“Thank ye, my lady,” said Tony; “but I didn’t do it for that.  I’m only looking out for a crossing.  Me and Dolly have bought this broom, and I’m looking out for a place to make a good crossing in.”

“Why not make one here?” asked the lady.

It seemed a good place to try one in; there were four roads meeting, and a cab-stand close by.  Plenty of people were passing to and fro, and the middle of the road was very muddy.  Tony begged a wisp of straw from a cabman, to make a seat for Dolly in the sunshine under a blank bit of wall, while he set to work with a will, feeling rather pleased than not that the broom would not sweep of itself.  A crossing was speedily made, and for two or three hours Tony kept it well swept.  By that time it was twelve o’clock, and Dolly’s dinner would be ready for her before they could reach home, if old Oliver had not forgotten it.  It seemed a great pity to leave his new post so early.  Most passers-by, certainly, had appeared not to see him at all; but he had already received fivepence halfpenny, chiefly in halfpence, from ladies who were out for their morning’s walk; and Dolly was enjoying herself very much in the sunshine, receiving all the attention which he could spare from his crossing.  However a beginning was made.  The broom and the crossing were his property; and Tony’s heart, beat fast with pride and gladness as he carried the weary little Dolly all the way home again.  He resolved to put by half of his morning’s earnings towards replacing the fourpenny-piece she had given back to him; or perhaps he would buy her a beautiful doll, dressed like a real lady.

CHAPTER X.

Highly respectable.

As old Oliver was stooping over his desk on the counter, and bringing his dim eyes as close as he could to the letter he was writing, his shop-door was darkened by the unexpected entrance of his sister Charlotte herself.  She was dressed with her usual extreme neatness, bordering upon gentility, and she carried upon her arm a small fancy reticule, which contained some fresh eggs, and a few russet apples, brought up expressly from the country.  Oliver welcomed her with more than ordinary pleasure, and led her at once into his room behind.  Charlotte’s quick eyes detected in an instant the traces of a child’s dwelling there; and before Oliver could utter a word, she picked up a little frock, and was holding it out at arm’s length, with an air of utter surprise and misgiving.

“Brother James!” she exclaimed, and her questioning voice, with its tone of amazement, rang very clearly into his ears.

“It’s my little Dolly’s,” he answered, in haste; “poor Susan’s little girl, who’s gone out with her husband, young Raleigh, to India, because he’s ’listed, and left her little girl with me, her grandfather.  She came on the very last day you were here.”

“Well, to be sure!” cried his sister, sinking down on a chair, but still keeping the torn little frock in her hand.