an empty bottle, as being the best way of rousing her
attention.

"Come, you let mother alone, dad," suggested Bobby, "she ain't
a-aggrawatin' of you just now."

"Why, mother," exclaimed Hetty, who was so busy with Bobby's supper,
and, withal, so accustomed to the woman's looks of hopeless misery that
she had failed to observe anything unusual until her attention was thus
called to her, "what ever have you done with the baby?"

"Ah--you may well ask that," growled Ned.

Even the boy seemed to forget his pain for a moment as he now observed,
anxiously, that his mother had not the usual bundle on her breast.

"The baby's gone!" she said, bitterly, still keeping her eyes on the
blank wall.

"Gone!--how?--lost? killed? speak, mother," burst from Hetty and the
boy.

"No, only gone to where it will be better cared for than here."

"Come, explain, old woman," said Ned, again laying his hand on the
bottle.

As Hetty went and took her hand gently, Mrs Frog condescended to
explain, but absolutely refused to tell to whose care the baby had been
consigned.

"Well--it ain't a bad riddance, after all," said the man, as he rose,
and, staggering into a corner where another bundle of straw was spread
on the floor, flung himself down. Appropriately drawing two of the
"stop thief" blankets over him, he went to sleep.

Then Mrs Frog, feeling comparatively sure of quiet for the remainder of
the night, drew her stool close to the side of her son, and held such
intercourse with him as she seldom had the chance of holding while Bobby
was in a state of full health and bodily vigour. Hetty, meanwhile,
ministered to them both, for she was one of those dusty diamonds of what
may be styled the East-end diggings of London--not so rare, perhaps, as
many people may suppose--whose lustre is dimmed and intrinsic value
somewhat concealed by the neglect and the moral as well as physical
filth by which they are surrounded.

"Of course you've paid the ninepence, Hetty?"

"Yes, mother."

"You might 'ave guessed that," said Bobby, "for, if she 'adn't we
shouldn't 'ave bin here."

"That and the firing and candle, with what the doctor ordered, has used
up all I had earned, even though I did some extra work and was paid for
it," said Hetty with a sigh. "But I don't grudge it, Bobby--I'm only
sorry because there's nothing more coming to me till next week."

"Meanwhile there is nothing for _this_ week," said Mrs Frog with a
return of the