Next the alphabet knocked for admission; and entered first _M_ and _P_,
which had prominence in the only poster visible from the window. Mrs.
Sandys had taught Tommy his letters, but he had got into words by
studying posters.

Elspeth being able now to make the perilous descent of the stairs,
Tommy guided her through the streets (letting go hurriedly if Shovel
hove in sight), and here she bagged new letters daily. With Catlings
something, which is the best, she got into capital _C_s; _y_s are found
easily when you know where to look for them (they hang on behind); _N_s
are never found singly, but often three at a time; _Q_ is so
aristocratic that even Tommy had only heard of it, doubtless it was
there, but indistinguishable among the masses like a celebrity in a
crowd; on the other hand, big _A_ and little _e_ were so dirt cheap,
that these two scholars passed them with something very like a sneer.

The printing-press is either the greatest blessing or the greatest curse
of modern times, one sometimes forgets which. Elspeth's faith in it was
absolute, and as it only spoke to her from placards, here was her
religion, at the age of four:

"PRAY WITHOUT CEASING.
HAPPY ARE THEY WHO NEEDING KNOW THE
PAINLESS POROUS PLASTER."

Of religion, Tommy had said many fine things to her, embellishments on
the simple doctrine taught him by his mother before the miseries of this
world made her indifferent to the next. But the meaning of "Pray without
ceasing," Elspeth, who was God's child always, seemed to find out for