retires from the presence of a sovereign.

"What do you make of him, doctor?" added Mr. Lowington, as the door
closed upon the waif.

"I don't make anything of him," replied Dr. Winstock. "The young
rascal evidently don't intend that we should make anything of him.
He's a young Norwegian, about fifteen years old, with neither father
nor mother; for I think we may believe what he has said. If he had no
regard to the truth, it was just as easy for him to lie as it was to
keep silent, and it would have been more plausible."

"I am inclined to believe that he is a runaway, either from the shore
or from some vessel," said the principal. "He certainly cannot have
been well treated, for his filthy rags scarcely cover his body; and he
says that the supper he had to-night was the best he ever ate in his
life. It was only coffee, cold ham, and bread and butter; so he cannot
have been a high liver. He seems to be honest, and I pity him."

"But he is too filthy to remain on board a single hour. I will attend
to his sanitary condition at once," laughed the doctor. "He will breed
a leprosy among the boys, if he is not taken care of."

"Let the purser give you a suit of clothes for him, for we can't do
less than this for him."

The doctor left the cabin, and Ole was taken to the bath-room by one
of the stewards, and compelled to scrub himself with a brush and soap,
till he was made into a new creature. He was inclined to rebel at
first, for he had his national and inborn prejudice against soap
and water in combination; but the sight of the suit of new clothes
overcame his constitutional scruples. The steward was faithful to his
mission, and Ole left dirt enough in the bath-tub to plant half a
dozen hills of potatoes. He looked like a new being, even before he
had donned the new clothes. His light hair, cut square across his
forehead, was three shades lighter when it had been scrubbed, and
deprived of the black earth, grease, and tar, with which it had been
matted.

The steward was interested in his work, for it is a pleasure to any
decent person to transform such a leper of filth into a clean and
wholesome individual. Ole put on the heavy flannel shirt and the blue
frock which were handed to him, and smiled with pleasure as he
observed the effect. He was fitted to a pair of seaman's blue
trousers, and provided with socks and shoes. Then he actually danced
with delight, and evidently regarded himself as a finished dandy; for