very dog has his day. When I grow up _won't_ I pitch into 'em!"

He struck the table with his fist, and, shaking back his curly hair,
lifted his blue eyes to his mother's face with a stern expression, which
gradually relaxed into a smile.

"Ah, you needn't grin, mother, an' tell me that the `_policemen_' are a
fine set of men, and quite as brave and useful in their way as the
firemen. I know all you respectable sort of people think that; but _I_
don't. They're my natural enemies, and I hate 'em. Come, mother, give
me the socks and let me be off."

Soon the vigorous urchin was on his way to the City, whistling, as
usual, with all his might. As he passed the corner of the British
Museum a hand touched him on the shoulder, and its owner said:

"How much are ye paid a week, lad, for kicking up such a row?"

Willie looked round, and his eyes encountered the brass buckle of the
waist-belt of a tall, strapping fellow in a blue uniform. Glancing
upwards, he beheld the handsome countenance of his brother Frank looking
down at him with a quiet smile. He wore no helmet, for except when
attending a fire the firemen wear a sailor-like blue cloth cap.

"Hallo, Blazes! is that you?" cried the boy.

"Just so, Willie; goin' down to Watling Street to attend drill."

Willie (who had styled his brother "Blazes" ever since he joined the
fire brigade) observed that he happened to be going in the same
direction to deliver a message from his mother to a relation, which he
would not speak about, however, just then, as he wished to tell him of a
fire he had been at last night.

"A fire, lad; was it a big one?"

"Ay, that it was; a case o' burnin'-out almost; _and there were lives
saved_," said the boy with a look of triumph; "and that's more than you
can say you've seen, though you _are_ a fireman."

"Well, you know I have not been long in the brigade, Willie, and as the
escapes often do their work before the engines come up, I've not had
much chance yet of seeing lives saved. How was it done?"

With glowing eyes and flushed cheeks Willie at once launched out into a
vivid description of the scene he had so recently witnessed, and dwelt
particularly on the brave deeds of Conductor Forest and the tall
fireman. Suddenly he looked up at his brother.

"Why, what are you chucklin' at, Blazes?"

"Nothing, lad. Was the fireman _very_ tall?"

"That he certainly was--uncommon tall."

"Something like _me_?" said Frank.

A glea