tter try to feel and act in a friendly way, but of course
it would never do to encourage him in pride."

"Well then, I'll send it," said Aspel, closing the letter; "do you know
where I can post it?"

"Not I. Never was here before. I've only a vague idea of how I got
here, and mustn't go far with you lest I lose myself."

At that moment Miss Lillycrop's door opened and little Tottie issued
forth.

"Ah! she will help us.--D'you know where the Post-Office is, Tottie?"

"Yes, sir, it's at the corner of the street, Miss Lillycrop says."

"Which direction?"

"That one, I think."

"Here, I'm going the other way: will you post this letter for me?"

"Yes, sir," said Tottie.

"That's a good girl; here's a penny for you."

"Please, sir, that's not a penny," said the child, holding out the
half-crown which Aspel had put in her hand.

"Never mind; keep it."

Tottie stood bereft of speech at the youth's munificence, as he turned
away from her with a laugh.

Now, when Tottie Bones said that she knew where the post was, she did so
because her mistress had told her, among other pieces of local
information, that the pillar letter-box stood at the corner of the
street and was painted red; but as no occasion had occurred since her
arrival for the posting of a letter, she had not yet seen the pillar
with her own eyes. The corner of the street, however, was so plain a
direction that no one except an idiot could fail to find it.
Accordingly Tottie started off to execute her mission.

Unfortunately--or the reverse, as the case may be--streets have usually
two corners. The child went, almost as a matter of course, to the wrong
one, and there she found no pillar. But she was a faithful messenger,
and not to be easily balked. She sought diligently at that corner until
she really did find a pillar, in a retired angle. Living, as she did,
chiefly in the back slums of London, where literary correspondence is
not much in vogue, Tottie had never seen a pillar letter-box, or, if she
had, had not realised its nature. Miss Lillycrop had told her it was
red, with a slit in it. The pillar she had found was red to some extent
with rust, and it unquestionably had a slit in it where, in days gone
by, a handle had projected. It also had a spout in front. Tottie had
some vague idea that this letter-box must have been made in imitation of
a pump, and that the spout was a convenient step to enable small people
like herself to reach t