acquired, it was not their fault; toil was behind them and before,
the hours of rest were few, suffering and lack of bread might at any
moment come upon them. They had all thrown their hard-earned pence
into the soup-plate gladly and kindly; now they enjoyed themselves.

The chairman excited enthusiasm by announcement of a song by Mr. Sam
Coppock--known to the company as 'Chaffy Sem.' Sam was a young man
who clearly had no small opinion of himself; he wore a bright-blue
necktie, and had a geranium flower in his button-hole; his hair was
cut as short as scissors could make it, and as he stood regarding
the assembly he twisted the ends of a scarcely visible moustache.
When he fixed a round glass in one eye and perked his head with a
burlesque of aristocratic bearing, the laughter and applause were
deafening.

'He's a warm 'un, is Sem!' was the delighted comment on all hands.

The pianist made discursive prelude, then Mr. Coppock gave forth a
ditty of the most sentimental character, telling of the
disappearance of a young lady to whom he was devoted. The burden, in
which all bore a part, ran thus:

We trecked 'er little footprints in the snayoo,
We trecked 'er little footprints in the snayoo,
I shall ne'er forget the d'y
When Jenny lost her w'y,
And we trecked 'er little footprints in the snayoo!

It was known that the singer had thoughts of cultivating his talent
and of appearing on the music-hall stage; it was not unlikely that