great deal of time by doing so. Besides, it was so early that there was
very little fear of his being seen; so he walked on.

He reached the house. There was no appearance of the people inside
stirring at that early hour. Oliver stopped, and peeped into the garden.
A child was weeding one of the little beds; as he stopped, he raised his
pale face and disclosed the features of one of his former companions.
Oliver felt glad to see him before he went; for, though younger than
himself, he had been his little friend and playmate. They had been
beaten, and starved, and shut up together many and many a time.

"Hush, Dick!" said Oliver, as the boy ran to the gate, and thrust his
thin arm between the rails to greet him. "Is anyone up?"

"Nobody but me," replied the child.

"You mustn't say you saw me, Dick," said Oliver. "I am running away.
They beat and ill-use me, Dick; and I am going to seek my fortune some
long way off. I don't know where. How pale you are!"

"I heard the doctor tell them I was dying," replied the child, with a
faint smile. "I am very glad to see you, dear; but don't stop, don't
stop!"

"Yes, yes, I will to say good-by to you," replied Oliver. "I shall see
you again, Dick. I know I shall. You will be well and happy!"

"I hope so," replied the child. "After I am dead, but not before. I know
the doctor must be right, Oliver, because I dream so much of heaven and
angels, and kind faces that I never see when I am awake. Kiss me," said
the child, climbing up the low gate, and flinging his little arms
around Oliver's neck: "Good-by, dear! God bless you!"

The blessing was from a young child's lips, but it was the first that
Oliver had ever heard invoked upon his head; and through the struggles
and sufferings, and troubles and changes of his after-life, he never
once forgot it.

Oliver soon got into the high-road. It was eight o'clock now. Though he
was nearly five miles away from the town, he ran, and hid behind the
hedges, by turns, till noon, fearing that he might be pursued and
overtaken. Then he sat down to rest by the side of the mile-stone.

The stone by which he was seated had a sign on it which said that it was
just seventy miles from that spot to London. The name awakened a new
train of ideas in the boy's mind, London!--that great large
place!--nobody--not even Mr. Bumble--could ever find him there! He had
often heard the old men in the workhouse, too, say that no lad of spirit
need want in L