"He shuffled off to one of the lower rooms, and passed me as the woman had done without seeing me. Fearin' I should be questioned, and not makin' up my mind whether to let the poor little things know as I was there, I came out to collect my thoughts. The man had given me a hint. What if I should go in and rescue the children with the knowledge of the p'lice?
"I hastened down-stairs and reached the air without meetin' any one. Then I came home to you and Meg; but when I saw our own little 'un lyin' there so still and sweet, and knew that he, anyways, could never know those cruel blows, it wholly overcame me. And you know the rest, mother."
"I don't know how you got 'em, Jem, at last?"
"No more you do. Well, when Meg said as they was to come home here, I rushed out; and the first p'liceman I found I tells him the story.
"He didn't half believe me, but I says to him, 'You come up and stand outside the door, and if I can't persuade 'em, I'll call you. I don't want to have a row if I can get the children peaceable.'
"'Ain't they got no one belongin' to 'em?' he says, as we got to the door.
"'Their mother's dead and their father drinks; he might be anywhere,' I says to him.
"'I'll tell you where he is, then,' he says, 'if this is the house. He's dyin' in the hospital, he is. He was run over this mornin'.'
"'Is that their father?' says I; and, mother, if you'll believe me, I felt all at once as if they ought to belong to me, since I'd been saved, and this man of my name had been took.
"So we went up, and when we come to the door she'd begun beatin' of Cherry again.