Willie Willders think it
advisable to tear himself away, and hasten to his home in Notting Hill,
where he found his mother sitting up for him in a state of considerable
anxiety. She forebore to question him that night, however.

When Willie appeared next morning--or rather, the same morning, for it
was nearly four o'clock when he went to bed--he found his mother sitting
by the fire knitting a sock.

Mrs Willders was a widow, and was usually to be found seated by the
fire, knitting a sock, or darning one, or mending some portion of male
attire.

"So you were at a fire last night, Willie?" said the widow.

"Yes, I was," replied the boy, going up to his mother, and giving her
what he styled a "roystering" kiss, which she appeared to like, although
she was scarcely able to bear it, being thin and delicately formed, and
somewhat weak from bad health.

"No lives lost, I hope, Willie?"

"No; there ain't often lives lost when Sam Forest, the fire-escape-man,
is there. You know Forest, mother, the man that we've heard so much of?
Ah, it _was_ sitch fun! You've no notion! It would have made you
split your sides wi' laughin' if you'd seen Sam come out o' the smoke
carryin' the master o' the house on his shoulder in his shirt and
drawers, with only one sock on, an' his nightcap tied so tight under his
chin that they had to cut it off--him in a swound, too, hangin' as limp
as a dead eel on Sam's shoulder, with his head down one side, an' his
legs down the other. Oh, it _was_ a lark!"

The boy recalled "the lark" to his own mind so vividly, that he had to
stop at this point, in order to give vent to an uproarious fit of
laughter.

"Was Frank there?" inquired the widow, when the fit subsided.

"Not that I know of, mother; I looked hard for him, but didn't see him.
There was lots o' men big enough to be him; but I couldn't get near
enough to see for the bobbies. I wonder what them bobbies were made
for!" continued Willie, with a look of indignation, as he seated himself
at the table, and began to eat a hearty breakfast; "the long lamp-posts!
that are always in the way when nobody wants 'em. I do believe they was
invented for nothin' else than to aggravate small boys and snub their
inquiring minds."

"Where was the fire, Willie?"

"In Beverly Square. I say, mother, if that there grocer don't send us
better stuff than this here bacon in future, I'll--I'll have to give him
up."

"I can't afford to get better, dear