suddenly bereft of speech. "Oh," he cried, "look down on them ones
there, for, oh, they are unworthy of Thy mercy, and, oh, the worst
sinner is her ladyship, her sitting there so brazen in the black frock
with yellow stripes, and the worse I said I were the better pleased were
she. Oh, make her think shame for tempting of a poor boy, for getting
suffer little children, oh, why cumbereth she the ground, oh--"

He was in full swing before any one could act. Shovel having failed to
hold him in his seat, had done what was perhaps the next best thing, got
beneath it himself. The arm of the petrified clergyman was still
extended, as if blessing his brother's remarks; the chairman seemed to
be trying to fling his right hand at the culprit; but her ladyship,
after the first stab, never moved a muscle. Thus for nearly half a
minute, when the officials woke up, and squeezing past many knees,
seized Tommy by the neck and ran him out of the building. All down the
aisle he prayed hysterically, and for some time afterwards, to Shovel,
who had been cast forth along with him.

At an hour of that night when their mother was asleep, and it is to be
hoped they were the only two children awake in London, Tommy sat up
softly in the wardrobe to discover whether Elspeth was still praying for
him. He knew that she was on the floor in a night-gown some twelve sizes
too large for her, but the room was as silent and black as the world he
had just left by taking his fingers from his ears and the blankets off
his face.

"I see you," he said mendaciously, and in a guarded voice, so as not to
waken his mother, from whom he had kept his escapade. This had not the
desired effect of drawing a reply from Elspeth, and he tried bluster.

"You needna think as I'll repent, you brat, so there! What?

"I wish I hadna told you about it!" Indeed, he had endeavored not to do
so, but pride in his achievement had eventually conquered prudence.

"Reddy would have laughed, she would, and said as I was a wonder. Reddy