en
he has nearly finished, and it swells more and more as he stands
a-looking at his father; his father standing a-looking at him, the quiet
image of him.

"'Please may I'--the spirit of that little creatur', and the way he kept
his rising tears down!--'Please, dear pa--may I--kiss Norah before I
go?'

"'You may, my child.'

"So he takes Master Harry in his hand, and Boots leads the way with the
candle, and they come to that other bedroom; where the elderly lady is
seated by the bed, and poor little Mrs. Harry Walmers, Jr., is fast
asleep. There the father lifts the child up to the pillow, and he lays
his little face down for an instant by the little warm face of poor
unconscious little Mrs. Harry Walmers, Jr., and gently draws it to
him--a sight so touching to the chambermaids who are peeping through the
door that one of them calls out, 'It's a shame to part 'em!' But this
chambermaid was always, as Boots informs me, a soft-hearted one. Not
that there was any harm in that girl. Far from it."

FOOTNOTES:

[A] For the benefit of some of our young readers, it may be well to
explain that this is about the same as a bill of twenty-five dollars
would be in America.

[B] A biffin is a red apple, growing near Norfolk, and generally eaten
after having been baked.

IV.

LITTLE DORRIT.

MANY years ago, when people could be put in prison for debt, a poor
gentleman, who was unfortunate enough to lose all his money, was brought
to the Marshalsea prison, which was the prison where debtors were kept.
As there seemed no prospect of being able to pay his debts, his wife and
their two little children came to live there with him. The elder child
was a boy of three; the younger a little girl of two years old, and not
long afterwards another little girl was born. The three children played
in the courtyard, and on the whole were happy, for they were too young
to remember a happier state of things.

But the youngest child, who had never been outside the prison walls, was
a thoughtful little creature, and wondered what the outside world could
be like. Her great friend, the turnkey, who was also her godfather,
became very fond of her, and as soon as she could walk and talk he
brought a little arm-chair and stood it by his fire at the lodge, and
coaxed her with cheap toys to come and sit with him. In return the child
loved him dearly, and would often bring her doll to dress and undress
as she sat in the little arm-chair. S