to go on the top. The old lady was very worried, as it was raining at
the time, and she made the cabman cover it with his apron. Getting it
off the cab they dropped the whole thing in the road; that woke the child
up, and it began to cry.

"Good Lord, Ma'am! what is it?" asks the chambermaid, "a baby?"

"Yes, my dear, it's my baby," answers the old lady, who seems to have
been a cheerful sort of old soul--leastways, she was cheerful up to then.
"Poor dear, I hope they haven't hurt him."

The old lady had ordered a room with a fire in it. The Boots took the
hamper up, and laid it on the hearthrug. The old lady said she and the
chambermaid would see to it, and turned him out. By this time, according
to the girl's account, it was roaring like a steam-siren.

"Pretty dear!" says the old lady, fumbling with the cord, "don't cry;
mother's opening it as fast as she can." Then she turns to the
chambermaid--"If you open my bag," says she, "you will find a bottle of
milk and some dog-biscuits."

"Dog-biscuits!" says the chambermaid.

"Yes," says the old lady, laughing, "my baby loves dog-biscuits."

The girl opened the bag, and there, sure enough, was a bottle of milk and
half a dozen Spratt's biscuits. She had her back to the old lady, when
she heard a sort of a groan and a thud as made her turn round. The old
lady was lying stretched dead on the hearthrug--so the chambermaid
thought. The kid was sitting up in the hamper yelling the roof off. In