"

"Foot o' this stair."

Descending to the regions below, the two boys groped their way along an
underground passage till they came to a door. It was opened by a woman,
who timidly demanded what they wanted.

"It's me, Missis Wilkin. 'Ave you forgotten Howlet?"

With an exclamation of surprise and joy the woman flung the door wide,
seized Owlet, dragged him into the room, and embraced him with as much
affection as if he had been her own child. Instantly there arose a
shout of juvenile joy, and Stumpy could see, in the semi-darkness, that
four little creatures were helping their mother to overwhelm his friend,
while a fifth--a biggish girl--was prevented from joining them by the
necessity that lay on her to take care of the baby.

When the greetings were over, the sad condition of the family was soon
explained, and a single glance round sufficed to show that they had
reached the lowest state of destitution. It was a back room rather than
a cellar, but the dirty pane of thick glass near the roof admitted only
enough of light to make its wretchedness visible. A rickety table, two
broken chairs, and a bedstead without a bottom was all the furniture
left, and the grate was empty.

"We've been obleeged to pawn everything," said Mrs Wilkin, with
difficulty suppressing a sob, "and I need hardly tell you why," she
added, with a glance at the children, who were living skeletons.

The baby was perhaps the saddest object there, for it was so thin and
weak that it had not strength to cry--though the faces which it
frequently made were obviously the result of an effort to do so.

Much interested in the scene, young Stumpy stood admiring it
patronisingly for a little, but when he heard the poor woman tell of
their desperate struggle to merely keep themselves alive, his feelings
were touched, and when he learned that not a bite of food had passed
their lips since the previous morning, a sudden impulse swelled his
little breast. He clutched his four pennies tightly; glanced quickly
round; observed an empty basket in a corner; caught it up, and left the
place hurriedly.

He had scarcely gone when the father of the family entered. The
expression of his face and his whole bearing and aspect told eloquently
of disappointment as he sat down with a heavy sigh.

"Stumped again," he said; "only a few hands took on."

The words sounded as a death-knell to the famishing family, and the man
himself was too much cut up to take