ufficient for every possible want of humankind, even to
satiety. And now, in returning, despoiled of all save the few pence he
had collected that day, it is but fair to him to add that not his least
bitter pang was in the remembrance that this was the only Saturday on
which, for the first time, the weekly stipend would fail.

But so ill and so wretched did he look when he reached her little room
that "mammy" forgot all thought of herself; and when he had told his
tale, so kind was her comforting, so unselfish her sympathy, that his
heart smote him for his old parsimony, for his hard resentment at her
single act of peculation. Had not she the right to all he made? But
remorse and grief alike soon vanished in the fever that now seized him;
for several days he was insensible; and when he recovered sufficiently
to be made aware of what was around him, he saw the widow seated beside
him, within four bare walls. Everything, except the bed he slept on,
had been sold to support him in his illness. As soon as he could totter
forth, Beck hastened to his crossing. Alas! it was preoccupied. His
absence had led to ambitious usurpation. A one-legged, sturdy sailor had
mounted his throne, and wielded his sceptre. The decorum of the street
forbade altercation to the contending parties; but the sailor referred
discussion to a meeting at a flash house in the Rookery that evening.
There a jury was appointed, and the case opened. By the conventional
laws that regulate this useful community, Beck was still in his rights;
his reappearance sufficed to restore his claims, and an appeal to the
policeman would no doubt re-establish his authority. But Beck was still
so ill and so feeble that he had a melancholy persuasion that he could
not suitably perform the duties of his office; and when the sailor, not
a bad fellow on the whole, offered to pay down on the nail what really
seemed a very liberal sum for Beck's peaceful surrender of his rights,
the poor wretch thought of the bare walls at his "mammy's," of the
long, dreary interval that must elapse, even if able to work, before the
furniture pawned could be redeemed by the daily profits of his post, and
with a groan he held out his hand and concluded the bargain.

Creeping home to his "h-old crittur," he threw the purchase money into
her lap; then, broken-hearted and in despair, he slunk forth again in a
sort of vague, dreamy hope that the law, which abhors vagabonds, would
seize and finish him.