rlie's face.

"Why, if it isn't that Miss Nancy fellow, Scott!" he exclaimed, in
either real or pretended astonishment. "But it can't be," he went on, in
a mocking tone, "and yet it is; why, how ever has it happened that such
a nice, good boy, the ladies' pet, has come down amongst us roughs? I
thought he was going to be made a gentleman of--dear, dear! and he
hasn't got his white collar on; and his mother isn't with him."

"Come, hold that saucy tongue of yours, White Bob," said Brownlee, in an
angry tone, "or it will be worse for you."

The boy's proper name was Bob White. He was a tall, thin,
singular-looking lad, about fifteen years old, with a pale face. When he
first went to work in the mine some of the boys called him White Bob, in
nonsense, and the name had stuck to him.

He was certainly silent after Brownlee spoke to him, but he kept
throwing back his head, lifting up his hands, turning up his eyes, and
expressing his mock astonishment in so many odd ways, that the rest of
the boys, although they bore no ill-will to Charlie, were convulsed with
laughter. As for Charlie himself, he was in a great passion; it was
fortunate that just at this moment the cage reached the bottom, and in
the general scramble to get out he lost sight of Bob.

"Now, my boy, keep close to me," said Brownlee, "never mind those
fellows: keep your temper, and they'll soon tire of it. Now look about
you; you are many hundred feet under ground." It was a strange scene to
Charlie. Look where you would, nothing but black met the eye--black
walls, black floor, groups of black men standing about--every one and
every thing was covered with the bright coal dust that glittered and
sparkled in the rays of the lamps, like black diamonds.

"Now," said Brownlee, "we must get to work. I'll take you to your place,
as it is in my way;" and they turned up a sort of road or gallery that
had been cut out of the slate and coal. On each side of this branched,
right and left, other roads or galleries that had been formed by the
taking away of the coal; from these again branched other roads, and so
on, that you might walk for miles under ground, in and out of the
workings of the mine. As the coal is hewn away the roof is supported by
props of wood. In some places it was so low that Brownlee had to walk
stooping. Of course Charlie did not find all this out at first, for they
only had the light given by their lamps to guide them and relieve the
intense darkn