“Oh, my man, I've been too much occupied to speak to you before," cried Mr. Clough. "I saw you foremost in the rescue of that unfortunate infant, and shall not forget it. Here is a crown for your share in the good deed. I suppose that was the child's mother you gave it to?"

The iron porridge-pot was on the low fire, and Bess, sifting the oatmeal into the boiling water with the left hand, whilst with the other she beat it swiftly with her porridge-stick, was so intent on the preparation of their supper, she did not notice their entrance until her father, putting his coarse

"Thenk yo', Mester, all th' same, but aw connot tak' brass fur just doin' mi duty. Aw'd never a' slept i' mi bed, gin that little un had bin dreawnded, an' me lookin' on loike a stump. Neay, that lass wur Bess, moi wench; we'n no notion wheer th' lad's mother is."

Mr. Clough would have pressed the money upon him, but he put it back with a motion of his hand. "No, sir, aw'm a poor mon, a varry poor mon, but aw connot tak' money fur savin' a choilt's life. It's agen mi conscience. I'll tak' mi share o' the bread an' cheese, an' drink yo'r heealth i'a sup o' ale, but aw cudna tak' that brass if aw wur deein." And Simon, giving a scrape with his clog and a duck of his head, meant for a bow, passed his master respectfully, and went clattering up the steps of the Skinners' Arms, leaving the gentleman standing there and looking after him in mingled astonishment and admiration.

The boy, apparently between two and three. months old, was dressed in a long gown of printed linen, had a muslin cap, and an under one of flannel, all neatly made, but neither in make nor material beyond those of a respectable working man's child; and there was not a mark upon anything which could give a clue to its parentage.

The painted wooden cradle which had been to it an ark of safety, was placed in a corner by the fire-place; and an old bottle, filled with thin gruel, over the neck of which Bess had tied a loose cap of punctured wash-leather, was so adjusted that the little one, deprived of its mother, could lie within and feed itself whilst Bess herself industriously pursued her avocations.

These were not times for idleness. There had been bread-riots the previous winter; food still was at famine prices; and it was all a poor man could do, with the strictest industry and economy, to obtain a bare subsistence. So Bess worked away all the harder, because there were times when babydom was imperative and would be nursed.

She had put the last garnishing touches to her kitchen on Saturday night, had taken off her wrapper brat, put on a clean blue bed-gown, and substituted a white linen cap for the coloured kerchief, when her father, who had been to New Cross Market to make his bargains by himself on this occasion, came into the kitchen followed by Cooper. who, having helped to save the child, naturally felt an interest in him.

Instead of taking a chair, the man walked as quietly as his clogs would let him to the cradle, and looked down on the infant sucking vigorously at the delusive bottle.

Matt Cooper was the unhappy father of eight, whose maintenance was a sore perplexity to him ; and it may be supposed he spoke with authority when he exclaimed

"Whoy, he tak's t' th' pap-bottle as nat❜rally as if he'n ne'er had nowt else!"

And the big man-quite a contrast to Simon— stooped and lifted the babe from the cradle with all the ease of long practice, and dandled it in his arms, saying as he did so―

Let's hev a look at th' little chap. Aw've not seen th' colour o' his eyen yet."

The eyes were grey-so dark, they might have passed for black; and there was in them more than the ordinary inquiring gaze of babyhood.

"Well, thah'rt a pratty lad; but had thah bin th' ugliest i'o' Lankisheer, aw'd a-thowt thi mammy'd ha' axed for thi afore this," added he, sitting down, and nodding to the child, which crowed in his face.

"Ah! one would ha' reckoned so," assented Bess, without turning round.

"What ar' ta going to do, Simon, toward findin' th' choilt's kin?" next questioned their visitor. Simon looked puzzled. "Whoy, aw've hardly gi'en it a thowt."

But the question, once started, was discussed at some length. Meanwhile, the porridge designed for two, Bess poured into three bowls, placing three iron spoons beside them, with no more ceremony than-"Ye'll tak' a sup wi' us, Matt."

Mat apologised, feeling quite assured there was no more than the two could have eaten ; but Simon looked hurt, and the porridge was appetising to a hungry man; so he handed the baby to the young woman, took up his spoon, and the broken thread of conversation was renewed at intervals.

"An' what's to be done neaw?" asked Cooper, as he sat on one of the rush-bottomed chairs, sucking the knob of his walking-stick as if for an inspiration. "Yo conno' think o' keepin' th' choilt, an' bread an' meal at sich a proice!" "Connot oi? Then aw conno' think o' aught else. Wouldst ha' me chuck it i' th' river agen ?— What dost thah say, Bess?" (turning to his daughter, who had the child on her lap).

"Whoi, th' poor little lad's got noather feyther nor mother, an' thah's lost booth o' thi lads. Mebbe it's a Godsend, feyther, after a,' as you said'n to me;" and she kissed it tenderly. "Eh, wench!"-interposed Matthew, but she went on without heeding him.

"There's babby things laid by i' lavender i' thoose drawers as hasna seen dayleet sin ar Joe wur a toddler, an' they'll just come handy. An' if bread's dear an' meal's dear, we mun just ate less on it arsels, an' there'll be moore for the choilt. He'll pay yo back, feyther, aw know, when yo'r too owd to wark." "An' aw con do 'bout 'bacca, lass. If the orphan's granny wur too preawd to ax help o' th' parish, aw'll be too preawd to send her pratty grandchoilt theer."

And so, to Matthew Cooper's amazement, it was settled.

But the extra labour and self-denial it involved on the part of Bess neither Matthew nor Simon could estimate.

In the midst of the rabid scepticism and republicanism of the period, Simon Clegg was a staunch “Church and King" man, and, as a natural consequence, a stout upholder of their ordinances.

Regularly as the bell tolled in for Sunday morning service, he might be seen walking reverently down the aisle of the Old Church to his place in the free seats, with his neat, cheerful

looking daughter following him sometimes, but not always.

So regularly that the stout beadle missed him from his seat the Sunday after the inundation, and, meeting him in the churchyard a week later, sought to learn the why and wherefore.

The beadle of the parish church was an important personage in the eyes of Simon Clegg; and, somewhat proud of his notice, the little tanner related the incidents of that memorable flood-week to his querist, concluding with his adoption of the child.

The official h'md and h'ad, applauded the act, but shook his powdered head, and added sagely that it was "a great charge, a varry great charge." "Dun yo' think th' little un's bin baptised?" interrogated the beadle.

"Aw conno' tell; nob'dy couldn't tell nowt abeawt th' choilt, 'ut wur ony use to onybody. Bess an' me han talked it ower, an' we wur thinkin' o' bringin' it to be kirsened, to be on th' safe soide like. Aw reckon it wouldna do th' choilt ony harm to be kirsened twoice ower; an' 'twould be loike flingin' th' choilt's soul to Odd Scrat gin he wur no christened at o'. What dun yo' think'n?"

The beadle thought pretty much the same as Simon, and it was finally arranged that Simon should present the foundling for baptism in the course of the week.

$

away.

EGER. I thought, sir, it was time to go, when my lord insisted upon half-pint bumpers.

SIR P. Sir, that was not levelled at you, but at the Colonel, in order to try his bottom; but they aw agreed that you and I should drink out of sma' glasses.

SIR P. But, zoons! sir, I tell you there was a necessity for your drinking more.

EGER. A necessity in what respect, pray, sir? SIR P. Why, sir, I have a certain point to carry, independent of the lawyers, with my lord, in this agreement of your marriage; about which I am afraid we shall have a warm squabble; and therefore I wanted your assistance in it.

EGER. But when a man is intoxicated, would that have been a seasonable time to settle business, sir?

SIR P. The most seasonable, sir; for, sir, when my lord is in his cups, his suspicion is asleep, and his heart is aw jollity, fun, and guid fellowship : and, sir, can there be a happier moment than that for a bargain, or to settle a dispute with a friend? What is it you shrug up your shoulders at, sir?

EGER. At my own ignorance, sir; for I understand neither the philosophy nor the morality of

SIR P. I know you do not, sir; and, what is

worse, you never wull understand it, as you proceed in one word, Charles, I have often told you, and now again I tell you, once for aw, that the manœuvres of pliability are as necessary to rise in the world as wrangling and logical subtlety are to rise at the bar. Why, you see, sir, I have acquired a noble fortune, a princely fortune; and how do you think I raised it?

EGER. Doubtless, sir, by your abilities.

confer upon you, I'll give a short sketch of the stages of my booing, as an excitement and a landmark for you to boo by, and as an infallible nostrum for a man of the world to rise in the world. EGER. Sir, I shall be proud to profit by your experience.

SIR P. Vary weel, sir; sit ye down then, sit you down here. (They sit down.) And now, sir, you must recall to your thoughts that your grand

sir, I'll tell you how I raised it: sir, I raised it-by booing (bows ridiculously low)-by booing. Sir, I never could stand straight in the presence of a great mon, but always booed, and booed, and booed -as it were by instinct.

EGER. How do you mean by instinct, sir? SIR P. How do I mean by instinct? Why, sir, I mean by-by-by the instinct of interest, sir, which is the universal instinct of mankind. Sir, it is wonderful to think what a cordial, what an amicable-nay, what an infallible influence booing has upon the pride and vanity of human nature. Charles, answer me sincerely, have you a mind to be convinced of the force of my doctrine by example and demonstration?

EGER. Certainly, sir.

SIR P. Then, sir, as the greatest favour I can

captain's half-pay was the sum total of his fortune; and, sir, aw my provision fra him was a modicum of Latin, an expertness in arithmetic, and a short system of worldly counsel; the principal ingredients of which were, a persevering industry, a rigid economy, a smooth tongue, a pliability of temper, and a constant attention to make every mon well pleased with himself.

EGER. Very prudent advice, sir.

SIR P. Therefore, sir, I lay it before you. Now, sir, with these materials, I set out a raw-boned stripling fra the North, to try my fortune with them here in the South, and my first step in the world was a beggarly clerkship in Sawney Gordon's counting-house here, in the city of London; which you'll say afforded but a barren sort of a prospect.

EGER. It was not a very fertile one, indeed, sir.

SIR P. The reverse, the reverse. Weel, sir, seeing myself in this unprofitable situation, I reflected deeply I cast about my thoughts morning, noon, and night, and marked every mon and every mode of prosperity; at last, I concluded that a matrimonial adventure, prudently conducted, would be the readiest gait I could gang for the bettering of my condition and accordingly I set about it. Now, sir, in this pursuit beauty is, generally, a proud, vain, saucy, expensive, impertinent sort of a commodity. I looked out for an ancient, weeljointured, superannuated dowager; a consumptive, toothless, phthisicy, wealthy widow; or a shrivelled, cadaverous piece of deformity, in short, ainything, ainything that had the siller-the siller, for that, sir, was the north star of my affections. Do you take me, sir? was nae that right?

EGER. O doubtless, doubtless, sir.

SIR P. Now, sir, where do you think I ganged to look for this woman with the siller? I ganged till the kirk, till the anabaptist, the independent, Bradlonian, and Muggletonian meetings: till the morning and evening service of churches and chapels of ease, and till the midnight, melting, conciliating love feasts of the methodists; and there, sir, at last, I fell upon an old, slighted, antiquated, musty maiden, that looked-ha, ha, ha! she looked just like a skeleton in a surgeon's glass case. Now, sir, this miserable object was religiously angry with herself and aw the world; had nae comfort but in metaphysical visions and supernatural deliriums-ha, ha, ha! Sir, she was as mad-as mad as a Bedlamite.

EGER. Not improbable, sir: there are numbers of poor creatures in the same condition.

SIR P. O numbers-numbers. Now, sir, this cracked creature used to pray, and sing, and sigh, and groan, and weep, and wail, and gnash her teeth constantly, morning and evening. And as soon as I found she had the siller, aha! guid traith, I plumped me down upon my knees, close by hercheek by jowl-and prayed, and sighed, and sung, and groaned, and gnashed my teeth as vehemently as she could do for the life of her; ay, and turned up the whites of mine een, till the strings awmost cracked again. I watched her motions, handed her till her chair, waited on her home, got most religiously intimate with her in a week; married her in a fortnight, buried her in a month; touched

the siller; and with a deep suit of mourning, a melancholy port, a sorrowful visage, and a joyful heart, I began the world again; (rises) and this, sir, was the first boo, that is, the first effectual boo, I ever made to the vanity of human nature. Now, sir, do you understand this doctrine ? EGER. Perfectly well, sir.

SIR P.

Ay, but was it not right? was it not ingenious, and weel hit off?

EGER. Certainly, sir: extremely well.

SIR P. My next boo, sir, was till your ain mother, whom I ran away with fra the boarding-school, by the interest of whose family I got a guid smart place in the treasury; and, sir, my vary next step was into Parliament; the which I entered with as ardent and determined an ambition as ever agitated the heart of Cæsar himself. Sir, I booed, and watched, and hearkened, and ran about, backwards and forwards, and attended and dangled upon the then great mon, till I got intill the vary bowels of his confidence; and then, sir, I wriggled and wrought, and wriggled, till I wriggled myself among the very thick of them. Ha! I got my snack of the clothing, the foraging, the contracts, the lottery tickets, and aw the political bonuses; till at length, sir, I became a much wealthier man than one-half of the golden calves I had been so long a booing too : and was nae that booing to some purpose? EGER. It was indeed, sir.

SIR P. Sir, it is infallible. But, Charles, ah! while I was thus booing, and wriggling, and raising this princely fortune, ah! I met with many heart-sores and disappointments fra the want of literature, eloquence, and other popular abeeleties. Sir, guin I could but have spoken in the House, I should have done the deed in half the time; but the instant I opened my mouth there they aw fell a-laughing at me; aw which deficiencies, sir, I determined, at any expense, to have supplied by the polished education of a son, who I hoped would one day raise the house of Macsycophant till the highest pitch of ministerial ambition. This, sir, is my plan: I have done my part of it; Nature has done hers; you are popular, you are eloquent; aw parties like and respect you: and now, sir, it only remains for you to be directed-completion follows.