Willie looked, shook his head, and said, "Not a drop."

"Any leaves?"

"Why, y-yes," he brought the pot nearer to the candle; "there are a few
used-up ones."

"Oh, _do_ pour some hot water into it; but I fear the water is cold, and
the fire's too low to boil it, and I know the coals are done; but father
gets paid his salary to-morrow, and he'll give me some tea then. He's
very kind to me, father is, and so is Jim."

She sighed as she spoke, and shut her eyes.

"Ziza," said Willie in a careless tone, "you won't object to my leavin'
you for a few minutes; only a few; I want to get a little fresh air, an'
see what sort of a night it is; I won't be long gone."

Ziza, so far from objecting, said that she was used to being left alone
for long, long hours at a time, and wouldn't mind it. So Willie put the
candle nearer to her bedside, placed a tea-cup of water within reach,
went out, shut the door softly behind him, groped his way through the
passage and up the stair, and got into the street.

That day his eccentric employer had paid him his first month's wage, a
sovereign, with many complimentary remarks as to his usefulness. The
golden coin lay in his pocket. It was the first he had ever earned. He
had intended to go straight home and lay the shining piece in his
mother's lap, for Willie was a peculiar boy, and had some strange
notions in regard to the destination of "first-fruits." Where he had
got them nobody could tell. Perhaps his mother knew, but nobody ever
questioned her upon the point.

Taking this gold piece from his pocket, he ran into the nearest
respectable street, and selected there the most respectable grocer's
shop, into which he entered, and demanded a pound of the shopman's best
tea, a pound of his best sugar, a pound of his best butter, a cut of his
best bacon, and one of his best wax-candles. Willie knew nothing about
relative proportion in regard to such things; he only knew that they
were usually bought and consumed together.

The shopman looked at the little purchaser in surprise, but as Willie
emphatically repeated his demands he gave him the required articles. On
receiving the sovereign he looked twice at Willie, rung the piece of
money three times on the counter, and then returned the change.

Gathering the packages in his arms, and putting the candle between his
vest and bosom, he went into a baker's shop, purchased a loaf, and
returned to the "subterraneous grotto" laden lik