im; but Bill also had borne ample testimony to the fact, that many
a time in the old days Jim had deprived himself of a meal--Milly come
by, it might be--to give it to the little cripples, poorly provided for
by a drunken father and ill-tempered mother to whom they were naught
but a burden. Many a faded and limp bouquet, discarded by some happier
child of fortune, did Jim rescue from the ash-heap and bring to Matty,
who had a passionate love for flowers; and not seldom during the spring
and summer months would he take a long trudge into the suburbs, and
gather wild blossoms to gratify the craving of the little hunchback. On
one of these occasions he stole a little, fluffy chicken, which had
wandered from its mother's guardianship beyond the garden palings of a
small cottage, and, hastily buttoning it beneath his worn jacket, made
off as fast as his feet would carry him to bestow his prize upon Matty,
who had expressed a longing desire for a bird. But the stolen gift
brought naught but distress to Matty's tender heart; for, when the
ragged jacket was unbuttoned, the little yellow ball fell lifeless into
Jim's hand.

"I'm sure I thought he'd got lots of air to breathe," said Jim, wofully
gazing at his victim, while Matty's tears bedewed it; "there's holes
enough in my jacket to make it as ventilatin' as a' ash-sifter, an' it
was awful mean in him to up an' die on me that way. An', Matty, I wish
I hadn't brought him, for him to go an' disappint you like this. Never
mind, some day I'll buy you a parrot an' a monkey."

Tearful Matty declined the monkey, but the parrot had long since
gladdened her weary hours; for a gorgeous specimen, given to much
screaming, even more than is the usual manner of his kind, had been
purchased by Jim for her behoof out of his little savings, soon after
he and Bill had fallen into good hands, namely, those of my sister
Millicent and brother Edward.

This occurred not long after the chicken episode. Milly had become
interested in the boys, whom she had encountered at one of the Moody
and Sankey meetings, whither they had come, not for purposes of
edification to themselves or others, but drawn, partly by their love of
music, and partly by the desire to make themselves obnoxious to more
decently disposed worshippers. But Milly, by her gentle tact, had
disarmed them,--they being our near neighbors at the service,--and,
profiting by this love of sweet sounds, had brought them within her
influence;