r no. But
this morning he sends for me, and `Tuvvy,' he says, `I've had a Round
Robin about you.' `And what sort of a bird is that, master?' says I.
`'Tain't a bird at all,' he says, `it's this,' and then he showed it
me."

"What ever was it?" asked Dan, as his father paused.

Tuvvy made a large circle in the air with the stem of his pipe.

"'Twas a round drawed like that on a bit of card, and inside of it was
wrote as follers: `We which have signed our names, ask Mr Solace to keep
Mr Tuvvy in his service.' All the men's names was round the outside,
and the little gentleman's name as well."

"What did Mr Solace say?" asked Dan.

"He said, `You ain't deserved it, Tuvvy.'"

"No more yer 'ave," said Mrs Tuvvy, regaining her speech.

"But," continued her husband, "the gaffer went on to say that, along of
Master Chester, who'd taken such a lot of trouble, he'd give me another
chance. So that's all about it."

"And in all my born days," broke out Mrs Tuvvy, "I never heard of
anything so singuller. Whatever made Master Chester take such a fancy
to _you_, I wonder?"

"So I'm to stop on," continued Tuvvy, putting his pipe in his mouth, and
turning his back on his wife.

"And I hope," said poor Mrs Tuvvy, beginning to cry a little from the
relief of the good news, "I _do_ hope, Benjamin, as it'll be a lesson as
you'll take to 'art, and keep away from the drink; and if ever a man had
reason to keep steady, you 'ave, with Dan growin' up, and Becky's
doctor's bill to pay, and--" Mrs Tuvvy did not speak angrily, or raise
her voice above a soft complaining drawl; but it seemed to have a
disturbing effect upon her husband, who, when she reached this point,
sprang up and flung himself towards the door.

"Look, father," said Becky's childish voice from her corner. "See here
what Dan's brought me!"

"Filling the house with cats and dogs and rubbish," mourned Mrs Tuvvy,
joining the remark to her interrupted sentence.

"We ain't got no dogs, anyhow, mother," said Dan, as his father turned
from the door and went up to Becky's side; "a morsel of a kitten won't
eat much. She'll have a bit of my supper till she's older, and then
she'll catch mice and get her own living."

CHAPTER EIGHT.

BECKY.

"It seems as if it had brought luck, don't it?" said Becky.

She was lying on her hard little sofa, with her hands clasped behind her
head, and her eyes fixed on the grey kitten, who was playing all sorts
of pranks in a