ort of friend of the family, had first claim; so
we agreed that he should try first and do all the hard work of breaking
the ice, and then, if the cold was too much for him, I was to go out and
fetch him in and finish the job myself. So you see it was a mutual
arrangement, and no particular thanks due to any one. But your son is a
plucky young fellow, Mrs. Holl, and he behaved most gallantly. I find
too, from what your son here tells me, that I owe him one for having
fetched help up from the School when we were getting the worst of it
just opposite your house here. Well, in the first place, how is he? None
the worse, I hope, for the cold."

"Not at all, sir. He is out to-day with a friend of ours as 'as got a
barrow, and lives in the next street, but who is that hoarse with the
cold that he can't speak out of a whisper; so he offered Evan sixpence
to go along with him to do the shouting, and a nice shouting he will
make; his voice goes through and through my head when he is only
a-talking with his brothers and sisters here, and if anything can bring
them to the windows it will be his voice. He offered to come round here
with the barrow afore they started off this morning, but says I, 'No,
Evan; I have a good name in the street, I hope, and don't wish to be
dighted as a nuisance to the neighbourhood, nor to have my neighbours
accusing me of a-being the cause of fits in their children.'"

"I don't suppose that it would be as bad as that, Mrs. Holl," Frank
said, laughing. "However, if his voice is as loud and clear as that, it
is evident that he is not much the worse for his cold bath. I came round
partly to see him, partly to know if I could do anything for him; he
seems a sharp lad, and I am sure he is as honest as he is plucky. As a
beginning, my uncle says he could come into the house as a sort of
errand-boy, and to help the footman, until he can hear of some better
position for him among his friends."

"I am sure you are very good, sir," Mrs. Holl said gratefully; "I will
mention it to his father, and he---- But I doubt whether Evan's steady
enough for a place yet, he is allus getting into mischief; there never
was such a boy for scrapes; if all my eight were like him I should go
clean mad afore the week was out. When he is in the house, as long as he
is talking or singing I can go on with my work, but the moment that he
is quiet I have to drop what I am a-doing on and look arter him, for he
is sure to be up to some