hispered Ziza. "I'll go to sleep now."

Her deep breathing soon proclaimed that she was in the land of dreams,
so Willie removed the candle a little further away from her, and then,
resting his elbows on the table and his head in his hands, began to read
the Bible. He turned over a few pages without much intention of finding
any particular place, for he was beginning to feel sleepy.

The first words his eyes fell upon were, "Blessed are they that consider
the poor."

He roused up a little at this, and read the verse again, for he
connected it with the fact that the fairy was poor. Then he pondered it
for some time, and, falling asleep, dropt his head on the Bible with
such force that he woke up for a little and tried to read again, but do
what he would he could not get beyond that verse; finally he gave up the
attempt, and, laying his forehead down upon it, quickly fell sound
asleep.

In this state the couple were discovered an hour or two later by Messrs.
Cattley senior and junior on their return from the theatre.

"Inscrutable mysteries! say, what is this?" exclaimed the elder clown,
advancing into the room on tiptoe.

Apostrophising his eye and one Betty Martin, the younger clown said that
it was a "rare go and no mistake," whereupon his father laid his hand on
Willie's shoulder and gently shook him.

"Eh! another cup, Ziza?" exclaimed the self-accused nurse, as he put out
his hand to seize the tea-pot. "Hallo! I thought it was the fairy," he
added, looking up with a sleepy smile; "I do believe I've gone and fell
asleep."

"Why, lad, where got ye all those things?" inquired the senior Cattley,
laying aside his cloak and cap, and speaking in a low tone, for Ziza was
still sleeping soundly.

"Well, I got 'em," replied Willie in a meditative tone, "from a friend
of mine--a very partikler friend o' mine--as declines to let me mention
his name, so you'll have to be satisfied with the wittles and without
the name of the wirtuous giver. P'r'aps it was a dook, or a squire, or
a archbishop as did it. Anyway his name warn't Walker. See now, you've
bin an' woke up the fairy."

The sick child moved as he spoke, but it was only to turn, without
awaking, on her side.

"Well, lad," said the clown, sitting down and looking wistfully in the
face of his daughter, "you've got your own reasons for not tellin' me--
mayhap I've a pretty good guess--anyhow I say God bless him, for I do
b'lieve he's saved the child's l