ers, and beef-eaters from the Tower, and pipers of
the Scots Guards, and ladies of the ballet shivering on shaky stools and
pretending to be 'Freedom' and 'Commerce,' and last of all the City King
himself, smiling and bowing to all his subjects, and with his liegemen
behind him in yellow coats and red silk stockings. Perhaps the most
popular character was a Highlander in pink tights, where his legs ought
to have been, walking along as solemnly as if he thought it was a sort of
religious ceremony and he was an idol out for an airing.

"And then the bands! There must have been twenty of them, both brass and
fife, and they all played the Washington Post, but no two had the luck to
fall on the same bar at the same moment. It was a medley of all the tunes
in music, an absolute kaleidoscope of sounds, and meantime there was the
clash of bells from the neighbouring belfries in honour of the Prince's
birthday, and the rattle of musketry from the Guards, so that when the
double event was over I felt like the man whose wife presented him with
twins--I wouldn't have lost either of them for a million of money, but I
couldn't have found it in my heart to give a bawbee for another one.

"The procession took half an hour to pass, and when it was gone,
remembering the ladies in lovely dresses who had rolled by in their
gorgeous carriages, looking not a bit cleverer or handsomer than other
people, I turned away with a little hard lump at my heart and a limp in
my left foot--the young Cockney with the fringe had backed on to my toe.
I suppose they are feasting with the lords and all the nobility at the
Guildhall to-night, and no doubt the crumbs that fall from the rich man's
table will go in pies and cakes to the alleys and courts where hunger
walks, and I dare say little Lazarus in the Mile End Road is dreaming at
this very moment of Dick Whittington and the Lord Mayor of London.

"It must have been some waking dream of that sort which took possession
of me also, for what do you suppose I did? Shall I tell you? Yes, I will.
I said to myself: 'Glory, my child, suppose you were nearly as poor as he
was in this great, glorious, splendid London; suppose--only suppose--you
had no home and no friends, and had left the hospital, or perhaps even
been turned away from it, and hadn't a good lady's door standing open to
receive you, what would you do first, my dear?' To all which I replied
promptly, 'You would first get yourself lodgings, my child