WO, CHAPTER 1.

FAITHFUL MOSES--A SHORT STORY.

Those of you who live near any of the great high-roads that lead to
London may remember to have been awake sometimes in the middle of the
night, and to have heard the sound of horses' feet, and of cart wheels
rumbling slowly and heavily along.

If it be winter, frosty and dry, you hear them very sharply and
distinctly; and perhaps you wonder, drowsily, who it is that has
business so late, and whither they are bound. "How cold it must be
outside!" you think, and it is quite a pleasure to snuggle cosily down
in your comfortable bed and feel how warm you are.

Gradually, as the sounds grow less and less, and die away mysteriously
in the distance, your eyes close; soon you are fast asleep again, and
that is all you know about the cold, dark night outside.

But Tim, the van-boy, knew a great deal more about it than this, for he
had now been "on the road" between Roydon and London for more than a
year. The carrier's cart started at eleven o'clock in the morning, and
having distributed and received parcels on the way the driver put up his
horses at an inn called "The Magpie and Stump," in a part of London
named the Borough. So far it was all very well, and not at all hard
work; but then came the return journey at night, which began just at the
moment when a boy, after a good warm supper, naturally thinks of going
to bed. This was trying, and at first Tim felt it a good deal, for he
never got home until three o'clock in the morning; he was so anxious,
too, to do his duty and fill his post well, that he would not have
closed his eyes for the world, though he might well have taken a nap
without anyone's knowledge. His "mate" as he called him, whose name was
Joshua, sat in front driving his two strong black horses, and Tim's
place was at the other open end of the van, so that he might keep his
eye on the parcels and prevent their being stolen or lost.

It was a responsible situation he felt for a boy of thirteen, and he
meant to do his very best to keep it now that he had been lucky enough
to get it; in the far-off future, too, he saw himself no longer the
van-boy, but in the proud position now occupied by Joshua as driver, and
this he considered, though a lofty, was by no means an unreasonable
ambition.

When Tim first began his work it was summertime, and the nights were so
balmy, and soft, and light that it was not so very difficult to keep
awake--there seemed so many