Volume I Part 3 (2/2)

'But why did not she take you as well?'

''Cause she said I was big enough to earn my own wittles and drink. But I must be off; here comes a bobby,' said the boy, frightened at the appearance of one of the town police. Alas! he was too weak to run; he had had no food all day, and his only bed by night had been under some old waggon or in some old barn or loft, and, barefooted, he fell an easy prey to the representative of law and order.

'Now, you young rascal,' said the policeman, as he gave the lad a good shaking, apparently in order to test the strength of his ragged clothes, and, if possible, to make matters worse, 'get out of this, and be off,'

an order which the poor lad would have obeyed had not the actress held his hand.

'You know him,' said she to the policeman.

'Know him! of course I do. It was only last week I had him up before the magistrate.'

'What for?'

'For sleeping in the open air, and now here he is again. 'Tis very aggrawatin'. What's the use of trying to do one's duty if this sort of thing goes on?'

'Is it a crime to sleep in the open air?' asked the actress.

'Well, you see, ma'am, it ain't allowed by the magistrates; leastwise, not inside the borough.'

'Poor little fellow!' said the actress as she looked at the lad; 'I'll take him myself to the workhouse. There he would be out of harm's way, and washed and fed, and made clean and comfortable.'

'I beg your pardon, ma'am, that ain't no use; you ain't got a horder, and it is as much as the porter's place is worth to take anyone in without a horder.'

'Then, what's to be done with the poor boy?'

'Ah, that's the question,' said the policeman, and he was right there.

What's to be done with our boys, rich or poor, good or bad, is a question some of us find increasingly hard to answer.

'Then you can't help me?' said the actress.

'Oh no, mum; we've plenty of such boys about.'

'What's to be done?' said the lady she still looked at the poor boy. 'Is it right to leave him thus?' There was a tear in her voice as she spoke.

All seemed so hard and unmoved, and the urgency was so pressing.

'Dear madam,' said the Mayor, who felt himself bound to say something, 'the case is a hard one, but there's no help for it. We can't encourage such hoys as that. If we did, the town would be overrun with them. They are always begging.'

'I wasn't beggin',' said the boy, who now began to feel interested in the discussion. 'I don't want to go beggin'. I want a job.'

'Ah, all the boys say that,' said the Vicar, 'the young rascals! If I had my way, I would give them a good whipping all round.'

'Yes, and if we listened to all these stories the bench would have to sit all day long,' said the Town Clerk, giving the boy a copper and ordering him off.

'Off,' said the actress-'where to?'

'To Parker's Buildings,' said the Mayor. 'That's where these young rascals live. There is not a worse place in the whole town.'

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