adly to her and treated Dick, he
averred, so cruelly, that he could not stand it any longer. That very
morning, Dick stated; he had beaten him so unmercifully that he had
suddenly determined to run away to sea; and this was the reason why he
wanted to get to Portsmouth.

"But, you might have entered the carriage like a Christian!" interposed
the Captain at this point of the lad's story. "The train stopped long
enough at Guildford for you to get in through the doorway, like any
ordinary passenger, surely?"

"No, sir, I couldn't," answered the other. "I couldn't a-done it."

"But why not?"

"Because, sir," snivelled the lad, "I didn't have no money, sir."

"Humph! you had no money, eh?"

"No, sir; nothing but thrippence-a'penny, which mother gave me afore I
started, when she wished me good-bye. She was sorry as how she could
give me nothing more; and so I couldn't pay the fare, and had no
ticket."

"So, my joker, you got on the train without one at all!" said the
Captain, interrupting him. "Do you know that was really cheating the
railway company?"

"I knows it, sir," replied Dick Allsop, who had better now be called by
his own proper name, looking down as if ashamed of what he had done. "I
knows it's wrong; but, sir, I couldn't help it, as there was no other
way I seed of getting to Porchmouth."

"But, why didn't you jump into the carriage like a Christian, as I said
just now?" observed the Captain. "Eh?"

Dick seemed amused by this question.

"Does yer think, sir, the porters would ha' let me if they'd seed me a-
trying it on?" said he, with a radiant grin that lit up his face, quite
changing its expression. "Not if they, knowed it!"

"Perhaps not," agreed the Captain, nonplussed by the lad's logic and
knowledge of human nature. "No, I don't think they would."

"No, sir; that they wouldn't," exclaimed the runaway triumphantly, as if
he knew all about that matter at any rate. "So, sir, I waits down by
the side o' the line, where I lays hid, sir, without nobody a-seeing me;
and then, jist as the train was started and quite clear o' the station,
a-going into the tunnel as ain't fur off, as yer know, sir--?"

"Yes, I know the line, my lad," said Captain Dresser. "I ought to!"

"Well, sir, there I climbs on by the buffers and coupling-chain of the
guard's van to the step of the end carriage, and works myself along till
I reaches this; when, drawing myself up and looking in through the
windy, I t