"Shouldn't mind," said Tommy. "I've eaten a rat afore now, an' I'm
that hungry! Rats ain't bad to eat. I don't know about their skins!"

"Here's a piece of bread for you. But you sha'n't sleep with honest
people like baby and Abdiel. You shall lie on the hearth-rug. Here's a
blanket and a pillow for you!"

Clare covered him up warm, thatching all with a piece of loose carpet,
and he was asleep directly.

The next day all terror of the water-but was gone from the little
vagabond's mind. He was now, however, thoroughly afraid of Clare, and
his conceit that, though Clare was the stronger, he was the cleverer,
was put in abeyance.



Chapter XXXIV.

How things went for a time.


Clare's next day went much as the preceding, only that he was early at
the shop. When his dinner-hour came, he ran home, and was glad to find
Tommy and the dog mildly agreeable to each other. He had but time to
give baby some milk, and Tommy and Abdiel a bit of bread each.

His look when he returned, a look of which he was unaware, but which
one of the girls, who had a year ago been hungry for weeks together,