flushed with
pleasure. It was but for a minute; the brightness and the glow faded
away as he glanced down at his little lame brother. I saw that Billy was
squeezing his hand,-- that squeeze served all the purpose of words.

"'Thank 'ee, sir,' said the boy, glancing first at the farmer, then at
his teacher, 'but I think as how-- I should rather-- leastways I had
better stay and earn my bread here in Lunnon.'

"'And how do you earn it?' inquired the farmer.

"'Please, sir, I clean boots,'* answered the boy; 'I am one of the
yellow brigade.'

"There was such a look of cheerful independence on the little fellow's
face, that no one could have glanced at him and doubted that his bread
was honestly earned.

"'And would you rather stay here and rub in blacking,' said the farmer,
'than be out in the open fields? Yours is an odd taste, I take it! Would
you not rather come with us?'

"'Oh, sir!' said Bob, uneasily, shifting from one foot to the other,
while Billy was squeezing his hand harder than ever, and looking half
ready to cry, as he pressed closer to his side; 'you see I could not
leave him behind,-- poor lame Billy, he's no one to care for him
but me.'

"'That's it, is it!' cried the farmer, clapping his knee. 'Well, Mary,
what say you? could we take the two with us do you think? If they've
always been together, poor fellows, 'twould be a pity to part them now!'

"Bob's only answer was a look of pleasure and gratitude, but little
Billy almost burst into tears of delight as he exclaimed, 'Oh, yes!
please, sir, take me too!-- take me too! I'll do anything,-- I'll
work,-- I'll make baskets for your fruit.'

"'And coops for my poultry, hey? We'll find some way of making you
useful.' And he turned to Mary with that smile which I think that all
human beings wear when they are doing some act of kindness.

"I was so much pleased," continued Oddity, "at this conclusion to the
affair, that I ran out from my place beneath the chair. Billy uttered a
cry of surprise:

"'There-- look! if that an't my own pretty spotted rat!'"

Here I rather rudely interrupted my piebald brother. "Pretty! did he
call you pretty? well, well, I shall be obliged to think you so myself,
I suppose. Spared by a man, petted by a woman, admired by a child,-- and
all for your beauty,-- Oddity's beauty!" I could not help laughing
outright at the thought.

"My ugliness has at least done me no harm," he replied, with a meekness
which made me more a