s, maybe out to the
common--they roam all about the country on half-holidays."

"Oh," said the other voice, "they may go where they please, may they?"

"Naturally so," said Swan; "they may go anywhere, sir, or do anything in
reason, on a half-holiday. It would be a shame to give a pig leave to
grunt, and then say he's not to grunt through his nose."

"Perhaps they're up in Parliament," observed Brandon.

"No, that they're not," Swan exclaimed; "so sure as they're there they
make the roof ring."

"And the door's, locked."

"Yes, the door's locked, and wherever they air they've got the key. They
let nobody in, sir, but my daughter, and she goes o' mornings to sweep
it out."

"Well, Swan, good day. Come on, George, we'll try the fir-wood first."

"Or perhaps they're gone to Wigfield," said the second voice.

"No, sir, I think not," said Swan. "They sent one of the little boys
there on an errand, so I judge that they've no call to go again."

Yes, one of the little boys had been sent, and had no reason to be
ashamed of what he had also done there on his own account.

What! though I have all sorts of good food in my father's house, and
plenty of it, shall it not still be a joy to me to buy a whole pot of
plum-jam with my ninepence? Certainly it shall, and with generous ardour
I shall call my younger brothers and sisters together to my little room,
where in appreciative silence we shall hang over it, while I dig it out
with the butt-end of my tooth-brush.

Johnnie's face grew radiant as these two went off to search the
fir-wood, but nobody dared to speak or stir, for Swan was still close
underneath, so close that they could hear him grumbling to himself over
the laziness of a woman who had been hired to weed the walks for him,
and was slowly scratching them at a good distance.

"Ay, there you go, grudging every weed you pull. The master says it
ain't a woman's work--wants to raise you--you! 'Sir,' says I, 'folks
can't rise o' top of parish pay,' Ay, she was a pauper, and she'd have
liked to charge the parish twopence a time for suckling her own child.
Now what would you have? Ain't two shillings a day handsome for
scratching out half a peck of grass? You might work here for some time,
too, but bless us, what's the good of saying to such as you, 'Don't
stand waiting for good luck, and give the go-by to good opportunity?'
Your man's just like you," he continued, using his rake with delicate
skill among the flower