this morning, and she insisted on coming down with me. You
know she is already indebted to your son for saving a locket which we
both greatly valued."

"Will you walk in, sir?" and Mrs. Andrews showed them into the sitting
room.

Mr. Penrose had been somewhat surprised by Mrs. Andrews' manner,
although the foreman, in telling him of the boys' conduct, had also
stated what he knew about them.

"They are out-of-the-way sort of boys, sir," he said. "There was quite
a talk about them in the shops in the spring. They lodged with
Grimstone, and it seems that after they had been here at work five
months Andrews' mother, who had been ill, was coming to them, and they
got Grimstone to take a house for them, and it turned out that ever
since they had been at work here they had been putting by half their
wages to furnish a place for her, so they must have lived on about
five shillings a week each and got clothes for themselves out of it.
Now, sir, boys as would do that aint ordinary boys, and there was
quite a talk among the men about it. I hear from Grimstone that Mrs.
Andrews is a superior sort of person, he says quite a lady. She does
work, I believe, for some London shop."

Mr. Penrose, therefore, was prepared to find the boys in a more
comfortable abode than usual, and their mother what the foreman called
a superior sort of woman; but he perceived at once by her address that
Grimstone's estimate had been a correct one, and that she was indeed a
lady. The prettiness of the little sitting room, with its comfortable
furniture, its snowy curtains and pretty belongings, heightened this
feeling.

"I have come to see you, boys," he said, "and to tell you how indebted
I feel to you for your exertions on Saturday. There is no doubt that
had it not been for you the place would have been entirely burned. It
was fully insured, but it would have been a serious matter for me, as
I should have lost four or five months' work, and it would have been
still more serious for the men to have been thrown out of employment
at this time of the year, so we all feel very much indebted to you. I
hope you are not much burned."

"Oh, no, sir! our hands are burned a bit, but they will be all right
in a few days. Bill and I are very glad, sir, that we happened to be
passing, and were able to give the alarm and do something to stop the
flames till the others came up; but we don't feel that it was anything
out of the way. It was just a piece of fun a