"How many nights did you stay out?"
"Me and them," indicating others higher up the room, "we slept behind the fire station four nights and then went home."
"What happened then?"
"Mother said nofink, but she got a stick——"
He paused sufficiently long for us to take the sequel for granted, then added quietly:—
"So I stopped out the next night."
"And then?"
"Then the copper came."
Yes, they need "homes," indeed, these wayward youngsters, ensnared by the temptations of London's streets. Some are here for gambling in the gutter, many for playing truant, some for sleeping out, and others for felony. Generally they are sent home if it be a first offence, or to a reformatory if the case be a bad one.
There are girls here, too. What of them?