and shut the door after her, before the young man could say a word.  Although the door was shut, he raised his hat respectfully as one often does on Broadway after he has passed a female acquaintance upon whom he suddenly comes—­the salute being received and acknowledged with a stare by the next lady, or ladies, following after.  The young man then noted the number of the house, nodded satisfactorily to himself, and strolled very leisurely along the street, as if neither business nor pleasure had urgent demands upon him.

CHAPTER III.

SNEAKING JUSTIFIED.

Neither Pet nor the young man saw the awkward figure of an overgrown boy, who had followed them at a distance, on the other side of the street, keeping the trunks of trees between them and him.  This clumsy figure, upon which a suit of good clothes and a new cap looked strangely out of place, was Bog.

The boy Bog was often seen lounging about the neighborhood of Miss Pillbody’s school; and if the policeman on that beat had not known him to be an honest lad from childhood, he would have watched him as a suspicious character.  From whatever part of the city Bog came home after a bill-posting expedition, he invariably made a circuit past Miss Pillbody’s school, keeping the other side of the street always, and never looking at the house.  He walked hurriedly by, but came to a sudden stop at a grocery store halfway up the second block beyond, and there he would stand, partly covered by an awning post, and look strangely around, letting his eyes fall occasionally, and as if by accident, on that house.  If his object in these singular manoeuvres was to see Miss Minford, he always failed to improve the opportunity when it offered; for, as surely as Pet came out from the school, or turned into the street to go toward it, so surely did the boy Bog walk off whistling in another direction.  Nobody can understand the motives of Bog’s conduct, except those who have done the same thing in their youthful days.

On this eventful afternoon (eventful as a starting point in a history of sorrows), Bog had taken his usual circuitous route home from a profitable professional tour on the east side of town.  Reaching the grocery store, he sheltered himself behind the friendly post, and commenced looking up and down the street, and across the way, and into the sky, always winding up his mysterious observations by a single glance at Miss Pillbody’s front door.  When Pet came out, after her musical exercise, the boy Bog flushed up a little, turned upon his heels, and walked quickly away.  He had not gone a dozen steps, before the shouts of the workmen and the sound of the first falling board reached his ears.  He suddenly turned about, and saw a young man catching the next board that fell.  His first impulse was to run to Pet’s assistance; but a fatal spell chained his feet.