t there.

When we got there, I stuck him up at the window, as large as life, for
his governor to see. There were a lot of people about; but I can tell
you I was pretty queer when no one owned him. We hung about a quarter
of an hour, asking everybody we met if they'd come to meet a kid, and
watching them all go off in cabs, till we had the platform to ourselves.

"Here's a go, kid!" said I; "daddy's not come."

"I 'spex," says he, "when the middling-size bear found his porridge
eaten up, he wondered who it was."

"Shut up about the bears," said I. "What about your gov.--your daddy?
Where does he live?"

"In London town," said he, as soon as I could knock those bears out of
his head.

"Whereabouts? What street?"

"London town."

"Do you mean to say--look here, what's your name? Tommy what?"

"It's Tommy," he said.

"I know that. Is it Tommy Jones, or Tommy Robinson, or what?"

"It's Tommy," he repeated. "My name's Tommy." Here was a nice go!
Stranded with a kid that didn't know his own name, or where his governor
lived! The worst of it was, I had to stop in London that night as there
was no train on. My pater had written to get a room for me at the
Euston Hotel, so that I should be on the spot for starting home first
train in the morning.

I was regularly stumped, I can tell you. It never turned a feather on
the kid, his governor not turning up; and I couldn't make the idiot
understand anything. He hung on to me singing and saying, "Who's been
tasting my porridge and eaten it all up?" or else cheeking the porters,
or else trying to whistle to make the trains go.

I thought I'd better leave word with the station-master where I'd gone,
in case any one turned up; and then there was nothing for it but to take
a cab across to the hotel.

The kid was no end festive to have a ride in the cab. It would have
been in a little better taste if he'd held his tongue, and shown a
little regret for the jolly mess he'd let me into. But, bless you, he
didn't care two straws.

"What will daddy say when he can't find you?" I said, trying to get him
to look at things seriously.

"Daddy will say, `Who's been sitting in my chair, and broken the bottom
out?'" said he, still harping on those blessed bears. I gave him up
after that, and let him jaw on.

When we got to the hotel I was in another fix. The chap in charge said
he'd got instructions about one young gentleman, but not two.

"Oh, I'm looking after