"'Praps he did somethin', and they giv' 'im the sack," murmured Joe;
"he was a flat!"

"But about this character of yours," I said; "if I decide to give you
a trial, although I am almost sure you are too small, and won't do,
where am I to go for your character? Will the people where your
brother lives speak for you?"

"Oh, yes!" cried the little fellow, his cheeks flushing; "I know
Dick'll ask 'em to give me a caricter. Miss Edith, I often cleaned
'er boots. Once she come 'ome in the mud, and was a-goin' out agin
directly; and they was lace-ups, and a orful bother to do up even;
and she come into the stable-yard with 'er dog, and sez: 'Dick, will
you chain Tiger up, and this little boy may clean my boots if he
likes, on my feet?' So I cleaned 'em, and she giv' me sixpence; and
after that, when the boots come down in the mornin', I got Dick
always to let me clean them little boots, and I kep 'em clean in the
insides, like the lady's maid she told me not to put my 'ands inside
'em if they was black. Miss Edith, she'll giv me a caricter, if Dick
asks 'er."

Just then the visitors' bell rang; and I sent my would-be page into
the kitchen to wait until I could speak to him again, and told him to
ask the cook to give him something to eat.

"Here are your flowers," I said; "take them with you."

He looked at me, and then, as if ashamed of having offered them,
gathered them up in his hands, and with the corner of the red