octor kindly.

"I should like to say good-bye to some of the chaps, and I've got
something to give 'em."

"Indeed! what?"

"Well, sir; I want to give Dick Dean my mouse, and Tommy Robson my
nicker, and share all my buttons among the chaps in my dormitory; and
then I've six pieces of string and a pair of bones, and a sucker."

"Go and share them, and say good-bye to them all," said the doctor,
drawing a breath full of satisfaction; and the boy darted away full of
excitement.

"May I say a word to the boys, Mr Sibery?" said the doctor, smiling.

"Certainly, sir."

"Will you call for silence?"

The master called, and the doctor asked the lads to give their old
schoolfellow a cheer as he was going away.

They responded with a shout that made the windows rattle.

"And now," said the doctor, "I'm going to ask Mr Hippetts to give you
all a holiday, and I am leaving threepence a piece to be distributed
among you, so that you may have a bit of fun."

Mr Hippetts smiled as he took the money, and the boys cheered again, in
the midst of which shouts the doctor moved off with his charge, but only
for his _protege_ to break away from him, and run to offer his hand to
Mr Sibery, who coughed slightly, and shook hands limply, as if he were
conferring a great favour.

The boy then held out his hand to the master, and he also shook hands in
a dignified way.

"Shall I send the boy on, sir?" said Mr Hippetts.

"Thanks, no, Hippetts; I'll take him with me."

"Would you like a fly, sir?"

"No, Hippetts; I'm not ashamed for people to see what I do. Come along,
my lad."

"Please, sir; mayn't I say good-bye to Mother Curdley?"

"Mother Curdley? Who is she!"

"Nurse, sir."

"The woman who had charge of him when he was a tiny fellow."

"Ah! to be sure. Yes, certainly," said the doctor. "He may, of
course?"

"Oh! certainly, sir. Run on, boy, and we'll follow."

"No larks," said the boy sharply, as he looked at the doctor.

"No; I shall not run away, my man."

The boy darted down a long whitewashed passage, and the doctor said:--

"I understand you to say that he has no friends whatever!"

"None, sir, as far as we know. Quite a foundling."

"That will do," said the doctor; and while the boy was bidding good-bye
to the old woman who had tended the sick tramp, the master led the way
to the nursery, where about a dozen children were crawling about and
hanging close to a large fire-guard. Others were being nur