cause I was afraid. I saw boys carrying packages along the street,
found out how they got it to do, and imitated them, earning
occasionally a few pennies. I saved up enough with these pennies to
buy a stock of London papers. By saving these pennies and eating
little food, I was able to buy a larger stock of these papers each
day. I had good luck, and by economy I managed to live and save. In a
few days I was able to pay thru'pence a night for a lodging. One night
when I made a big venture in spending all my money on a big stock of
papers, I had an accident in which they were all spoiled. I dropped
them in a pool of water--and I was penniless again! That night, late,
I went up the white stone steps of a big house in Westminster and went
to sleep. I had saved a few of the driest papers and used them as a
pillow.

"'Hi, little cove!' a policeman said, as he poked his baton under my
armpit next morning. 'What are you doing here?' I began to whimper,
and he took pity on me and showed me the way to Dr. Barnardo's Home;
but when I got out of his sight, I went off in another direction, for
I had heard that many boys got whipped down there. I got among a lot
of boys on the banks of the river. They were diving for pennies. I
thought it was a very hard way to earn money, but I did it too, and
got about as much as the rest. I did not stay long on the river bank.
The boys were sharper than I was and could cheat me out of my pennies.

"One night I slept under an arch. Next morning I heard the loud sound
of factory whistles. Everybody was aroused. Some of the people lying
around were going to work there; and I thought I might get a job also,
so I followed them. On the way we came to a coffee stall, and as I was
nearly fainting with hunger, I stood in front of it to get the smell
of the coffee and fresh bread, for that does a fellow a heap of good
when he's got nothing in his stomach. A man with a square paper hat on
looked at me, and said:

"'What's up, little 'un?'

"I said nothing was up except that I was hungry. Then he stepped up to
the coffee-man and gave him some money, and I got a bun and a mug of
coffee. It seemed to me that I had never been so happy in all my life
as with the feeling I got from that bun and coffee--but then, I had
been a good many days without food.

"There was no work to be had at the factory near the bridge, so I went
back to the docks. At night I slept with a lot of other fellows under
a big canvas c