alley where I heard
voices. The speakers had their backs turned to me, but I could see
them. It was the child who had just left me, and the woman who had beat
her for meddling with the barrel of cinders.

"You did it _well_," said the woman. "I couldn't have _made believe
cry_ better myself. I knew she'd call you in. Did she give you all
these? and these? and these?" (holding up the dresses.) "That's good. I
can sell them to the second-hand clothes shop there, for money;--_you_
may have that bit of money she gave you, to buy yourself a string of
beads, because you cried so well. Which story did you tell her, hey?"

"The one you told me this morning"--said the child; "all about the
cellar, and the water in it, and how father was killed on the railroad
track. Didn't she give me a good breakfast, though?" And the child
stretched up her arms and yawned.

* * *

Well, I was not sorry that I gave her that breakfast, or those clothes,
or that money; I was sorry to see a little child so deceitful; but, do
you know it is better _sometimes_ to be mistaken than _never_ to
_trust_?--better sometimes even to _lose a little_, than with icy words
to crush from out a despairing heart, the last hope of a tempted,
starving, fellow creature!

That's the way I comforted myself, dear children, as I walked along
home.

THE BOY PEDLAR.

Rain, rain, rain! How the drops come down! I wonder if anybody beside
myself will get out doors to-day?

Ah, yes! There's a little boy, not much bigger than Tom Thumb. He's a
little merchant, as true as the world, and has a box strapped on his
back. Now he wants to sell me something.

"Corset lacings?" Never use such things, my dear.

"Paste blacking?" Wear patent leather.

"Ear-rings?" I leave those to the Indians.

"Combs? hooks and eyes? pins? needles? tape? scissors? spools?"

Oh, you little rogue--come in here; where did you come from, hey?

"I am an Englishman."

No, you are not.

"Well, my father was. I was born in Hamburgh."

That's it; now, how came you to be selling these things?

"I'm doing it to try to pay my own board. I pay ten shillings a week.
My brother has gone to California. By and by, perhaps, he will come
home, and send me to school. Buy anything, to-day, ma'am?"

Of course I shall. I haven't seen such an enterprising young man since
I left off pinafores. I'll buy all the pins you have; for since I came
here to N