id that he didn't know, and, what was more, he
didn't care.

"Now don't sit talkin' nonsense, but sit in to tea," said Mrs
Crashington.

The stout fireman's natural amiability had been returning like a flood
while he conversed with Fred, but this sharp summons rather checked its
flow; and when he was told in an exasperating tone to hand the toast,
and not look like a stuck pig, it was fairly stopped, and his spirit
sank to zero.

"Have you got anything to do yet?" he asked of Phil Sparks, by way of
cheering up a little.

"No, nothin'," replied Sparks; "leastways nothin' worth mentionin'."

"I _knew_ his last application would fail," observed Maggie, in a
quietly contemptuous tone.

His last application had been made through Ned's influence and advice,
and that is how she came to _know_ it would fail.

Ned felt a rising of indignation within him which he found it difficult
to choke down, because it was solely for his wife's sake that he had
made any effort at all to give a helping hand to surly Phil Sparks, for
whom he entertained no personal regard. But Ned managed to keep his
mouth shut. Although a passionate man, he was not ill-tempered, and
often suffered a great deal for the sake of peace.

"London," growled Sparks, in a tone of sulky remonstrance, "ain't a
place for a man to git on in. If you've the luck to have friends who
can help you, an' are willin', why it's well enough; but if you haven't
got friends, its o' no manner o' use to try anything, except
pocket-pickin' or house-breakin'."

"Come, Phil," said Ned, laughing, as he helped himself to a huge round
of buttered toast, "I 'ope you han't made up your mind to go in for
either of them professions, for they don't pay. They entail hard work,
small profits, an' great risk--not to mention the dishonesty of 'em.
But I don't agree with you about London neither."

"You never agree with nobody about anythink," observed Mrs Crashington,
in a low tone, as if the remark were made to the teapot; but Ned heard
it, and his temper was sorely tried again, for, while the remark was
utterly false as regarded himself, it was particularly true as regarded
his wife. However, he let it pass, and continued--

"You see, Phil, London, as you know, is a big place, the population of
it being equal to that of all Scotland--so I'm told, though it ain't
easy to swallow that. Now it seems to me that where there's so many
people an' so much doin', it ought to be the very