iately set out to find Cecilia
Jupe, and to order her from henceforth to remain away from school. On
the way there they met her. "Now, girl," said Mr. Gradgrind, "take this
gentleman and me to your father's; we are going there. What have you got
in that bottle you are carrying?"

"It's the nine oils."

"The what?" cried Mr. Bounderby.

"The nine oils, sir, to rub father with. It is what our people always
use, sir, when they get any hurts in the ring," replied the girl, "they
bruise themselves very bad sometimes."

"Serves them right," said Mr. Bounderby, "for being idle." The girl
glanced up at his face with mingled astonishment and dread as he said
this, but she led them on down a narrow road, until they stopped at the
door of a little public house.

"This is it, sir," she said. "It's only crossing the bar, sir, and up
the stairs, if you wouldn't mind; and waiting there for a moment till I
get a candle. If you should hear a dog, sir, it's only Merrylegs, and he
only barks."

They followed the girl up some steep stairs, and stopped while she went
on for a candle. Reappearing, with a face of great surprise, she said,
"Father is not in our room, sir. If you wouldn't mind walking in, sir?
I'll find him directly."

They walked in; and Sissy having set two chairs for them, sped away with
a quick, light step. They heard the doors of rooms above opening and
shutting, as Sissy went from one to another in quest of her father. She
came bounding down again in a great hurry, opened an old hair trunk,
found it empty, and looked around with her face full of terror.

"Father must have gone down to the Booth, sir. I'll bring him in a
minute!" She was gone directly, without her bonnet; with her long, dark,
childish hair streaming behind her.

"What does she mean!" said Mr. Gradgrind. "Back in a minute? It's more
than a mile off."

Before Mr. Bounderby could reply, a young man mentioned in the bills of
the day as Mr. E.W.B. Childers,--justly celebrated for his daring
vaulting act as the wild huntsman of the North American prairies,
appeared. Upon entering into conversation with Mr. Gradgrind he informed
that gentleman of his opinion that Jupe was off.

"Do you mean that he has deserted his daughter?" asked Mr. Gradgrind.

"I mean," said Mr. Childers with a nod, "that he has cut. He has been
short in his leaps and bad in his tumbling lately, missed his tip
several times, too. He was goosed last night, he was goosed the nigh