cheerful voice. "It was you who taught me to pray to God, and said that
in all your troubles God had been good to you: and He has been so good to
me since I prayed to Him; for I have no dreadful Mrs. Crane to beat me
now, and say things more hard to bear than beating; and you have taken me
to yourself. How I prayed for that! And I take care of you too,
Grandy,--don't I? I prayed for that too; and as to carriages," added
Sophy, with superb air, "I don't care if I am never in a carriage as long
as I live; and you know I have been in a van, which is bigger than a
carriage, and I didn't like that at all. But how came people to behave
so ill to you, Grandy?"

"I never said people behaved ill to me, Sophy."

"Did not they take away the carpets and silk curtains, and all the fine
things you had as a little boy?"

"I don't know," replied Waife, with a puzzled look, "that people actually
took them away; but they melted away.

"However, I had much still to be thankful for: I was so strong, and had
such high spirits, Sophy, and found people not behaving ill to me,--quite
the contrary, so kind. I found no Crane (she monster) as you did, my
little angel. Such prospects before me, if I had walked straight towards
them! But I followed my own fancy, which led me zigzag; and now that I
would stray back into the high road, you see before you a man whom a
Justice of the Peace could send to the treadmill for presuming to live
without a livelihood."

SOPHY.--"Not without a livelihood!--the what did you call it?--
independent income,--that is, the Three Pounds, Grandy?"