"Wonderful!" he said. "Wonderful! I should have thought them alive.
There is not a shop in the West End where it could have been turned
out better, if so well.

"Lad, you are a wonder! Tell me now who and what are you? I saw
when you first addressed me that you were not what you seemed to
be, a working lad."

"I have been well educated," Frank said, "and was taught to preserve
and stuff by my father, who was a great naturalist. My parents
died suddenly, and I was left on my own resources, which," he
said, smiling faintly, "have hitherto proved of very small avail.
I am glad you are pleased. If you will take me into your service I
will work hard and make myself useful in every way. If you require
references I can refer you to the doctor who attended us in the
country; but I have not a single friend in London except a railway
porter, who has most kindly and generously taken me in and sheltered
me for the last two months."

"I need no references," the old man said; "your work speaks for
itself as to your skill, and your face for your character. But I
can offer you nothing fit for you. With such a genius as you have
for setting up animals, you ought to be able to earn a good income.
Not one man in a thousand can make a dead animal look like a live
one. You have the knack or the art."

"I shall be very content with anything you can give me," Frank said;
"for the present I only ask to earn my living. If later on I can,
as you say, do more, all the better."