Then I made one, and Charley made one, and the pen wouldn’t join Charley’s neatly, but twisted it up into a knot.

“Never mind, Charley.  We shall do it in time.”

Charley laid down her pen, opened and shut her cramped little hand; and thanking me, got up and dropped me a curtsey, asking me if I knew a poor person by the name of Jenny.  I answered that I did, but thought she had left the neighborhood altogether, “So she had, miss,” said Charley, “but she’s come back again, and she came about the house three or four days, hoping to get a glimpse of you, miss, but you were away.  She saw me a-goin’ about, miss,” said Charley, with a short laugh of the greatest delight and pride, “and she thought I looked like your maid!”

“Did she though, really, Charley?”

“Yes, miss!” said Charley, “really and truly.”  And Charley, with another short laugh of the purest glee, made her eyes very round again, and looked as serious as became my maid.  I was never tired of seeing Charley in the full enjoyment of that great dignity, standing before me with her youthful face and figure, and her steady manner, and her childish exultation breaking through it now and then in the pleasantest way.  And so long as she lived, the dignity of having been in my service was the greatest crown of glory to my little maid.

Although my efforts to make a scholar of Charley were never crowned with success, she had her own tastes and accomplishments, and dearly loved to bustle about the house, in her own particularly womanly way.  To surround herself with great heaps of needlework—­baskets-full and tables full—­and do a little,—­and spend a great deal of time in staring with her round eyes at what there was to do, and persuade herself that she was going to do it, were Charley’s great dignities and delights.

When we went to see the woman, Jenny, we found her in her poor little cottage, nursing a vagrant boy called Jo, a crossing-sweeper, who had tramped down from London, and was tramping he didn’t know where.  Jenny, who had known him in London, had found him in a corner of the town, burning with fever, and taken him home to care for, Seeing that he was very ill, and fearing her husband’s anger at her having harbored him, when it was time for her husband to return home, she put a few half-pence together in his hand, and thrust him out of the house.  We followed the wretched boy, and pitying his forlorn condition led him home with us, where he was made comfortable for the night in a loft-room by the stable.  Charley’s last report was, that the boy was quiet.  I went to bed very happy to think that he was sheltered, and was much shocked and grieved the next morning, when upon visiting his room we found him gone.  At what time he had left, or how, or why, it seemed hopeless ever to divine, and after a thorough search of the country around, which lasted for five days, we abandoned all thought of ever clearing up the mystery surrounding the boy’s departure, nor was it until some time later that the secret was discovered.