“When we got home, two ladies were waiting at the den.  It was not the first time we had seen them at the den.  Anna recognized them as the ladies she had seen at Madame Harding’s.  One was the woman who so kindly gave me the shilling in the market, when I was cold and hungry.  A lengthy whispering took place between Hag Zogbaum and the ladies, and we were ordered into the back cellar.  I knew the whispering was about Anna; and watching through the boards I heard the Hag say Anna was fourteen and nothing less, and saw one of the ladies draw from her purse numerous pieces of gold, which were slipped into her hand.  In a few minutes more I saw poor little Anna follow her up the steps that led into ‘Scorpion Cove.’  When we were released Hag was serving ragged and dejected-looking men with gin and beer.  Anna, she said when I inquired, had gone to a good home in the country.  I loved her ardently, and being lonesome was not content with the statement of the old woman.  I could not read, but had begun to think for myself, and something told me all was not right.  For weeks and months I watched at the house in Leonard street, into which I had followed the woman who gave me the shilling.  But I neither saw her nor the woman.  Elegant carriages, and elegantly-dressed men drove to and from the door, and passed in and out of the house, and the house seemed to have a deal of fashionable customers, and that was all I knew of it then.

“As I watched one night, a gentleman came out of the house, took me by the arm and shook me, said I was a loitering vagrant, that he had seen me before, and having a suspicious look he would order the watch to lock me up.  He inquired where my home was; and when I told him it was in ‘Scorpion Cove,’ he replied he didn’t know where that was.  I told him it wasn’t much of a home, and he said I ought to have a better one.  It was all very well to say so; but with me the case was different.  That night I met Tom Farley, who was glad to see me, and told how he got out of the lock-up, and what he thought of the lock-up, and the jolly old Judge who sent him to the lock-up, and who he saw in the lock-up, and what mischief was concocted in the lock-up, and what he got to eat in the lock-up, and how the lock-up wasn’t so bad a place after all.

“The fact was I was inclined to think the lock-up not so bad a place to get into, seeing how they gave people something good to eat, and clothes to wear.  Tom and me went into business together.  We sold Heralds and Sunday papers, and made a good thing of it, and shared our earnings, and got enough to eat and some clothes.  I took up my stand in Centre Market, and Tom took up his at Peck Slip.  At night we would meet, count our earnings, and give them to Mr. Crogan, who kept the cellar in Water street, where we slept.  I left Hag Zogbaum, who we got to calling the wizard.  She got all we could earn or pilfer, and we got nothing for our backs but a few rags, and unwholesome fish and beer for our bellies.  I thought of Anna day and night; I hoped to meet in Centre Market the woman who took her away.