that. It would 'ave bin like
the soda to the hacid, a fizz at first and all square arterwards.
Hows'ever, that don't signify now, cos he's all right. I tuk him to the
Grotto, the werry first thing arter I'd bin to the Trinity 'Ouse, and
seed him cast anchor there all right, and--"

Again Babel burst forth, and riot reigned supreme for five minutes more.
At the end of that time silence was proclaimed as before.

"Now then," said Dick, "breakfast bein' ready, place the chairs."

The three elder children obeyed this order. Each member of this
peculiar household had been "told off," as Dick expressed it, to a
special duty, which was performed with all the precision of discipline
characteristic of a man-of-war.

"That's all right; now go in and win," said Dick. There was no occasion
to appeal to the Yankee clock now. Tongues and throats as well as teeth
and jaws were too fully occupied. Babel succumbed for full quarter of
an hour, during which period Dick Moy related to Nora the circumstances
connected with a recent visit to London, whither he had been summoned as
a witness in a criminal trial, and to which, at Nora's earnest entreaty,
and with the boy's unwilling consent, he had conveyed Billy Towler. We
say unwilling, because Billy, during his long period of convalescence,
had been so won by the kindness of Nora, that the last thing in the
world he would have consented to bear was separation from her; but, on
thinking over it, he was met by this insurmountable difficulty--that the
last thing in the world he would consent to do was to disobey her!
Between these two influences he went unwillingly to London--for the sake
of his education, as Nora said to him--for the sake of being freed from
the evil influence of her father's example, as poor Nora was compelled
to admit to herself.

"The Grotto," said Dick, speaking as well as he could through an immense
mouthful of bacon and bread, "is an institootion which I 'ave reason for
to believe desarves well of its country. It is an institootion sitooate
in Paddington Street, Marylebone, where homeless child'n, as would
otherwise come to the gallows, is took in an' saved--saved not only from
sin an' misery themselves, but saved from inflictin' the same on
society. I do assure _you_," said Dick, striking the table with his
fist in his enthusiasm, so that the crockery jumped, and some of the
children almost choked by reason of their food going down what they
styled their