"Mammy brought me," she said, with a stifled sob; "she told me run in
rere, Dolly, and stay till mammy comes back, and be a good girl always.
Am I a good girl?"

"Yes, yes," he answered, soothingly; "you're a very good little girl, I'm
sure; and mother 'ill come back soon, very soon. Let us go to the door,
and look for her."

He took her little hand in his own; such a little hand it felt, that he
could not help tightening his fingers fondly over it; and then they stood
for a few minutes on the door-sill, while old Oliver looked anxiously up
and down the alley. At the greengrocer's next door there flared a bright
jet of gas, and the light shone well into the deepening darkness. But
there was no woman in sight, and the only person about was a ragged boy,
barefoot and bareheaded with no clothing but a torn pair of trousers,
very jagged about the ankles, and a jacket through which his thin
shoulders displayed themselves. He was lolling in the lowest window-sill
of the house opposite, and watched Oliver and the little girl looking
about them with sundry signs of interest and amusement.

"She ain't nowhere in sight," he called across to them after a while,
"nor won't be, neither, I'll bet you. You're looking out for the little
un's mother, ain't you, old master?"

"Yes," answered Oliver; "do you know anything about her, my boy?"

"Nothink," he said, with a laugh; "only she looked as if she were up to
some move, and as I'd nothink particular on hand, I just followed her.
She was somethink like my mother, as is dead, not fat or rosy, you know,